Tommy Donbavand was born in Liverpool, but doesn't know any of The Beatles. When he was 11, his parents moved to Lancashire and, because they didn't trust him to forward the post, he had to go with them.

After an early career as a clown called Wobblebottom (no, really!), he joined the cast of the West End musical, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story where he played the Clearlake MC for a total of eight years, including stints on the UK tour and in Toronto, Canada.

Tommy then moved into the world of theatre production, where he wrote, directed and appeared in theatre tours such as Robinson Crusoe, Hey Diddle Diddle, and Goldilocks & The Three Bears.

As an author, Tommy's new series of comedy horror novels, Scream Street, is published by Walker Books in the UK, Candlewick Press in the USA and major foreign publishers in many territories around the world. He also wrote five titles in the Too Ghoul For School series, published by Egmont Press under their 2Heads imprint.Give us a hand...

He has recently written two books for specialist publisher, Barrington Stoke: Zombie!, to be published late 2009 and The Uniform, scheduled for release in 2010 - and his book of drama activities for teachers, Making a Drama Out of a Crisis (Network Continuum), was published in April 2009.

The activities in Tommy's non-fiction books such as Boredom Busters and Quick Fixes For Bored Kids helped him to become a regular guest on radio stations around the UK. He even made several appearances on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright In The Afternoon as the kids entertainment guy.

Tommy also writes for a number of magazines, such as the Times Educational Supplement, Practical Professional Child Care, Creative Steps and Scholastic's Junior Education. He was also one of the writers for the hit CBBC series, Planet Cook and pens tales from the island of Sodor for Thomas & Friends magazine.

In addition to his writing and acting, Tommy also runs creative writing workshops in primary schools across the north of England, teaches writing to adults and organises storytelling courses for SureStart.

Tommy spent a year as the writer-in-residence at Seven Stories, the centre for children's books in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and is very proud to have recently been made the UK's first RIF Ambassador by Reading Is Fundamental (part of the National Literacy Trust), attached to a primary school in Middlesbrough.

Tommy writes full-time and lives in Lancashire with his family. He has started to see sleep as a waste of good writing time.

Appearing (November 2009)
Stockton (10th), Middlesbrough (11th)

Author Website
Tommy Donbavand

Publisher
Walker Books

Recommended Reads

	Scream Street: Invasion of The Normals Walker Books 978-1406322392 A seventh book? How can this be? Did Luke, Resus and Cleo fail in their quest? Are Luke and his parents trapped in Scream Street for ever? And how can there be a normal invasion? Watch this space...
	Scream Street: Claw of the Werewolf Walker Books 978-1406314298 Luke is now just one relic away from opening the doorway back to his own world and taking his parents from the terrors of Scream Street - but the final search will plunge him into his most dangerous adventure yet. With the help of Resus and Cleo, Luke hunts for the claw of a werewolf and learns something entirely unexpected about Samuel Skipstone, the author who has helped them so much on their quest. The trio are thus forced into a difficult decision, not helped by the presence of a witch convention in Scream Street which is causing havoc in the neighbourhood. The sixth and final relic is almost in Luke's grasp, but will it ever be his...?
	Scream Street: Skull of The Skeleton Walker Books 978-1406314281 The Headless Horseman, the world's most famous ghost, makes a personal appearance at Everwell's Emporium to launch his new perfume, 'Decapitation pour l'Homme'. His overbearing gargoyle manager, however, is not impressed when the celebrity's head is stolen during the event! Eefa Everwell recruits Luke, Resus and Cleo to help with the search, but Luke is on a head hunt of his own: for the skull left behind by the first skeleton to live in Scream Street. Once again Sir Otto Sneer is determined to thwart the trio, and when he launches his own Frankenstein-esque monster to terrorize them into handing over the relics of the first four founding fathers, it's all they can do to keep their own heads...