MATTHEW COOPER

I was born in England, a country world famous for its wonderful weather and food. So, although I moved to Asia about nearly 15 years ago, I still miss drizzle and sausages... As a child I used to write a diary every year but never got beyond January 17th and so I decided early on that writing might not be for me. But after embarking on a varied career that included being a marine biologist, an IT helpdesk manager (I don't know anything about computers and so was perfect for the role) and dustman, I decided that maybe I'd been a bit hasty in 'writing off' writing. And then a friend pointed out that writers could stay in their pyjamas all day. From that moment on I knew that writing was my destiny...

 

I get a lot of inspiration for my stories from my children. My son's fascination with things that moved was the inspiration for my first book, Lost in Hong Kong, which involves many different types of transport. My daughter's interest in the animals she could see just a few metres from their front door was the inspiration for my second book, Black Rain Day, which explores the diverse habitats and wildlife of Hong Kong. I've since written books about the Hainan Gibbon (the world's most endangered primate that virtually no one has heard of), the diverse festivals we are lucky enough to experience in Asia, a 'love letter' to Hong Kong, a snow-covered Singapore at Christmas, and a story about a boy chasing his pet parrot around the amazing city of Singapore.

 

I want to continue writing books that are relevant for children who live in the amazing cities of Hong Kong and Singapore (and others farther afield); books which encourage a love of reading and a desire to learn about the world around them.