From Oulder Hill to strawberry-eating, vampire walruses for Tim!

Tim Stead

Former Oulder Hill pupil Tim Stead has found that a change of career is paying dividends as well as calling for a very vivid imagination.

Tim, 39, who now lives in Silloth in Cumbria used to drive trucks for Eddie Stobart until he decided to try his hand at illustrating children’s’ books. In 2010 he won a competition to provide illustrations for ’Squaring the Circle: The Amazing Life of Sir Thomas Urquart of Cromarty by Jane Verburg’.

After a year or so, Tim decided to take the plunge and to write the words to his illustrations as well as publish his own work. His first venture was ‘So You Ran In The Wash’ the story of George the Zebra who suffered a multi-colour mishap when he decided to get inside a washing machine. His latest published work is ‘Ted Needs Some Space’; the tale of a teddy bear who decides to get away from it all with the aid of a space ship.

Tim originally studied graphic design at Lincoln and then together with his wife Ruth, enrolled at Carlisle College of Art and Design. Like his father before him, he became a truck driver in order to pay the bills. He still drives trucks occasionally at weekends but spends the rest of the week working on his books and looking after his young son Thomas.

He decided to turn his hand to writing as well as illustrating works for other authors and has two completed works awaiting publication.

Tim admits that looking out of his window and seeing the peaks of the Lake District on one side and out across the Solway Firth to Scotland on the other does wonders to stimulate his imagination. So much so in fact that his latest book which he hopes to publish soon is about a vegetarian, strawberry-eating vampire walrus!

Tim left Rochdale when he went to college in 2000 and says that he last visited the town with his father Ted two years ago and had forgotten how impressive the area around the Town Hall and Broadfield Park slopes was.

He described the world of writing books for children as being ’fiercely competitive’ and admits that not everyone has achieved the success of J. K. Rowling or Roald Dahl. However, unlike them, when Tim needs to earn a crust and put in plenty of thinking time, all he needs to do is climb aboard his Eddie Stobart 18-wheeler and keep on truckin’!