Toby started writing instead of talking so much...

Toby Philpott wanted to write, even when at school, but his favourite authors all seemed to have lived colourful lives (when he read their biographies on the sleevenotes). So he went out to have one of his own.

Archaeologist, fairground worker, bar staff in a 60's folk & blues club, jewellery maker, street conjuror, comedy juggler, acrobat, fire-eater, unicyclist - teacher of circus and variety skills, film puppeteer (most notoriously inside Jabba the Hutt). Later a NoFit State circus performer - he has fulfilled most of those vague ambitions to appear on stage, screen, radio and television, but most recently has re-invented himself as a library worker focused on the use of computers (and he reads a lot of books, too!)

The seeds of his autobiography appear online, for now. An independent journalist - Colin McEvoy - researched all his online interviews, websites, etc and compiled a biography for Wookiepedia, which has migrated to Wikipedia. Toby seems to have a wyrd F-list celebrity status.

He wrote a book-in-a-month as part of the NaNoWriMo* marathon writing project. This turned into a semi-fictionalised version of some of his adventures in Spain during the 1980s, which he called 'Foolproof' - released 'as is' rather than polished up. His late friend and co-author Mick Swain turned up as a character to help him finish writing it, and to claim his happy ending.

In 2008 Toby wrote a second NaNoWriMo novel, entitled Infinite Monkeys, which he considers more readable, and which is available here.

You can also find here a version of the book that Mick left unfinished "Another Kinda Time" (edited by Toby from the abandoned papers) as it covers several similar themes - jugglers, troubadours, time shifts, writing about writing, hidden messages, anarchy, visits to parallel worlds, etc. They spent a lot of time talking about writing together. Would he have preferred Another Kinder Time? Toby appears (in disguise) in Mick's book, too.

And finally, getting into his role as literary executor - he has published some essays his mother wrote, summing up her teaching techniques. Just one last souvenir. Still needs format tweaking.

* National Novel Writing Month