MARTIN KILLIPS

About Martin

Martin Killips may have grown in England but he was born in Malaysia. For the first two years of his life he shared his cot with a Lar Gibbon - the smallest member of the gibbon family. The ape took an active role in Martin's upbringing and bottle-fed and later spoon-fed him...although she would also take a fair portion for herself! Regardless, her constant attention guaranteed he grew up free of lice and fleas.

The family then moved to Germany and later to England where his father's obsession with wildlife, particularly snakes and other reptiles, ensured Martin continued to share his life with exotic animals. This constant exposure to fauna inevitably led to a myriad of unique experiences - and some painful ones...he was once bitten by a Mississippi Alligator on Platform Three of Leicester railway station. A distinction unlikely to be repeated.

Martin's various professional careers have included building estimator, farrier, portrait artist, marketer, inventor and failed fighter pilot (much to the Royal Air Force's chagrin, he tried to land his plane on a passing Weetabix truck).

Martin now owns no snakes, gibbons and especially no alligators!

“I started writing completely by accident. I was 36 yrs old and a friend I had known since primary school gave me a poem she’d kept of mine, which I’d written when I was nine. Shortly after, I moved to Australia and had time to spare – so I started writing humorous poems. At first I thought all of us had a few whimsical rhymes within us, and that I would run out of ideas. After three further years I realised that I could write to order.”

Images: Martin with a Lar Gibbon as a baby in Malaysia. Martin with his pet fox as a boy in England. Martin as fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force.