John McLay

John McLay was born in Middlesborough, North Yorkshire. In 1986 he moved south to join the BBC where he worked as a dresser on several TV programmes including Eastenders, Top of the Pops and Wogan, as well as a having a Saturday job working as a runner on ‘Going Live’. After acting as a runner for Lennie Henry at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday concert at Wembley in 1988, John became a bookseller for Waterstone’s, and later a Marketing Officer at Puffin. He was on the Children’s Book Circle committee for three years, and held the position of Editor & Rights Director at the children’s books packager Working Partners Ltd. He has written and reviewed children’s books for publications as varied and eminent as Amazon, the Financial Times, Publishing News and Books for Keeps. John has been self-employed since 2001. John lives in Bath with his wife Gillian, where he runs a children’s book group and enjoys gardening, cricket and football. He is a life-long Doctor Who fan.