Young Merlin

About Tony Bradman

Tony Bradman was born in 1954 (not during the Jurassic era, as his children have been known to claim). He went to school in London, and then Cambridge University. After university he worked in the music press, then became Deputy Editor of Parents magazine, and began reviewing children’s books. He had his first book for children published in 1985 and became a full-time author in 1987.

He is a hugely prolific author with a particular passion for bringing history to life for young people. He is a regular at all the major literary festivals, reviews for The Guardian and is the Chair of the Siobhan Dowd Trust. He is perhaps best known in the UK for his Dilly the Dinosaur stories. His books have sold more than two million copies worldwide and he has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Japan amongst others.

Tony loves films and popular culture. He lives in Beckenham, Kent with his wife Sally and their three children Emma, Helen and Thomas and Rufus the cat.

TONY BRADMAN Q&A:

If you were a Viking warrior, what would your name be? And what about your battle cry?

I love Viking warrior names – my favourites are Erik Bloodaxe, Ivar The Boneless and of course, Harald Hardnut. I’d like my name to be exciting too! But the Vikings had a great sense of humour, and I’m not very tall, so I’d expect they would call me stumpy or something like that. My battle cry would be easy – “Yaaaaaaagggghhh”

Which of the places in the book would you most like to visit: Russia, Norway or Constantinople? Why?

I’d like to visit them all. Constantinople is now called Istanbul, and it’s an ancient city full of interesting things. I studied Russian at school and so I’d love to visit places like Novogorod and Kiev. And in fact, I’ve just booked up to go to Oslo, capital of Norway – and the first place I’ll visit is the Viking Ship Museum….

If you were a Viking warrior, and could have any person from history/film/books in your gang – who would you choose? And Why? What would the gang be called?

I’d pick all the great Viking warriors – Harald Hardnut, Erik Bloodaxe, the Godwin brothers Tostig and Harold, maybe Thor the Norse God, Beowulf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir and Faramir from Lord of the Rings and loads of others. What would we be called? Why The Cool Vikings, of course!