Hello, my name is Jeremy… My first school was Light Oaks Primary in Salford, near Manchester in the North of England Today, all of those world’s have collided. I work for the largest computing company in the and I loved it. I remember 1977 with fond memories. I was 5 years old and the highlight of world and I spend my days trying to understand how stories work by taking them to pieces. each week was receiving the Mr. Chatterbox badge from my teacher Mrs. Dodd. I wore my The stories I work on may have more to do with AI, quantum computing or the climate badge with pride and saw it as a badge of honour. crisis than they have to do with snakes, but my obsession with story hasn’t faded. I don’t need to sneak into the back of lectures with famous authors anymore, but I haven't Mrs. Dodd did not. stopped trying to figure out why some stories work and some don’t. And when a famous astronaut taught me the concept of accelerated learning by putting all my thoughts onto Apparently, I was pretty disruptive as a child because I wouldn’t stop talking during class. I one big sheet of paper, I knew that one pagers were always destined to be my thing. was supposed to wear the badge as a sign of my punishment, even though my only misdemeanour was asking “Why?” more than the average child. I just wanted to know the This book is a short collection of my one pagers, based on a few of the stories that I’ve background to every story that Mrs. Dodd read to us in “story corner” each day. Forty three enjoyed taking to pieces and some of the things I’ve learned from deconstructing them. years later and not much has changed… So here we are. Each of these one pagers were done in one sitting. In one draft. With no I’m still disruptive. edits. In about 4 hours. Usually with very little planning. And often with my 4 year old twins I still want to know why stories work. Petra and Mathilda helping me to colour them in. Many of them are not neat, mostly The only difference is that today I get rewarded for talking too much. because I never intended to publish them, so please just take them at face value. I always (I don’t get a badge but my pocket money is better). think it’s fun too look through other people’s notebooks, so maybe you’ll enjoy flicking through mine. I hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I have enjoyed creating When I was growing up my friends took computers to pieces to see how they worked. I was them. Maybe they’ll encouraging you to create your own one pagers, but even more, I always fascinated with PC’s from the moment I received a Commodore VIC 20 for Christmas hope that they inspire you to become more obsessed with stories and how they work. in 1981. I enjoyed writing games for my computer with a copy of PC World and Bill Gates’ BASIC programming language, but unlike my friends I wasn’t as interested in studying it’s Because after all, I believe that we really can change the world just by sharing our stories… circuits. While my friends were dreaming about processors, gates and memory expansion packs for their ZX Spectrum’s and BBC Model B’s, I was writing stories about snakes! I remember being particularly proud of a series of adventures about an Emerald Boa Constrictor called Emma. At the weekends my friends would go to computer clubs and steal the newest games from our local WH Smith, but I was guilty of a different crime. I spent my weekends sneaking into my grandad’s writing seminars, where his publishing company was teaching aspiring authors how to write short stories and get published. In the 1980’s I worked at my dad’s printing company to earn some extra cash during the school holidays. This was where I discovered the joys of SRA2-sized paper. Much larger than anything I’d ever been allowed to draw on in school, these industrial sized sheets of paper for the printing presses were over 2 feet long! (640 x 450 mm). I loved having huge sheets of paper to draw on because they allowed my imagination run wild and not be contained within the limitations of an A4 sheet or a small notebook.