Robert Cox's Blog - Posts Tagged "woolwich"
Robert Cox, Author and Publisher
Being a brand new author/reader to Goodreads and having never created a blog before (shameful) I think the best introduction I can make is to cut and paste my bio from Amazon...and then try and load my children's books, novels and other relevant material. The writers who have given me the greatest pleasure and inspiration over the years are without doubt Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Bronte, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Mrs Gaskell, Anthony Trollope, George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh and Spike Milligan but there are so many others who, often just for a brief period, have illuminated my world and provided the comfort of a soulmate. Apologies for the third person biography but this is how it appears on Amazon.
BIOGRAPHY: Robert Cox was born in Woolwich, S.E. London, and spent his early working life in sales and marketing before moving with his wife and two young sons to Brisbane in 1981 where an early introduction to commercial radio gave him a taste for copywriting and voice-over work. This opened various doors as screenwriter for The Queensland Tourist Corporation, Puffin children's author, Channel 10 TV sitcom writer, film producer and broadcaster. His 'Bush Telegraph' radio diary - a light-hearted account of 'A Man of Kent Struggling Down Under' (as it was introduced) ran weekly on BBC Radio Kent from 1994-97, at which stage, after 16 years, homesickness got the better of him and he returned to England.
Settled back in the Kent countryside, he teamed up with childhood friend Jim Robins to create four picture books. They had first met as 10-year-olds in the Boy Scouts where they became good friends and planned to one day create a book together. Whilst Rob was in Australia Jim conveniently established himself as an illustrator and cartoonist for many of the UK's leading publishers and newspapers, so in 2001 their boyhood plan turned into reality. 'The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Hop' picture book was published by Lothian Books in Australia, followed by two 'Maxwell the Penguin' books published by JAROMIN PUBLISHING in the UK. On the back of the first kangaroo book's healthy sales, a follow up was released in 2004 - 'The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Stop', which proved equally successful around the world.
In 2005 he met award-winning children's authors and illustrators Anthony Browne and Nicholas Allan, who agreed to be filmed and interviewed in their homes and on school visits by schoolchildren, for schoolchildren. The resulting 45-minute DVDs received acclaim from the media and educationalists alike, and soon Children's Laureates Jacqueline Wilson and Anne Fine, then Jane Ray and Catherine & Laurence Anholt were also opening up their homes and hearts for further films. Between 2006-2015 the six-DVD set sold to many primary schools across the English-speaking world and are still used as an inspirational classroom resource.
Alongside making and marketing the DVDs he worked with many film production companies as a voice over artist and presenter before, in 2010, concentrating on finishing a first novel, 'Where There's A Will', started in Brisbane way back in 1987 - together with the transcription and publication of 'The Diary of Elizabeth Campbell', a remarkable account of London and England during the 1930's, seen through the eyes of a passionate, articulate Australian lady. This was followed by a second novel, 'The Bush Poet's Revenge', set in rural Kent but drawing on his Australian experiences and the works of bush poets Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, whose works are key to the plot. This is currently in the process of publication, at May 2017.
Rob has two sons, Benjamin and James, from his first marriage to Janet. Ben runs a rowing organisation in Leeds and James is part of the BBC wildlife team working on Springwatch, Autumnwatch and a variety of other programmes. In 2014 Rob married French doll artist and author, Patricia Le Baudrier, whose unique, dual-language book is also available on Amazon. He now lives and works in a 17th Century cottage in the Weald of Kent, near Hever Castle - writing, recording voice-overs, bird-watching, walking, and tending his garden and allotment with the ever present assistance of his feline shadow, Toby the black and white cat.
With the rights for the kangaroo books now returned from the Australian publisher he has spent the past Winter months redesigning and publishing new editions of these, and the three 'Maxwell the Penguin' books, all which are now available in Kindle and Paperback.
BIOGRAPHY: Robert Cox was born in Woolwich, S.E. London, and spent his early working life in sales and marketing before moving with his wife and two young sons to Brisbane in 1981 where an early introduction to commercial radio gave him a taste for copywriting and voice-over work. This opened various doors as screenwriter for The Queensland Tourist Corporation, Puffin children's author, Channel 10 TV sitcom writer, film producer and broadcaster. His 'Bush Telegraph' radio diary - a light-hearted account of 'A Man of Kent Struggling Down Under' (as it was introduced) ran weekly on BBC Radio Kent from 1994-97, at which stage, after 16 years, homesickness got the better of him and he returned to England.
Settled back in the Kent countryside, he teamed up with childhood friend Jim Robins to create four picture books. They had first met as 10-year-olds in the Boy Scouts where they became good friends and planned to one day create a book together. Whilst Rob was in Australia Jim conveniently established himself as an illustrator and cartoonist for many of the UK's leading publishers and newspapers, so in 2001 their boyhood plan turned into reality. 'The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Hop' picture book was published by Lothian Books in Australia, followed by two 'Maxwell the Penguin' books published by JAROMIN PUBLISHING in the UK. On the back of the first kangaroo book's healthy sales, a follow up was released in 2004 - 'The Kangaroo Who Couldn't Stop', which proved equally successful around the world.
In 2005 he met award-winning children's authors and illustrators Anthony Browne and Nicholas Allan, who agreed to be filmed and interviewed in their homes and on school visits by schoolchildren, for schoolchildren. The resulting 45-minute DVDs received acclaim from the media and educationalists alike, and soon Children's Laureates Jacqueline Wilson and Anne Fine, then Jane Ray and Catherine & Laurence Anholt were also opening up their homes and hearts for further films. Between 2006-2015 the six-DVD set sold to many primary schools across the English-speaking world and are still used as an inspirational classroom resource.
Alongside making and marketing the DVDs he worked with many film production companies as a voice over artist and presenter before, in 2010, concentrating on finishing a first novel, 'Where There's A Will', started in Brisbane way back in 1987 - together with the transcription and publication of 'The Diary of Elizabeth Campbell', a remarkable account of London and England during the 1930's, seen through the eyes of a passionate, articulate Australian lady. This was followed by a second novel, 'The Bush Poet's Revenge', set in rural Kent but drawing on his Australian experiences and the works of bush poets Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, whose works are key to the plot. This is currently in the process of publication, at May 2017.
Rob has two sons, Benjamin and James, from his first marriage to Janet. Ben runs a rowing organisation in Leeds and James is part of the BBC wildlife team working on Springwatch, Autumnwatch and a variety of other programmes. In 2014 Rob married French doll artist and author, Patricia Le Baudrier, whose unique, dual-language book is also available on Amazon. He now lives and works in a 17th Century cottage in the Weald of Kent, near Hever Castle - writing, recording voice-overs, bird-watching, walking, and tending his garden and allotment with the ever present assistance of his feline shadow, Toby the black and white cat.
With the rights for the kangaroo books now returned from the Australian publisher he has spent the past Winter months redesigning and publishing new editions of these, and the three 'Maxwell the Penguin' books, all which are now available in Kindle and Paperback.
