Ian was born at a very early age in New Whittington, near Chesterfield.

This photo was taken the day before he won the 1949 Derbyshire Times Beautiful Baby Contest. Apparently, he was the only entrant.

By the time he was nine, Ian was heavily involved in New Whitt gang culture.

Ian prospered at New Whittington Primary School and realised he was clever enough to pass the Eleven-plus!

Unfortunately, when he got to the prestigious Chesterfield School, he soon became aware he wasn’t clever enough to actually be there! On the positive side, he discovered he was good at Art.

In 1966 Ian transferred to Chesterfield College of Art and – guess what – all the other students were really, really good at Art!

For some reason he never understood, Ian was elected President of the Student Union. His greatest achievement was booking the great JOE COCKER to play at a college dance only a couple of weeks before Joe released his first hit record!

Ian decided he wanted to become an Art teacher, so went off to Middleton St George College of Education in Durham in 1968. He chose MSG with a pin and didn’t realise (till he got there) it was new college; he was part of the first intake!

. Having previously been at Art College, he was given free range to do some rather large paintings:

During his first teaching practice, Ian discovered that, although he had some limited artistic ability, he had no talent for teaching Art whatsoever! A change of direction was needed and Ian changed to the primary teaching course.

In 1970, ‘for some reason he didn’t understand’, Ian was elected President of the Student Union. Unfortunately he argued with the College Principal quite a lot and was almost thrown out! However, he survived and eventually qualified as a teacher.

So, in September 1971, Ian began his teaching career at Gamesley Primary School, Glossop. Two years at Poolsbrook Primary followed and then – a momentous return to his old school, New Whittington Primary. (Fortunately, no one except the caretaker remembered what he’d got up to as a pupil there.)

Eight years later he moved just up the road to Mary Swanwick Primary. After a total of thirteen years as a class teacher, Ian rated himself as ‘just about adequate’ – and therefore perfect Headteacher material.

After four years as Headteacher of Brampton Junior School, Ian was invited to return to Mary Swanwick – and remained there for the best part of ten years.

In 2000, Ian was seconded as School-Based Training & Development Manager to the renowned Derbyshire and Derby City Literacy Project, Read On – Write Away!

For eight more years, Ian wrote and delivered Literacy training packages – including the highly successful ‘Push on Writing’ and ‘All Write Now’ – working with thousands of parents, teaching assistants and teachers. He took early retirement in 2008 but continued as an Independent Education Consultant for a further six years; travelling all over England and Wales.

In 2014, a group of primary school teachers told him he should write his own books. So he did. ‘Trool’s Rules’ (once described by a critic as ‘Fifty Shades of Aliens’ but written in English) came out two years later.

Ian is very happily married to Dianne, has two children (of whom he is immensely proud), four adorable grandchildren and four honorary grandchildren. He has lived through the best time and place ever in the history of mankind. Despite being a selfish git, he has many generous and loving friends. In short, Ian is very, very lucky!