The author of the Jack books is the Reverend Alan Cliff. He was born in Morecambe, Lancashire in 1936. His father was a doctor, as is his brother, Kenneth. However, Alan took a different route. After attending both Oxford and Cambridge universities, thus ensuring that he cannot lose the Boat Race, he became a Methodist minister in 1960. He also married Rosemary, his wife, in 1960.
After an initial stationing in Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, he moved to Edinburgh where he became the youngest Superintendent Minister in Methodism at the time. In 1974 he moved from Scotland to Wales where he took charge of the Wrexham circuit.
Forced to take early retirement in 1987 on health grounds, he and Rosemary moved to Rhyl where they have lived ever since. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
It was suggested to Alan that he take up writing as an aid to recovery from his health problems. In 1990 he self published 'British makers of 0 gauge, 1890 - 1990', which sold 1,200 copies.
Since then he has written over three hundred articles for model railway magazines including 'The Chronicle of Lock's Siding' in British Railway Modelling. Locks Siding is the longest running continuous monthly series by a freelance writer in the history of the world's model railway press. He has also written for Words, Cambrensis and Linkway as well as other small literary magazines. In 1995 he won the Jo Cowell competition for article writing and in 1997 won the best humorous article competition.
He is also the author of an introduction to Christianity for teenagers and adults called 'The Grand Rescue'.
Alan has been a railway enthusiast all his life and has always had model layouts of different gauges lurking in various corners of the house and garage. One of these is a small layout representing a typical siding area and is called Lock's Siding, after the family business, Locks the Hatters of London. He and Rosemary have also been owned by cats for a number of years, prominent amongst which was a black and white shorthair called Jack who took delight in interfering with the Lock's Siding layout. This inspired Alan to introduce Jack as The Station Cat into the 'The Chronicle of Lock's Siding' from whence he developed the character in a series of childrens' books based on Jack's adventures.
He has also written about Jack's cousins Grabbit and Skoot who have their own series of books. 'Grabbit and Skoot and the invasion of the Grey Squirrels' was short listed for the 2001 Goodchild prize for Excellent English, the first childrens author to be included amongst the six finalists. The series jointly won the 2001/2 JPC Group of Newspapers Best Children's Bedtime Stories.
Visit the author's website