Hello, I’m Chris Callaghan, a Children’s Author of a chocolatey book and a brand new series of action and adventure books and graphic novels.
I’m lucky to be married to an amazing Headteacher at a local Primary School, and I’m a proud Dad to my beautiful daughter.
Honoured to be the Patron of Reading at West Thornton Primary School in Croydon, London, where I’m helping (I hope) to encourage reading for pleasure across the whole school.
I’ve had a number of different jobs, starting when I was sixteen on a ‘Pick n Mix’ counter in a supermarket (we were sometimes allowed to treat ourselves to a few goodies – my favourites were the sherbet flying saucers!) After that I joined the Royal Air Force where I worked with jet fighters on a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Squadron during the end of The Cold War – ready to launch aircraft at a moment’s notice whenever the sirens went off! I got to travel all over the world and was also part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces carrying out Operation Deny Flight during the Bosnian Conflict, where I was awarded the NATO Medal, which I gave to my Mam and Dad.
But after developing a passion for environmental issues, I went back to study at University and became an environmental scientist. It was a real hands-on type job and I got to see inside lots of factories as I helped them improve their environmental standards. Some factories made cars, crisps, Yorkshire puddings and one place that made real money (a security guard would follow me around all day in case I filled my pockets with some of their cash!).
Once my daughter was born, I gave up my job to be a Stay-at-Home-Dad. I became a master of wiping up sticky messes and washing teeny tiny clothes. In between stinking nappies and a snoozing baby, I found a little time to do some writing. I’ve always enjoyed making up stories since I was young, but rarely had the time. As my little monkey grew older, we would write stories together and come up with lots of crazy ideas. I started to write them down, and my wife and daughter suggested I sent them off to a publisher. So I sent one to the publishing legend, Barry Cunningham at Chicken House Books … and that started a whole new adventure.
Reading and writing are my two favourite things (after wine gums – I really love wine gums!). There are so many current authors that I admire – Jennifer Killick, Dan Smith, Gareth P Jones, Gabrielle Kent, Sophie Anderson, Cressida Cowell and so, so many others. I am a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, they are responsible for getting me reading when I was younger. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, is my all-time favourite book. It is silly and funny and completely fantastic.
I also used to be a Beanstalk Reading Volunteer at a local school, where I would visit a few times a week and have one to one sessions with young readers to develop their love of reading. I was someone who struggled with books when I was young, so it was great to be able to help those just like me.
I hope you enjoy my work, and I’d love to hear from you, so follow me on social media – I often gibber away on Twitter or put badly composed pics on Instagram, I post occasional stuff on my Facebook Author page and am happy to connect with booky people on my normal Facebook page too. All contact details are here.
I look forward to sharing my stories with you and hopefully hearing about yours.
Chocolatey wishes,
Chris.
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Here’s me with some incredible Chicken House authors – Dan Smith, Kiran Millwood-Hargrave, MG Leonard, Martin Griffin, Sophia Bennett, Kerr Thomson and the Boss, Barry Cunningham.