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 My mother told me that I was born the day the church next door burnt down. This was in Pinner in Middlesex in north-west London on May 7 1946. By the way, my mother never told me if the church burning down my was my fault but all through my childhood, the remains of the burnt-out church next door was somewhere where we could play. I went to a nursery school in Wealdstone, called Tyneholme, two primary schools, one called Pinner Wood and the other called West Lodge. Tyneholme was great and the other schools were pleasant enough but looking back, they were a bit on the stuffy side. The exciting thing about West Lodge though was that it was brand new, and I was one of the first children to go there in 1954. I've written a lot of poems about this time in my life in books like Quick Lets Get Out Of Here, You Wait Till I'm Older Than You, Uncle Billy Being Silly, Lunch Boxes Don't Fly, and No Breathing In Class.
 My parents had come from London's East End, they were part of the old Jewish community that lived there from about 1880- 1950 but they had moved to Pinner at the end of the Second World War. They were teachers, my mother in a primary school and my father at secondary schools until first my father, then my mother became university teachers. later, they would write a book together called The Language of Primary School Children.
At the end of that time, we had to do an exam called the 11-plus, a test that decided whether you could go to a Grammar School or a Secondary Modern School. Though I worried about it every night, I passed and went to Harrow Weald County Grammar School, a mixed school about four miles from my home. After five and bit years there, we moved to Rickmansworth and I went to Watford Boys Grammar School for two years.
 It was at this time that I thought perhaps I'd like to be a doctor and I got into Middlesex Hospital Medical School where I went next. But it wasn't for me, and I was lucky enough to move to Wadham College, Oxford University where to start off with I carried on doing medical studies and then switched to doing English Language and Literature. All this, from the time I left school to finishing at university took me five years. Actually, most of the time at university I spent doing theatre work - writing, acting, directing and taking part in the student rebellions of 1968. It was at this time too that I wrote a play, Backbone that was put on at the Royal Court Theatre, in London. I was also writing poetry and doing some journalism for the student newspaper and magazine.
 For the next three years, (1969-1972) I worked at the BBC as a General Trainee working first in Radio Drama, where I directed a few plays, then at Playschool in BBC Children's TV, then in Schools Television. But again, this didn't work out, so I was unemployed for a bit, but then went to what was then the National Film School in Beaconsfield, for three years. During this time, I went on writing poems, acting in various little theatre groups including Ewan MacColl's Critics' Group and doing a few broadcasts for BBC Schools Radio. In 1974 my first book of poems for children was published.
From 1976 to this day, I've done a mix of writing, performing, teaching, lecturing and appearing on radio and TV. I visit schools and arts festivals to do my shows, teach at London Metropolitan University, work at BBC radio in London and Bristol to do my radio shows and more recently I've been reviewing books and writing articles for The Guardian newspaper in London.
 I don't suppose this gives you much idea of what I'm like but I know that people like to have these details as a way of mapping where I'm from, what I've done and what I'm doing now. I guess that people (apart from my family) find out what I'm like from the books that I write, the radio shows that I do and the shows I perform. And maybe you'll get more of an idea from the message board and some of the links where you'll see people have asked me questions or written about me.
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