|
About Phil |
|
I’m Phil Kettle and
I’m an author. I
love writing
children’s books and
visiting schools to
meet the kids who
read them. |
|
|
|
The first series of
books I wrote was
the TOOCOOL series.
There were 8 books
in Series 1, another
8 in Series 2, and
then another 8 in
the third series. I
got a bit sick of
the number 8, so I
wrote 10 books for
Series 4. That makes
34 TOOCOOL books! I
hope you’ve read
them all. |
|
|
|
Every time I
finished a TOOCOOL
story with Spike,
Wong and MARCY,
there was this voice
that seemed to
follow me around.
|
|
 |
|
“Hello … Mr Kettle. Are you
there ? Are you listening to
me ? Hello … Is there anyone
there ?... Come on Mr Kettle
- it’s MY turn for a book
series - me MARCY ! … Hello
….” |
|
|
And I wasn’t the only one
hearing MARCY’s voice. My
partner Susan was hearing it
too! Then one night, when I
forgot to put the rubbish
bins out for the third week
in a row, I couldn’t believe
my ears … |
|
|
“Mr Kettle if you forget the
rubbish bins again this
week I’ll squash you like a
lemon” … With
MARCY’s
favourite saying banging
around in my head, I knew it
was time. |
|
 |
|
The next day
Susan and I
sat down,
determined
to
write the
MARCY series
we had to get
that voice
out of our
heads.
Well, it
took a bit
longer than
a day!
But there
are 10 MARCY
books out
there now,
just waiting
for you to
read them. |
|
|
|
Going back a
bit, I was
born in
Mildura,
which is in
Northern
Victoria. I
grew up on a
farm a few
kilometers
away from
Mildura, in
a small town
called
Cardross.
This town
was so tiny
that there
was only one
shop, one
garage, a
school and a
town hall.
Our post
office
address was
PO Box 1 and
our
telephone
number was
12.
|
|
|
|
I lived on
the farm
with my Mum
and Dad, and
my brother,
sister and
dog called
Skipper. I
loved living
on the farm.
There was
always
plenty to
do, plenty
to eat, and
time for
lots of
adventures. |
|
|
|
My favourite subject at
school was sport, then more
sport. I really loved
football and cricket.
Actually I loved any sport
where you could hit, kick or
throw something.
As well as
sport I really love writing.
Now I'm older, every day when I wake up, I
feel privileged to know that
I'm going to spend the day
doing something that I
really enjoy. |
|
Other than TOOCOOL and
MARCY, there are also 36 Boyz Rule books and 24 Girlz
Rock books. And of course
there are 8 books in the
Billy Kool series too. This
year I have launched 10 new
'Get Real' books. I am also
writing 8 children's books
for Australian Geographic
this year, then a further 8
in 2011 and another 8 in
2012.
These days I live in
Melbourne - the best city in
the world. I have a pet
spider that lives in the
corner of the garage and two
fluffy white dogs (well
sometimes they’re white). |
|
|
I love going
to the
football and
watching my
team the
mighty
Tigers play.
I'm hoping
that I’ll
live long
enough to
see the
Tigers win
another
premiership.
In my spare
time I still
play
cricket, but
not very
well.
|
|
|
|
That’s all
from me. But
I do hope
that you
have as much
fun reading
my books, as
I had
writing
them.
|
|
|
Bye for now.
PHIL KETTLE |
|
 |
|
|
