Tony Mitton

As a child

I was born in 1951, in Tripoli, North Africa. My father was in the army so I spent most of my childhood in North Africa, Germany and Hong Kong. From age 11 to 18 I was at boarding grammar school in Suffolk. I first thought of becoming a writer when I was about 9. I was at school. I really enjoyed it when we were asked to write stories or poems. Also, I found that reading and spelling came easily to me and English was mostly my favourite subject. I began to write poems in my own time and in my mid teens kept a book of my best poems written in my best handwriting. When I went to university I kept up this habit and it ran on into my adult life.

As an adult

I studied English Litterature at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and studied PGCE at the University of Cambridge. I was a primary school teacher then special needs support Teacher (primary) in Cambridge. It was sharing books with my own children that turned me into a writer for children. By the time my children were born I already knew a lot about children's books and about how children learn to read. This was through my work as a primary school teacher. I spent a lot of time reading to and with my children, from their first year of life onwards. Often I would play around with the books we were reading, adding things and playing around with the words and ideas, particularly when the books were humorous. I started to write poems just for my own children, sometimes including them in the poems by name, making them the heroes in their own little stories.

As an artist

Gradually I began to notice that what I was writing for my children seemed to be of as good a standard as texts in published books. It was a small step to think of sending them in to publishers to consider. Things developed for me in the following order. 1. I sent poems out for publishers to read. 2. At first a lot of publishers said it was really hard to get a volume of poems published, and politely rejected me. 3. I realised a lot of anthologies were being published around this time. So I sent sample poems to the anthologists. Soon they were sending me letters whenever they were planning an anthology (an anthology is a book of poems by a range of different authors). I was soon getting regularly published in anthologies. 4. I was also sending sample picture-book texts to editors, as I also wanted to break into this area of work. Again, it took me some time. But gradually I began to get work accepted. When titles did well this brought requests for more work of a similar nature. 5. I started to send round a rap version of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Clearly, this was a comedy text, a jokey little poem. Soon Orchard Books had signed a contract on it and asked me to do a sequel title, which became Royal Raps. These did well enough to spawn a series of 10 books in the end. The series is still selling, over 10 years later. 6. David Fickling (at that time Managing Editor at Scholastic, London UK) saw Big Bad Raps in manuscript and asked to see me. The Raps had already been signed by Orchard by then, so he asked to see some of my other poems. This led to us doing my first proper solo collection of poems for children, PLUM. It did well and got plenty of notice and good reviews, widely. 7. By now schools and libraries were starting to contact me to ask if I'd do visits to read &/or perform my work for children. This soon became part of my routine. It also meant I had to give up my work as a part-time primary school teacher, as there just wasn't the time for everything. This meant that I was, at last, a full-time writer earning enough from my work not to need other work.

Things you didn't know about Tony Mitton

1. I worked as a cowherd in Switzerland.
2. I can play guitar and sing the blues.
3. I played in a folk trio at school with Ian McKewan, the famous writer (adult novelist).
4. I like to cook, drink wine and listen to music -- all at the same time.
5. I lived in Hong Kong in the 1950's before high rise buildings were there.
6. I have a friend whose husband introduced John Lennon to Paul McCartney -- he was a boyhood friend of John's.
7. I once spent the night on a desert island. We were stuck there and had to catch crabes to eat. No mobile in those days!
8. If it weren't for the pills I take I'd be dead now. Thank goodness for doctors + hospitals, eh?
9. JK Rowling sent my son a note to say thank you for doing her publicity -- he was only 10 at the time!
10. I always start the day with a nice cup of tea and a plain biscuit -- Digestive or Rich Tea -- It's the only way!

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