JON GROVES WRITER

Mine is the classic tale - boy starts as a temp on reception at Central Television Enterprises for a day, stays on, becomes press assistant then head of press. He moves to Hit Entertainment as head of press and PR when Hit is ten employees in an office under a model agency (people, not Airfix) by Marylebone High Street. He soon realises he's not cut out for a life in press and/or PR.

 

Boy leaves Hit and travels the world. At 39,000ft somewhere between Fiji and New Zealand he faces facts - all he can do is write. So he becomes a writer.

 

Boy manages to survive in the hard world of freelance writing by saying yes to anything and everything he can get his hands and his pen on. One day he gets a gig writing more than 100 TV shorts in very short time. These are very silly but crack open a door into children's TV.

 

Despite his writer's tendency towards solitude and an aversion to self- promotion (see press/ PR above) boy meets good people and works on good shows. Soon he has an agent and starts to recognise people at writers' meetings, CMCs, Cartoon Forums, on Annecy towpaths and in pubs. Every now and then someone recognises him. Some even stop to talk. Some even listen.

 

So boy now chooses to work with people he likes on projects he believes in. He shares his life between Barcelona and the UK. He is glad he became a writer and loves writing. He feels very lucky. He will consider all projects, but is unlikely to return to a permanent position in press and/or PR.