Huw Roberts - Short Biography

• Born in 1964, Prestatyn, North Wales, UK.

• 2nd eldest of 4 children. Father was a pharmacist and mum was a hard working mother and house wife.

• Grew up in North Wales seaside resorts of Rhyl, Penrhyn Bay, Colwyn Bay. Very pleasant upbringing and nothing untoward happened.

• Attended St. Mary’s College secondary school from 1974 – 1980. School was run by priests who were rather violent. Huw had and appalling academic record and was only interested in Art and English composition. School went bankrupt and Huw was expelled for drinking the content’s of the priest’s booze cabinet.

• Attended North Wales College of Art, Wrexham from 1981-83 and Suffolk College of Art, Ipswich, from 1983 – 85. He specialised in Film / TV production. Here he produced many films and videos as well as photographic projects and animation.

• Left college and had a variety of jobs including promoting Asian Art in Nottingham, screen printing fruit machines in Cardiff, selling breathing apparatus in Bognor Regis, selling photocopiers in London, advertising and many other jobs too. His C.V. now comes on a scroll.

• Wrote the prologue of Kamakan The Vampire Slug in Nottingham. Sent it out to publishers think he’d written the entire story. He was wrong and had no success. He also wrote films and a cartoon strip at this point.

• Married 1st wife and lived in Bognor Regis where daughter Bethan was born.

• Moved back to North Wales and worked as marketing manager of North Wales Theatre, Llandudno from 1994 – 2000. Was the most fabulous working experience so far and went on to specialise in theatre and events marketing. Had second child Dylan.

• Wife left and moved with kids to Bognor Regis.

• Had quite a hard time for 2 years.

• Met 2nd wife and married in Las Vegas. Split up when they returned.

• Moved to London to work as marketing director for comedian Jim Davidson. A very hectic but entertaining time. Put on some of the largest pantomimes in UK and various stage shows.

• Moved to Durham to prepare the marketing for the Gala Theatre opening.

• Moved back to Llandudno in 2002, gave up marketing for two years. Got a job on the till on Llandudno Cable Cars and set to work completing Kamakan. A friend had made him promise to finish it. So he gave everything up and set to work.

• Lived in damp bedsit in Llandudno for 1 ½ years writing the rest of Kamakan. Very broke. Saw kids as often as possible. Everyone thought he was mad.

• Completed the story and moved to Ireland to run The Helix Theatre, Dublin. Had a brilliant time for 14 months. Sent Kamakan to publishers and agents with no success.

• Moved back to North Wales to work for his brother's IT company. This is when he found he had won the Undiscovered Authors General Fiction Final for Wales 2006. He received a publishing contract and prize money.

• His kids moved back to North Wales in 2006 too. Huw sees his children a lot now and they are very happy knocking about together, playing guitar and getting up to nonsense.

• Book is becoming well known and Huw is giving lots of schools and libraries readings. He has now adapted it for stage. Kamakan The Vampire Slug – Live & Monstrous!! premieres 19th & 20th October 2007 at Theatr Colwyn, Colwyn Bay.