The Apprentice's Handbook: A Course in Wizardology

About Dugald Steer

Dugald A. Steer was born in 1965 and lives in Surrey. His love of books and reading led him to study English Literature and Philosophy at Bristol University where he was an avid contributor to the Poetry Society Magazine. After stints working for Friends of the Earth and the Duchy of Lancaster Office, Dugald trained to teach English and spent the next five years in Spain, living in Galicia and Andalucia, writing in his spare time.

Dugald Steer now works as a freelance author for Templar Publishing, for whom he worked as an inhouse writer and editor for ten years. He has written a large number of books, including Mythical Mazes, Scary Fairies, An Accidental Christmas, Just One More Story and The Night Tiger among others. He has also made contributions to many of Templar’s best known series’, including Maurice Pledger’s Peek and Find series, and Derek Matthews’ highly successful Happy Snappy® series, for which he has written many books. He has edited many other books, has created Picture This... and Alphabet with Alison Jay and has also written The Toys’ Easter Surprise and the Little Mouse series. Dugald has wrote the handbook How to Be a Knight which he recently followed up with How to be an Explorer. Dugald Steer is the author of the hugely successful Ology™ series that includes Dragonology™ and Monsterology™ (writing as Dr. Ernest Drake), Egyptology (as Emily Sands), Wizardology™ (as the wizard Merlin!), Pirateology™ (as Capt. William Lubber) and Mythology (as Lady Hestia Evans), as well as the Ology™ handbooks, model packs, field guides and the Dragonology™ Pocket Adventures. After the success of The Dragon’s Eye, Dug is working on the forthcoming second novel in The Dragonology™ Chronicles – The Dragon Diary, as well as the top-secret seventh title in the Ology series!

‘In the library with Dugald Steer’ - quick fire questions and answers from the author of the Ology books

What was your favourite book as a child?
The Hobbit, by JRR Tollkien

Which book would you never have on your bookshelf?
The [insert the name of your diet plan here] plan diet

Which book would you give to a friend as a present?
An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears

Which other writers do you admire?
Far too long a list. For modern children’s writers, try Jaqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman, Daniel Handler, Jonathan Storud, Michael Morpurgo, Anthony Horowitz, Karl Hiaasen, Marcus Sedgwick and that nice Potter lady

Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it?
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray

What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?
The Thousand Nights and a Night, by Unknown
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes
The Jungle Book(s), by Rudyard Kipling
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?
Three authors: Michael Moorcock, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis

What is your favourite time of day to write?
In the morning

Which fictional character would you most like to have met?
Merlin, from Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?
Sir Francis Bacon aka William Shakespeare

What is your favourite word?
Honorificabilitudinitatibus