The Author:
Clive Tandy is the creator and author of Quarry Grove. The first story in the series was nearly published over twenty years ago.

Thanks to the encouragement of his 9 year old granddaughter, Rebecca, who recently read the manuscript and described it as 'cool', Clive decided to take her advice, shake the dust off and publish it as a series of stories.

Hicky gets his Wings is the first book in the Quarry Grove series and plans are already underway to publish the second tale, Crusty Pie from Mars - featuring even more unusual insect characters and including an odd crustacean!

As a youngster, Clive managed to sneak into art school. Although not naturally gifted with a pencil, he succeeded in wining a top prize for his imaginative and creative approach towards art and design.

For Clive, finding an artist to draw Quarry Grove as he envisioned, proved a difficult quest. He met several excellent artists but none could bring the characters to life as Clive visualised them. Just as he was about to give up, he met artist James McLean. The two of them found that they had a creative rapport and began to work together on creating the first book.

Clive has several stories that he aims to publish along side Quarry Grove. Muriel Gossard in Space is a particular favourite of the author and one that he hopes to start working on with James in the near future, alongside his second favourite long term project - his first book of poetry!

Clive also has plans to develop a website - InsideClivesMind.com

When not at his writing desk, Clive is a black belt Karate expert, classical piano player and cunning linguist of German and Spanish. He wouldn’t be offended if you described him as a genius - he might even buy you a coffee.

Contact Clive at Clive@Quarrygrove.com

James McLean has illustrated for books, television, newspapers and multimedia.

Working primarily in pen and ink, and employing digital colouring when requested, James’ work remains flexible to requirements.

For the children’s market, he has brought to life the characters of the classic story “Beowulf” (Kingfisher Epics); created a community of quirky insects for Clive Tandy’s series ‘Quarry Grove’; and drawn a wealth of ecological cartoons for Blackpool Council and the environmental exhibitions at the award winning Solaris Centre. He was also the cover artist for the DVD release of the children’s cartoon, M.A.S.K.

James has also produced officially endorsed artwork to promote the rock groups ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’ and ‘My Chemical Romance’ (Sabian Promotions). His detailed illustrations of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward were part of the line up in Channel 4’s historical documentary ‘Checking Into History’ and he has contributed a host of satirical caricatures for the London broadsheet, The Times.

Along side his illustrations, James has also taken part in art workshops for children and runs an amateur drawing resource on the internet.

James will be illustrating the next Quarry Grove.

In his spare time James has a keen devotion to people, podcasts and the piano - though not necessarily in that order. He denies all rumours that he got his degree from the Eddy Cockroach School of Badly Forged Certificates.

More of James' work is avaliable to view at his official website.