It was in 1976, Spring time, when, as a young enthusiastic Head teacher I received an unexpected visitor.

"Good Morning," he began, "I've been given your name by Paul Topham, the Environmental Studies Inspector. He tells me you know a bit about organising school trips and travelling around, using the environment as a resource for learning. I wonder if you can help us."

It was true. Being involved in sport at different levels – football, cricket, chess, athletics, swimming and seeing the wisdom of taking children out and about (often at great personal expense in my own minibus, but ALWAYS with parental consent and knowledge) to gain different learning experiences – I could claim to be both experienced and knowledgeable. But what did he want? I guessed he was some sort of salesman but "no", he wanted me to write a book. It was published four months later, under the title "Organising School Journeys." I haven’t seen another since then, but the journeys continued. Camping, hiking, cruises and local visits all became part of the teaching and learning experience… extra curricular activities.

I suppose all this frantic activity sowed the seeds of travel which continued to be a top priority. As a teacher, and more so as a Head in charge of a large school, writing is an inescapable duty. But it's usually functional rather than creative. So, when I escaped from the daily grind, pleasurable as it was, the writing took on a more relaxed and imaginative focus. Billy Carmody was created not for research purposes, but as a modern teenager who loves life and wanted to share his experiences with his friends and relatives. After twenty trips to Australia and New Zealand, with many different stopovers, it seemed totally appropriate to use my own travel experiences in telling his stories. Unfortunately, one book was never enough and "People Watching" was quickly followed by "Ravenswood and Custard" and the latest, and last in the trilogy, entitled "Old Ben's Scrapbook".

So the travel bug and the writing bug were combined to produce a set of stories based on real experience. Children in schools have read them and asked for more. I like to think of them as a "teacher's answer" to the chronicles of Harry Potter. There is no fantasy and no magic: apart from the joy of reading about realistic adventure and, perhaps, wanting to go down under and see things for yourself. Follow the clues in the stories and you might get "hooked" on writing and travelling for yourself… and you don't have to go as far afield as Australia. Anywhere will do if you can cultivate, like I did, the spirit of adventure.

Old Ben's Scrapbook will be available on April 27th 2009.

Catch up with Winfred Peppinck.
Catch up with Lorraine Hockley