Avon Priestley

Avon Priestley was born near Stratford-on-Avon in 1948 where his father was a leading actor with The Royal Shakespeare Company. After working as a journalist in Australia and in Thailand Avon joined the BBC World Service in 1974. Later he was a foreign correspondent for The Observer and The Independent in Ethiopia and in Sri Lanka.

He has since been buying and selling houses in France mainly in the south west. He bought his latest house near Bergerac in the Dordogne four years ago.His collection of short stories - The Adventures of Bertie the Border Terrier - are recorded mainly in this part of France.

He has written a revised version of Bertie's adventures with a new story about a Border terrier's

heroic exploits on the Western Front in WW1. The book is called Bertie's War. It's about his

his dream of being a messenger in the trenches and how, under a barrage of shells and gunfire, he finds and saves his wounded master, a Captain in the Artists Rifles Regiment.

Avon is 71,Bertie is 10.