User:Drharrietd/Peter Tong (writer)

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In 1941, Peter Tong was born in the seaside holiday town of Blackpool. When seven years old, he moved with his parents inland to the family hometown of industrial Bolton. He is a writer of novels, stage plays and screenplays.

HIS BACKGROUND

As a child all Tong did was draw and paint; at aged four, he won first prize in a colouring competition. The Wild West, especially the exotic Great Plains Indians and their half-wild ponies, were his favourite subject, many paintings being displayed on the classroom wall. Once understanding that when grown up he had to ‘get a job’, he decided to be an artist. A major influence on him was the vivid illustrations of Denis McLoughlin, and his Buffalo Bill Wild West Annuals. Ironically, young Tong didn’t know McLoughlin lived in Bolton, and more surprisingly, he unknowingly passed his house on his way to school every day. He might well have achieved his artistic ambition if he had met the graphic artist, but at aged ten he became obsessed with fiction writing, inspired by Treasure Island and other children’s adventure books, and decided to become an author, even though one teacher encouraged him to go to Art College. As an adult, Tong became good friends with McLoughlin - who encouraged him to keep writing.

Science Fiction dominated his early teenage life, and he wrote stories strongly based on Sci-Fi comics and books. But he never completed any, being too creatively mercurial, writing a couple of chapters and then jumping to a new inspiration and then another. Showing future professionalism, he wrote ‘space’ stories to order for friends; in his mid teens, his talent stretched to contemporary themes: a satirical story based on his schoolmates and their teacher; a surreal comedy about a neighbourhood family, influenced by the absurdist humour of The Goon Show radio programmes and the humorous books of PG Wodehouse; and a ‘true’ story about himself and his maturing adolescent friends.

Although still desiring to be a professional writer, at sixteen he had done nothing about it. His father was a mechanical engineer and Tong, along with his peers, expected to follow a workingman’s trade, and being fascinated with electronics, took an apprenticeship as a TV engineer. But true to form, he switched to being a telephone engineer, then an electrician. After failing to join the Merchant Navy as a radio operator because he was halfway through his apprenticeship, his love of adventure books and real-life escapades in foreign countries compelled him at 22, to fly off to Australia. Although still not seriously writing, he was maturing as a person, living a bohemian existence in Sydney, and working at numerous odd jobs until he landed the most fruitful one for a robust young man: a rugged outdoor life working with a team of geophysicists working for a mining company right in the middle of the wild Australian bush, north of Alice Springs, living in tents and operating electronic ore testing equipment.

After two years, he finally returned to England via Japan, Hong Kong, and the hippie overland trail through India, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, finally taking the Orient Express from Istanbul to the Channel ports and home. He was now ready to be a real writer.

EARLY CAREER

Tong’s first professional writing was Generosity for a Gaijin, an account of his travels in Japan, for Blackwood’s Magazine. The second was an account of a contemporary Japanese tea ceremony. He wrote a variety other magazine articles and domestic and Sci-Fi short stories, and scripts for children’s comics. He wrote three unpublished novels as diverse as a Sci-fi adventure, Megamind; a Japanese samurai story, Mikimojo; and Working Class Zero, a surreal critique on society.

Always a radio fan, after many attempts, Tong had a break through with The Oily Rag, a comedy inspired by working in an engineering factory, produced by Tony Cliff for BBC’s Radio 4 and also broadcast on the World Service, receiving letters of praise from listeners. Other radio work included a romantic comedy, Words of Love; an historical drama, The Hall ‘ith Wood Conjuror, about Samuel Crompton, the Bolton inventor; a spy serial, The Makusha Run; and a three-part adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. In between all this he wrote an eclectic mix of material for television: one-off plays, drama series, sitcoms, and comedy show gags. He wrote screenplays, and in what he calls ‘a bizarre period of wonderful madness’, with miniscule finance, no industry contacts, only a total belief in himself, and a knowledge that nothing is impossible, Tong wrote and produced the Gobsmacked! movie, an early digital feature shot to be transferred to 35mm film stock for cinemas. Directed by Gabe Kern.

While writing his radio version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, he concluded that Sherlock Holmes’ landlady, Mrs Hudson, must have acquired some knowledge of detective work, so he created a TV sitcom of her and her street-wise Cockney maid, Fanny-Annie Grubbins, secretly doing their own detective work. Although optioned, it didn’t get developed, and so Tong entered the theatre world by writing and co-producing a stage farce, Mrs H of Baker Street, which was a great success in the 2005 Manchester Comedy Festival, directed by Gabe Kern.

CURRENT WORK

In 2012, Tong finally became the novelist he always dreamed of being, and has written three books of a WWII heroic adventure series, Operation Hawkwind, based on an earlier film script, and three cosy crime books in a series based on Mrs H of Baker Street, and called The Detective Ladies of Baker Street, all initially published for the ebook market. The first book of both series, Island of Steel and The Missing Mr Moonstone, are traditionally published by Marlborough Court Publishing, with the others to follow from 2020 onwards. Tong is also finishing an inspirational book based on his experiences making his film, Gobsmacked!, to encourage people to achieve their ambitions, and called Never, Never, Ever, EVER Give Up (fulfilling your desires will change your life).

(In Contents box)

1 His background 2 His early career 3 His current work

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Peter Tong

Born		22 September 1941

Occupation	Novelist - playwright - screenwriter - producer

Language	English

Nationality	British

Genre 		Heroic adventure Cosy crime Upbeat humour