What a Hullabaloo!

Phillip's got a reason to rhyme!
Published Date: 08 December 2009
By Martin Herron



Phillip Whittington with copies of his book 094959

A SCARBOROUGH author has beaten dyslexia to produce his first book of short stories for children.
And Phillip Whittington's What A Hullabaloo is a book with both rhyme and reason - all seven stories are written in verse!

Phillip told the Evening News: "I naturally write in rhyme - it's part of the dyslexia, I think. I find the rules of grammar difficult and I just naturally write in rhymes - a bit of poetic licence helps a lot."

He says that the desire to show other people with the condition that it was possible for people with dyslexia to get a book published was one of his inspirations.

"I used to be really fearful of showing people my writing because of the dyslexia," the 44 year old said. "I work as a counsellor and over the years I've got over that and will let people see it now. Now I've done the book I hope it will inspire other people to do the same."

The stories in What a Hullabaloo are based on Phillip's own experiences as a youngster, and he says they will also appeal to an older audience. "They're set in a time where there weren't dozens of TV stations and no computer games and we had to make our own fun. They're really about some of the scrapes I got into - I wasn't a bad lad but we did used to mess about.

"There's a bit of nostalgia in there for seasonal games like conkers and how important those times of the year were to us and how much they meant."