Author Information:
I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was seven years old. Before that I wanted to be a duck. It's not easy being a duck so I'm glad I stuck to writing. I live in Suffolk in the UK with my wife and children. There is also a dog, some chickens, a hamster and thousands of worms. As well as being a writer, I'm also a performer, some would say a comedian for children. Since 1995 I have visited nearly 3000 schools, most in the UK but some in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, New York, Singapore and even Ipswich! I've performed my Comedy 4 Kids show in various wonderful festivals and venues including Just So Festival, The Adelaide Fringe, The Edinburgh Fringe, The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, The Melbourne Comedy Festival, The Hay Festival, Wigtown Book Festival, Bath Children's Literature Festival, Womad, Latitude. I'm the only children's comedian to have performed at the Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. I have done my best to turn all that performance into a new kind of book. Books that put stand-up comedy on the page without losing the exciting feel of not knowing where it's going to go next. I do write stories with a beginning, middle and end (my Boyface books for example) but I've become best known for my Funny Life books. I came up with them a few years ago when I was thinking about the way I do comedy on stage. I'm always thinking ahead trying to decide which ideas to leave in and which to leave out; which tangents and diversions to take. I thought it would be great to have a book which you don't have to read in any particular order. You can choose to follow signposts to all sorts of pages. Thankfully Bloomsbury took a chance with me on this and with the collaboration of Rob Jone's illustrations we have created something entirely new and different. I'm told that children who don't normally like reading, love reading my books. This is a huge privilege for me as getting anyone to read more is something I'm very grateful to be a part of. So far we have published The Funny Life of Pets, The Funny Life of Teachers and The Funny Life of Sharks. Coming soon is Write Your Own Funny Stories and The Funny Life of Football. I'm currently looking at writing The Funny Life of Saving the Planet and I'm also going to start a new series of picture books for younger readers. The first one is probably going to be called The Silly Life of Pirates. It's always great to hear from children who like reading my books. My website is www.thejamescampbell.com If you'd like me to visit your school, please just ask. I also do online writing workshops for children who really like writing.
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