Sir David Attenborough
How many times do you ask the question:
“What do you want for for Christmas?”
And get the reply:
“Nothing.”
It’s not a lot of good, is it? If you actually got them nothing, they’d be upset. So it’s that time of year again: we all have to start thinking about what we might buy our friends and family for Christmas without any help from them.
Daniel Frederick Wallace (film-maker, comedian, writer, actor and presenter) was born 16th November 1976 in Dundee, Scotland, but moved to Loughborough, and in later years, Berlin and Bath with his parents. At the young age of 16, Danny began to work for Sega Power magazine as well as preparing for his GCSEs. What followed was years of writing for other games magazines, and then, when he was 18, for the comedy magazine Comedy Review.
Michael Morpurgo (OBE 2006, MBE, Children’s Laureate 2003-2005), was born 5th October 1943 in Hertfordshire. By the age of two Michael had been evacuated to Cumberland, only later moving back to London, and then to Essex. His book, The Butterfly Lion, suggests his unhappy experiences at one of the boarding schools he attended in these earlier years. At one stage Michael trained for the British Army at Sandhurst.
David James Pelzer was born 29th December 1960 in California. The second of five boys, Dave is the son of San Francisco fireman, Stephen Joseph Pelzer and Catherine Roerva Christen Pelzer. His origins and traumatic childhood can be followed through his first memoir A Child Called “It” (1995), which tells the story of his abusive childhood at the hands of his mother and brothers.
Bernard Cornwell (OBE) was born in London on 23rd February 1944. At a young age, Bernard was adopted by the Wiggins family from Essex, who were members of the strictly pacifist religious sect- Peculiar People. In his youth he attended Monkton Combe School, and, at a later age Bernard left his adoptive family and attended a London University, graduating in 1966. It was at this time that he changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name – Cornwell.