John Goodwin
JOHN GOODWIN started his career at the age of 16 selling fruit and vegetables in a market and emptying pennies out of ladies’ loos. But having always had a talent for imagining stories, he has since developed a career in creative writing. Having held a number of teaching and university posts – most recently as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth – John has also written children’s fiction for publishers including OUP and Hodder and over 40 radio plays for the BBC. His fiction ranges from picture books to fast moving narratives for 7–10 year olds to educational books for struggling readers. And it’s a talent that obviously runs in the family as John and his daughter won the BBC Radio For Schools Living Language Award for their radio drama Ad For A Dad. When he’s not writing, John loves to walk and cycle on the Isle of Wight where he lives with his wife Linda.
John has now joined the Lion Children’s list with two books, An Arkful of Animal Stories, which take a look at what life might have been like aboard the ark, and The Lion Book of Five-Minute Christmas Stories which wonders what the Nativity might have looked like from different characters' points of view.
John Goodwin on writing An Arkful of Animal Stories:
‘Writing a picture book for young children has been a long standing ambition so when I had the opportunity to work on the text of An Arkful of Animal Stories I took it eagerly. At the back of my mind was a Noah’s Ark drama production I produced years ago which began with a lively procession through the length of the small village where we lived. If the words in the book could capture something of the colour and energy of that procession then I might succeed.
‘More than anything I wanted the book to be fun. The more I wrote the more I chuckled, the more I chuckled the more the animals came to life on the page.
‘Like many children’s writers I used the experiences of my own children as inspiration. Our son Sam had an amazing memory and we often called him the elephant who never forgets whilst our daughter Charlotte was often known as a little monkey with her own special tricks. Perhaps there’s an animal in all of us just waiting to burst out. Now that’s a fun thought!’