The author has just been named as winner of the Blue Peter Book Award for 2012. Meerkats are everywhere in films and commercials at the moment so it seems quite normal for a terrific little series to be created for 5+ year olds that features meerkats in disguise as Ninjas! They're goodies who are sworn to protect the world against the awful Ringmaster. However, the latest evil plans of the Ringmaster could just be a fight too many for the four mighty meerkats.
Legend tells of The Clan of the Scorpion, four mighty meerkats who are armed to the teeth with ninja-know-how. They are sworn to protect the world from their longtime nemesis, the Ringmaster...Bruce's favourite Hollywood action star, Vin De Pain, is starring alongside the famous canine actor Soo Me in a sequel to the popular movie 'Kung Fu Chihuahua'. But there's a new member of the cast - none other than Doris the Dancing Dog, the Ringmaster's faithful hound. Just what is the Ringmaster up to? The Clan jet off to Hollywood ...but they'll need to move faster than the Ringmaster can snap a clapperboard if they're to thwart his evil plans this time...
Gareth first started writing when he was very young but it wasn’t until he was in his early twenties that he completed his first novel. Having had it universally rejected, he wrote a novel for children called Who Killed Charlie Twig, which received an equally unimpressed reception and remains rightly unpublished to this day. Some years passed during which Gareth met his future wife, Lisa and began a career in TV. Working on shows such as 'The Big Breakfast' and 'Richard & Judy', he became side-tracked from his book writing ambitions until one day he found himself having lunch at the offices of Bloomsbury. He mentioned the unpublished book to a nice lady called Sarah, who politely suggested that he should send in the first three chapters for her to look at. Gareth returned home and excitedly told his wife this news, who gently explained that the book he had written actually wasn’t very good, but reminded him that he had recently begun work on a much better idea. This turned out to be good advice.
In 2007 Bloomsbury published the first of four books in the series The Dragon Detective Agency and have since published The Thornthwaite Inheritance, Space Crime Conspiracy and The Considine Curse, for which he won the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2012. Gareth has also written a shorter story, Perry’s 5, published by Barrington Stoke and a series of books called Ninja Meerkats, published by Stripes.
The Case of the Missing Cats was nominated for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The Thornthwaite Inheritance has won the Hounslow Junior Book Award, the Calderdale Book Award, Leicester Children’s Book Award, Sefton Super Reads, Doncaster Book Award, Rotherham Children’s Book Award and Fantastic Book Award, Lancaster.
Gareth now divides his time between writing books, producing TV programmes, spending time with his wife and children, and playing the slightly ludicrous number of stringed instruments in his front room. He lives in Forest Hill, south east London.
