Gregory Pastoll

Gregory Pastoll was born in South Africa, in 1950, and grew up in a small town. There was no television there at the time, so social activities included plenty of conversation, building things, and imaginative ventures. He read widely as a boy, and was always enchanted with good stories. When his own children were born, he started making up stories to tell them. This activity developed into a major interest.

He studied engineering and worked as an engineer for two years before becoming a lecturer in basic mechanical engineering subjects. Greg's 29 years in tertiary education was divided equally between teaching basic engineering mechanics and being a consultant on university teaching for academics.

His two books on education are 'Motivating People to Learn...and Teachers to Teach' and 'Tutorials That Work' (a guide to running successful small-group tutorials at universities). He has a PhD in Higher Education, from the University of Cape Town.

His three-volume series 'Basic Engineering Mechanics Explained' explains the basics of engineering mechanics for university students. This series has also been found useful by school pupils intending to go on to study engineering. His reason for writing these books was that he could never find a textbook that actually motivated students to engage with the subject, and he felt he could write one. In his own teaching he found that it was more important to motivate students than to impart information to them. He believes that a suitably motivated person can take charge of their own learning. A very important feature of his teaching was to conduct design-and-build competitions for his students, to stimulate their sense of engagement and achievement.

Greg has published two collections of rhyming stories (The King of Kafooni), and 'The Hippopotamologist', and has written the scripts for five musicals, all based on his own original stories. Two of these musicals have been produced in a primary school in Cape Town, to great acclaim within the school community. These were 'The Pirate Queen' and 'Jovano's Question'. The script for another of his musicals for young people has been published in book form, entitled 'A Whale in Paris'.

Some of his rhyming stories have been recorded in a CD format, (Riveting Rhymes) and one of his prose stories for younger children (The Bright Blue Frog) has likewise. In his retirement he continues to publish both fiction and non-fiction, including most recently a book of 220 of his own author-illustrated limericks and a collaboration with an artist friend for a book showcasing her paintings and his poetry written specifically in response to the paintings.

Greg's major hobby is painting: his work can be seen on redbubble.com and ozartfinder.com. He once learned the craft of violin-making and has completed three violins, two of which were sold.

Greg now lives with his wife in Perth, Western Australia.