JONNY ZUCKER

According to the bio on publisher Badger Learning's website: "Jonny Zucker was born in 1966 and was among the first to ever write for Badger Learning. He sadly passed away in 2016. Jonny grew up in London and wrote his first full length book – The Revenge of Caprir – when he was ten. When he was at primary school he wanted to be a professional footballer (he played for his school team and a local Sunday league team as a right winger), a pop star (his favourite band was The Jam lead by Paul Weller) or a children's author (he devoured football novels and anything by Roald Dahl).At secondary school he played a lot of football, was in a couple of bands and enjoyed creative writing miles more than any other subject. As part of a school project he did youth work with disadvantaged children, which he enjoyed. This made him think that one day he might want to be a teacher.

After school he studied politics, education & psychology at Manchester University followed by a postgraduate diploma in broadcasting at Lancashire Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire). He did a few part-time jobs in radio broadcasting but decided this wasn't the right career for him.

He then went to Roehampton University where he trained to be a primary school teacher. He spent eight years teaching (he taught from Year 2 - Year 6) and had the opportunity to teach some amazing pupils with all sorts of personalities and attitudes. It was when reading stories to his class that he remembered how much he'd loved writing at school, so he began writing stories for his class."