Tony Cross

Tony is English but has lived in Norway since 1986 and is married to a lovely Norwegian lady. He has 11 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren (up to 2021).

From 2001-2003 he lived in Inverness, right beside Loch Ness, and had lots of visits from grandchildren who stayed for days at a time. They were fascinated by the Loch Ness monster and demanded stories be told at bedtime. Every day, he had to come up with a different story and he wrote them down for future reference. He promised himself that, one day, he would write them into a book for future generations. This was never done until, being forced to be at home more than usual because of the Covid virus, he sat down and wrote them. Hence, Nessie and his six most exciting adventures.

Kodie Smith, one of his grandsons, agreed to draw the illustrations. He is a very talented tattoo artist and proved to be a talented illustrator as well. The two co-operated closely on the funny bits and pieces to be included in the drawings. Typical of Tony's sense of humour was to have a drawing of Nessie in his home at the bottom of Loch Ness, reading a newspaper in front of a blazing log fire, while a goldfish bowl on a shelf, surrounded by water, contains a goldfish. He hopes that the reader of the book will point out these humorous elements to young children and older children will see the humour themselves. Tony claims that all of these Nessie stories are true and this can be verified by sending an email to nessie@scotland.com.

Tony hopes to write more childrens books if this first book is even a moderate success. The writing is not financially motivated but for the pleasure books can give to children.

Tony fell in love with Nellie the elephant that Kodie has drawn in this book. He will probably make her the star of his next book.

This first book and future books, will be available in Norwegian as well as English.