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Tony
Mitton was born in 1951 in North Africa, the son of
a soldier. Until he was 9 he lived mostly in Africa, Germany
and Hong Kong. He went to state boarding school in Suffolk
and went on to do an English Literature degree at Cambridge
University. He then trained to be an English teacher before
making the switch to primary school teaching.
Tony worked as a primary school teacher between the ages
of 25 to 49, but for the last 13 years of that period he
taught part-time. During that period he began to spend 2
or 3 days a week working at his writing, and wrote poems
and stories for school reading books and also for trade
market books. He now writes full-time and visits lots of
schools, libraries and events to talk about his work.
He lives in a small house in the middle of Cambridge with
his wife and two children, and a cat called Tiggy, who is
definitely one of the family. Tony likes Cambridge but he
and his wife often wish they'd settled somewhere where there
are better places for walking, like cliffs and hills with
good views of the landscape.
"What I probably most like doing is writing poems and
verse. I love tinkering with the words until I've got them
just right. I've always loved reading poems and stories,
and I usually have several books on the go. I have a great
interest in folk and fairy tales and legends. Also, when
I was in my teens I used to spend a lot of time singing
folk and blues songs which I accompanied on the guitar.
I'm still very fond of many kinds of music, but don't manage
to find much time to listen or play at present. I also like
film and TV fiction, which are, of course, story in another
form.
Aside from his writing Tony enjoys cooking and baking, social
meals, family life arid going off to visit places when it
is possible. He loves talking to his children about what
they are doing, and to his wife, who knows a lot about books,
art and history.
Scholastic published Tony Mitton's first poetry anthology
Plum, The Seal Hunter part of the Everystory
series of stories for £1.00 and most recently The
Red & White Spotted Handkerchief which has won a silver
award at the 2000 Nestle Smarties Book Prize.
Biography
from Scholastic Books
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