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About Christopher Stevens
Author and journalist – a passionate fan of classic British comedy, and an autism campaigner. I am the official biographer of Carry On star Kenneth Williams, and of comedy geniuses Galton & Simpson.I've been a senior sub-editor at the Observer in London for the past dozen years and a regular contributor both to the Observer and to the Daily Mail. Father of two teenage boys. Read my Observer stories here and my Daily Mail features here.
I learned to love reading and story-telling as a boy, thrilling to classic tales of adventure and science-fiction fantasy. My latest books evoke the excitement and wonder of Narnia, Star Wars, Biggles, Dr Who and John Carter of Mars. This trilogy of stories for children and young adults, JACK AND THE SPITFIRES, is set in the magical world of the Marble.
A REAL BOY is the story of how my family coped with bringing up our younger son, who is profoundly autistic. It was endorsed by the National Autistic Society, whose president, Jane Asher, called it "wonderfully honest". A GIRL CALLED BARNEY is a novel about a single dad who must come to terms with his little girl's autism.
Ray Galton and Alan Simpson helped to invent situation comedy – MASTERS OF SITCOM is a celebration of their careers, and includes many extracts from their lost shows. Perhaps the most exciting discovery was the script for the feature film that they wrote for Tony Hancock but which was never made, The Day Off.
My biography of the Carry On star Kenneth Williams, BORN BRILLIANT, was authorised by his estate, and I was lucky enough to be entrusted with all his diaries and his archive of letters, more than five million words of golden comic history.
BORN BRILLIANT was serialised as a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and shortlisted for a Sherry, the Sheridan Morley Theatre Biography Prize.
My guide to mnemonics and traditional memory aids, THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, has been the best-selling reference book on Kindle for many weeks.
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Download your free copy of Jack And The Spitfires – Book 1: The Rocket
Four children trapped in a malevolent world of classic toys…
- Jet Perkins – a natural-born rebel who will risk anything to save her family
- Jack Lennox – the London street urchin who lives on his wits, with the help of his dog, Woz
- Paulie McAllister – the posh boy whose parents abandoned him in an orphanage
- Sparkler McAllister – he can't talk but he can fight, and this 6-year-old is devoted to his big brother
This is the world of the Marble, created from a child's imagination and teeming with millions of metal toys called Mechanicals. These rockets, tin robots, construction kits and flying discs seem the perfect playthings of a 1950s childhood... but they rule the Marble. And tin toys have no heart.
A planet within a glass ball... cities of machines that soak up power from the sun... tin Teddy Boys armed with death-rays... submarines and sea-monsters... gravity-defying wheels that surf through the air... vintage planes and motorbikes... living holograms... this is a unique and distinctive world, instantly recognisable, imagined in intense detail. It's filled with Fifties-style sci-fi and futurism, from the Golden Age of adventure comics and classic adventure stories.
JACK AND THE SPITFIRES – Book One: The Rocket is the first in a trilogy of stories about The Marble and the four children trapped inside it, fighting for their lives. In the tradition of Star Wars, Dr Who, Narnia, Harry Potter and John Carter of Mars, this adventure story is suitable for children aged nine and up, and for adults who never grew up.
Genre: Fantasy/ children's sci-fi adventure
Length: 186 pages/ 41,000 words
Parental guidelines: no swearing or sexual content
How did I come to write the Jack And The Spitfires series? Find out here!
