My son Lucas suffered his first Epileptic seizure whilst at school, aged 4 and a half, as a result, he would not settle at bedtimes becoming increasingly restless as the evening progressed. I would make up bedtime stories to settle him and get him to sleep. This is where “Simon the Fishy” become a reality. I have been very interested in scuba diving since the age of 8 when I was lucky enough to visit Jaques Cousteau’s museum in Montecarlo France. At 13 I did my first scuba dive and by 19 I was a qualified sports diver BSAC and PADI Divemaster. Lucas would often ask me what things I had seen underwater and if there were any sharks I told him about my little friend who protected me and let me know if sharks were about. The questions mounted “what does Simon look like” ” were does Simon live” Who are simons friends” the list goes on. One night whilst adlibbing one of my stories, my wife overheard it and later complimented me on my vivid imagination and announced I should write a book with lots of colorful illustrations. I started by asking my friends whom I went diving with what sea creature would they choose to be. These would develop into becoming “Simons” friends and adversaries in future stories. The characters soon accumulated like “Bill the Whale”, “Neville the Crab”, “Steve the Lobster”, “Richard the Starfish”, “Andy the Shark” and “Oscar the Octopus”. A full 3D environment was created to set the scene and deliver a satifactory conclusion to this children book illustration project.

Published throughh KDP Amazon for print and for Kindle download the project concluded with the creation of a kindle book version for Amazon.co.uk.