The birth of celery

Captain Celery is no ordinary pirate. He is skinny, clever, has a full compliment of limbs and only eats vegetables. Where did this original master of the seas come from?

Captain Celery was a seed of an idea for many years but did not see the light of day until I volunteered to give a reading at my children’s school on World Book Day. I considered reading one of the amazing stories by Roald Dhal, but thought everyone knows them, lets try something more original.

So, I gathered my thoughts and scribbled out the Captain Celery story as a one man show. Dressed up as a pirate, I performed the show in front of 100 kids at Bishopsgate School in Englefield Green, Surrey. I had skulls, swords, treasure chests- but they item they loved most was the celery I had brought along!

Spurred on by the success of the show, I put pen to paper and started to write the book that would become Captain Celery. I tried, without success, to get it published. Disheartened, Captain Celery remained on my computer for two years, until lock down arrived.

With more time on my hands and with the help of my wife Gabby, we decided to self-publish on Amazon. We persuaded an artist friend Sian Evans to produce the illustrations, got the book designed by Tessa Hewiit and started the onerous journey dealing with Amazon. Their rules are strict, and the guidance unintelligible, but we managed to get it out.

I am pretty pleased with the outcome and hope it rises up the charts for children’s pirate books.

Now the work must start! With a profit of about £1 a book, we need to sell thousands of books to get any reward, so please get your copy now and write a review on Amazon.