Meet Dan
I grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and always loved books. My favourite stories were about detectives, spies, and all kinds of adventures.
I knew I wanted to write books too, but didn’t actually start until I had kids of my own.
Now I live in London (in an area called Ealing, which is where Hide & Seek Hero is set). My wife and I have three children: one in primary school, and two in high school.
Quick questions
Here are some of the questions that kids ask me.
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When I was 7, my teacher read our class a story called My Side of the Mountain. It was about a 12-year-old boy who ran away from his home in New York to live alone in the Catskill mountains. He had to survive on what he could find on the mountain - fish, berries, plants, and small animals. I loved it, and my children love it too.
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I loved hide and seek as a child, but everyone does, right? I’ve often been amazed how kids of different ages, and from different countries and cultures, all know and love hide and seek. Even toddlers instantly understand it. It’s almost like the game is part of what makes us human.
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I have an older sister, and I have to admit that I wasn’t the best little brother. I used to always hide on her - behind doors, under her bed - and then jump out and scare her. I feel bad now, but at the time I thought it was really funny. She had a laundry hamper in the corner of her bedroom and that was my favourite spot. She’d be pottering around, thinking she was all alone, and then BANG! Out I would jump.
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Hide & Seek Hero is a middle grade novel aimed at all readers aged 9 to 12. It covers themes of friendship at school and the struggle to fit in. It’s for anyone who loves a good adventure.
I moved to London for university, where I studied international relations. Since then, I have lived and worked in Asia, Africa and Europe, and now, when I’m not writing children’s books, I work as an advisor to global charities fighting poverty, disease, and human rights abuses (find me on LinkedIn).
I wrote Hide & Seek Hero for two reasons. First, I wanted to tell a great story, the kind of ‘ripping good yarn’ that I would have liked to read as a child. But it’s also a story about not fitting in, and how the pressures of life can stop us from being ourselves.
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