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Alan Trussell-Cullen

I really started writing writing - that is, writing so other people would read what I was writing - when I was about 11 years old. My family had a holiday "bach" at Mount Maunganui. In those days there were very few people living there. Our "bach" was a one room ex-army hut at the end of the road. We had no neighbours and the nearest telephone was 4 miles away. Our family used to go there for the holidays and often other families would come too. We'd put up tents and have a great time. We could run over the sandhills and down to the beach at any time.

Now one evening I was playing in the sandhills with a group of friends who were staying with us. We'd seen this boat out on the horizon earlier, but as the sun went down and it started to get dark, we suddenly saw these distress flares going up into the sky! "The boat must be sinking!" we thought! So we all raced back up the sandhills to our families. We arrived panting and all out of breath: "There's a boat in distress!"

Our families sprang into action! We all piled into our family car and Dad drove us down to the district store where there was the only telephone in the place! There the grown-ups rang the police and a police launch was sent out to rescue the boat.

The next few days, whenever we went down to the beach, we found the burnt out flares washed up. I began to think about this and when we went back home at the end of the holidays, I decided to write up our little adventure and send it in to the local newspaper. They had a children's page. Low and behold - they published my Great Rescue Story! I really liked seeing something I had written being published. That felt good so I thought, maybe I could do some more of this! And I have been - ever since!

Find out about what he has to say about writing.

A List his books (he's written about 89!)

* The Land of the Great Big No! * The Dominie Collection of Traditional Tales * The Little Red Hen * Three Billy Goats Gruff * The Three Little Pigs * The Ginger Bread Man * Cinderella * The Frog Prince * The Princess and the Pea * King Midas and the Golden Touch * Rumpelstiltskin * Aladdin and the Magic Lamp * The Dominie Collection of Aesops Fables * The Very Hungry Dog * The Fox and the Crow * The Ant and the Grasshopper * The Farmer and his Two Lazy Sons * The Hare and the Tortoise * The Crow and the Pitcher * The Lion and the Mouse * The Miller Who Tried to Please Everyone * The Fox and the Goat * The Boy Who Cried Wolf * Watching the Storm (Sunshine/Galaxy) * The Egg (Sunshine/Galaxy) * Who Loves Getting Wet? (Sunshine) * Little Puppy Rap (Sunshine) * Mom's Getting Married (Sunshine) * Catherine the Counter (Sunshine) * Tummy Ache (Sunshine) * The Wind and the Rain (Lands End) * The Pig that learnt to Jig (Lands End) * Charlotte's Web Page (Rigby Inc) * The Flying Pig and the Daredevil Dog (Rigby Inc) * Happy Accidents (Rigby Inc) * Playing With Words (Rigby Inc) * Pocketful of Posies (Rigby Inc) * The Seesaw (Rigby Inc) * The Whistle Tooth (Rigby Inc) * Puppets (Rigby Inc) * Beyond 2000 (Rigby Inc) * Kites (Rigby Inc) * Everybody Dances (Rigby Inc) * Famous Children (Rigby Inc) * The Alphabet (Rigby Inc) * Giants, Monsters and Mythical Beasts (Rigby Inc) * Collections (Rigby Inc) * Robots (Rigby Inc) * Computers (Rigby Inc) * Making a TV series (Rigby Inc) * What did You Say (Rigby Inc) * School Days (Rigby Inc) * Blowing in the wind (Rigby Inc) * The Moon (Rigby Inc) * The Sun and the Rain (Rigby Inc) * Gregor the Grumblesome Giant (Rigby Inc) * Alas my Albatross is Moulting (Rigby Inc) * In the Fast Lane (Rigby Inc) * Ask Einstein (Learning Media) * Einstein - Champion of the World! (Learning Media) * This is the Bread (Celebration) * This is the Seed (Celebration) * Whatever Do I Do Now? (Celebration) * Malawi Keeper of the Trees (Celebration) * The Real Cinderella Rap (Nelson) * The Slowest Eater in the World (Scholastic) * My Pet Person (Scholastic) * Our Cat Has Kittens (Scholastic) * I've been Eating Blackberries (Scholastic) * The International Stewed Rhubarb Show (Scholastic)