Frederick Webb (aka Lancelot Spurrier Bumble), is the youngest of five children born to Harry and Winifred, in the tiny Suffolk hamlet of Little Thurlow Green. By all accounts he was an affectionate boisterous child, always curious about life and accident prone. Aged three he backed into a trestle, placed in front of a pail of boiled potatoes; it tipped over and he sat in the pail By the time he was five, on arriving home from work, the first words from Harry were "Where's that boy?". If it's true that we learn by mistakes, by the time the 11+ arrived, Frederick was a bit of a sage; and with a birthday in late December, he was 10+
Five years at Sudbury Grammar School; out from the house at 7.15am, a three-mile bike ride, a half mile walk, then a devious village to village bus trip.
Aged 17 years he joined the National Westminster Bank, and at 22 years he relocated to the British Bank of the Middle East. Then followed an illustrious career, ahem, venturing from Kuwait, Sharja, Ras-al-Khaima, Amman Arabic school, where he learned to sing 'three blind mice' in Arabic. Then onto Benghazi, Teheran, Doha and Bahrain.
He married in Benghazi and divorced in Teheran.
After 25 years on the fringes of the toy business, at age 61 his knees decided to retire, leaving him with no alternative but to write, which he does with wit, flair, and imagination.