National treasure Julian Clary shares his joy at writing his
debut children’s book The Bolds.

“I always wanted to be a writer when I was a child,” says Clary.
“I think writing for children never occurred to me until my agent
suggested it. It was a rather inspired idea because it’s very much
more fun than writing for adults.” And that is how the flamboyant TV
personality came about creating his debut children’s book, _The
Bolds, _a collaboration between Clary and award winning illustrator
David Roberts. Mr and Mrs Bold are quite ordinary; they live with
their two children in a very nice house in Teddington, they have jobs
and are totally normal except for one thing: they are hyenas. The
Bolds have until now lived quite a banal existence, keeping their
long, spotted tails and manic laughs under wraps, but when a neighbour
gets suspicious it leads to a wacky adventure unlike any other.

Clary admits his inspiration for _The Bolds_ came from directly his
own childhood “Growing up, there was a family in our road who were
all quite hairy… As a child I made up stories for myself that they
were hyenas, and from there came from book.” This isn’t Clary’s
first foray into writing; between 2005 and 2008 he wrote a fortnightly
article for _New Statesmen_ magazine, while also penning the two
novels _Murder Most Fab _and _Devil in Disguise _and his touching and
frank autobiography _A Young Man’s Passage. _He explains how writing
for children is a very different process to his precious endeavours.
“You must contact your inner child, which we all have. My inner
child as a comedian is quite present all the time so it’s just
flipping to thinking like a child and your imagination takes over, you
can just go with the flow.” Clary found it to be a creatively
liberating experience: “with an adult book you’d think, ‘well
that’s a little unbelievable,’ whereas that doesn’t apply with
children’s literature.”

Prior to his work as an author, Clary began his comedy career on the
80s cabaret scene and credits his time at university for giving him
the confidence to perform. “I was doing cabaret with a girl who was
on my course and in fact when we left university we carried on,
that’s how we got our equity cards. Eventually she got an acting job
so I started doing it on my own. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do
it alone to start with!” His outrageous stage shows soon earned him
a sufficient fan following to make the jump from stage to screen and
since the late 80s, Clary has been a staple of British television.

Rarely resting on his laurels, 2015 is set to be a busy year for the
comic. After promoting _The Bolds_ he will go straight into preparing
for pantomime season, where he will appear alongside Lee Mead and
Marti Pellow in _Aladdin_ at the Birmingham Hippodrome. With all his
TV and stand-up comedy success there must be something about pantomime
that draws him back to the boards year after year? “What I love is
being part of this big company with chorus girls and chorus boys and
lavish costumes and proper production values. There’s a different
aspect to showbiz than from being on my own, normally as a stand-up
you’re on your own sitting in a dressing room whereas there’s the
whole theatrical life with panto. I find I don’t mind entertaining
children, they’re very sweet so that’s what I enjoy about it.”

Julian Clary’s The Bolds paperback is published by Andersen Press
and is suitable for children 8+. It will be available on the 30th July
2015, RRP £6.99.

Julian will also be appearing at the inaugural Radio Times Festival
taking place on The Green at Hampton Court Palace 24th-27th September.
Book tickets now 0871 2305 539 / www.radiotimesfestival.com
[http://www.radiotimesfestival.com]