Oliver hated writing at school. Come to think of it, he wasn't that keen on history, languages, or anything else much.
So nobody is more surprised than he is at having written a novel set in history, and dabbling in linguistics.
Genealogical research led him to begin writing an online biography of his grandfather Frank Kingdon-Ward; an explorer who wrote 25 published books. That project is currently undergoing major revision, but it did lead to Oliver's first paid writing commission.
A 1,200 word biography of Frank for The Great Explorers (Thames and Hudson)
Oliver's first self published book was "Time Tunnel to Londinium" which he first published on Blurb before creating a Kindle edition and then Createspace.
There are now five "Time Tunnel" books, the others being "Londinium Revisited", "Time Tunnel at the Seaside", "Time Tunnel to West Leighton", and "Time Tunnel to Ironbridge"
All these are published under the pen name "Olli Tooley" because they are aimed at younger readers than the Wise Oak series.
Also written under the Olli Tooley name are the Animal Intelligence Services books featuring Felix Whiter, a cool cat who always gets his man ... or tortoise. It is a sort of spoof of a mixture of James Bond, and detective shows. "For Cats' Eyes Only", "Dr Gnaw", and "You Only Live Nine Times" are already available. Works in progress are "What's Up Duck?" and "A Song of Mice and Briar." There is a strong moral running through the whole series about valuing your local library.
Children of the Wise Oak took around eight years from conception to realisation, however most of that time was inactivity due to self doubt. The sequel Women of the Wise Oak followed in 2017, and then Men of the Wise Oak in 2019.
Oliver has been a private hire driver, an office furniture fitter, and a shop assistant, among other things. He was also the lead singer in a Led Zeppelin tribute band and briefly with Martin Murray's The Honeycombs. Now he runs Blue Poppy Publishing, publishing local authors and writing his own books. He has presented local radio but is now more often found running D&D games. He lives in Devon with his wife and four children.
