The birth of a story

How was the Jimmy Crikey story born:

About forty years ago my wife and I were holidaying in Great Yarmouth with our 4/5 year old son. He had made friends with a small group of children who took shelter in our beach tent during a heavy afternoon shower. The decibels rose to unbearable levels for my wife, trying to read a book,. She pleaded that I try to keep them quiet by telling them a story. So, for the first time, I had to make up a story on the spot. One of the children in the group, the smallest, happened to have ginger hair. I had noticed that he was being picked on by the older members of the 'gang', "go there", "bring this", "do that", "don't do that", etc. He became the story’s hero Jimmy Crikey, the boy who looked different. I needed a spot of magic to entrance the youngsters and so Witch Matilda was born. The story needed monsters and in an underground world there was no shortage of creative opportunities. Jimmy needed a friend and I chose that his companion should be female, to widen the interest factor. And so was born Gemma, the young lady who lived at the bottom of the well. And to add to the mystery she did not know how she came to be there.

Out of such beginning grew The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey and my imagination was allowed to run riot to create a story around them and the errant Weatherman who lost control of his Cloud HQ because he kept falling asleep.

The stories did not appear in print for many years and I have just released the sixth (stand alone, complete) fantasy adventure of The Adventures of Jimmy Crikey: Radioactive! https://www.amazon.com/dp/BOCTY9PV6G