About Me

I am the fourth generation in my family - going back to the latter 1800s - to become a published author, my maternal grandfather, Bernard Capes, and his sister Harriet Capes, and son and uncle preceding me.
My writing began in secondary school, extending into comedy sketches and lyrics for the amateur stage. 

The catalyst for writing the books set out in this site was a story a colleague told me about a bunch of kids riding home on the back of a huge horse, which insisted on walking through a dam! 
This led to my first book, Scratcher, published by Heinemann.

 Since then I've written and self-published Lissie Pendle, The Search for Quong, Ranga Plays Australia, The Day and Night Machine (also a screenplay), The Package on the Tram, Possum and Python, Twevven and the big bigger biggest baby burp, and Twevven in a very dangerous situation (two of a 30+ series) for children, and, for adults, Thomas Bulford's English Companion, Thomas Bulford's Essays on Life, Language & Love, Ranga Plays Australia, The Alone Man, The Wisdom of Harkishen Singh, Messing With Your Mind, Stories from Somewhere, The Once Shredded Rainbow and Other Stories from Down Under, and About Living – Conversations with My Guru.

I am currently co-writing a musical, LvanB (about Beethoven). 

For many years I worked in the teaching profession - primary, secondary, and TAFE. In the latter, I was reposnsible for curriculum research and development in Victoria, and wrote two Australian Country Papers for UNESCO.

I am active in my local community, having being in Scouting for more than thirty years; founded a Friends environmental group and being an active member of another; was President of a regional badminton association and a walking group; and have arranged for a group of family and friends to provide long-term support to third-world rural folk seeking financial assistance to grow their businesses. I received a Commonwealth Community Australia Day Award in 2006.