Ian Clayton

Ian Clayton has been a freelance writer and broadcaster for twenty-five years. His highly acclaimed memoir of a life in music, Bringing It All Back Home, was published in 2007.

He has presented programmes on BBC TV, ITV Yorkshire, the Discovery Channel, and regularly on radio. He has also led workshops in prisons, hospitals, schools and art centres.

Ian was born and still lives in west Yorkshire, with his partner Heather and son Edward. He likes listening to jazz and blues, reading about folklore and music hall, and indulging in tap-room conversation and gentle subversion.

Ian Clayton author of Our Billie tells Penguin.co.uk about his favourite fictional character, Billy Caspar, who sees the same world he does:

"As a young lad I was a fan of the famous five books by Enid Blyton, the adventures of George, Dick, Anne, Julian and Timmy the dog. I loved the stories, but I knew the characters didn't talk like me, they went to places I didn't know and I certainly didn't have an Uncle Quintin who owned an island. Then I read Barry Hines book A Kestrel for a Knave and found a character called Billy Caspar and discovered that here was a character who spoke to me about my life. He is my favourite fictional character because he sees the same world as I do and really I don't think he's fictional at all, because I think I know him, he went to school with me, he lived in our street and his mam was my mam."