Robert Forrest-Webb, adventurer and writer, was born in Nottingham but spent most of his childhood in the heavily bombed North West of England, moving, when the war had ended and he was in his late-teens, to Surrey with his family.
"I just bounced around for a while," he says. "I guess being bombed on over 8o occasions didn't help. It certainly unsettles you." His early jobs included farming, civil service, the merchant navy and lengthy travels in some of the wildest areas of Africa and India where he lived and worked, before starting a journalistic career based on his earlier success in sport. Training hard to recover his fitness after injuries received during his time in the military, he had become a national champion in kayak racing and represented Great Britain in the World Championships in Denmark, and in that same year set a new record for Britain's longest (120 mile) Devizes to Westminster canoe race breaking the previous record by 16 hours. He has crossed the Sahara Desert in both directions on a motorcycle, prior to the building of the Trans-Sahara Highway, and raced motorcycles for 12 years. The last 'broken bone count' was 21!
He began his writing initially as a reporter on a 'local' newspaper, and graduated to feature writer on national newspapers. Ultimately, he was 'headhunted' to the position of Editor and finally Executive Editor of a successful group of magazines in a major magazine publishing company.
He has been involved in the martial arts for virtually 70 years and now holds the rare grade of 8th Dan in Aikido, an honour awarded him by the Japanese International Shodokan Federation, and also by The British Aikido Association, and is a black belt in Judo. He practices ancient Japanese weapon training. A keen hunter and fisherman he has been able to draw on many of his own experiences to give colour and authenticity to his novels.
Forrest-Webb is an extremely versatile and competent writer. 'The Great Dinosaur Robbery' was turned into a film by Disney, and 'After me the deluge' has become Italy's most successful ever musical, having been in almost continuous production in Europe and throughout South America for the past 40 years. He has also written film scripts, plays for TV and radio, and the 'books' and lyrics for two British musicals.
He lives in Herefordshire with his wife and dog. He has one daughter.