Sean McDerby

Sean McDerby is an Author/Writer based in the North West of England. He is soon set to release his first children's novel, which is part of a series following the life of young Freddie McIntyre, right from the week before he starts school at Littletown Primary, up to him debating University and all ages, adventures, ups and downs, and every emotion that comes with it all along the way. 

About Sean The Author

From as young as Sean can remember, books have always been a part of Sean's life. Sean's parents, Nan and Aunties used to read him books by his favourite childhood author  Roald Dahl among many others over his younger years. He must have read or had read to him, The BFG far too many times to put a definitive number on.

Sean spent his teenage years being "easily distracted" in school (according to most of his teachers), which is clearly down to his social character and the fact that he's interested in people. During these teenage years Sean was active in different speech and drama groups/schools and performed in several productions both in and outside of school which gave him a real passion for being on stage.

Unfortunately (in some ways) as Sean hit his late teens he became 'cool' (or so he thought) and stepped away from acting and drama to be 'one of the lads' and eventually at the age of 16 started working in hospitality whilst still at 6th Form College studying Business. 

Hospitality and Catering would then take over his life for the next around 20 years but it did make him the person he is today. He travelled all over the country with spells away from his home town of Southport living in St. Helen's, Kent and Carlisle and also several spells living in Cyprus on the far side of the Mediterranean. Hospitality led him to meet the mother's of his two boys. The boys are 11 years apart in age but are both equally amazing and inspiring in their own ways and are partly the inspiration for the Freddie book series. 

As well as working in hospitality Sean worked for almost 10 years in a high street bank working all manner of roles and it was whilst working in the bank that the roots of creating the Freddie series started to sprout (even though Freddie the character was not a 'thing' at that point). 

Inspirations for the 'Freddie' Series of Books

Sean would see all manner of customers come to him for help in the bank and he quickly realised that many people were looking for help with debts and banking issues rather than thriving and looking for places to invest their thousands. 

Sean asked himself why and how are so many people literally struggling to pay bills or even worse struggling to buy food due to crippling debts?? How have so many people (including Sean himself many times over the years), been stuck in such deep and desperate holes where they feel there is little or no way to get out?

After having people of all different ages come to him for help, some in floods of tears, Sean decided to try to work out where the problem stems from?

It didn't actually take him long to realise and it kept coming back to one word... Education or more the lack of education around money, the value of money and life in general as at school you do not get taught these things specifically. Kids think "money grows on trees" to quote Sean's late but great father. 

Sean thought that he would go a step or two further in bringing education into his children's book series by also bringing into focus the thoughts, feelings and emotions young people (and adults) experience at different points during their lives. Things like, the worry and anxiousness young people feel before starting school for the first time, the nerves they and their parents have about them performing at their first school play and then sitting in the audience sobbing proud tears as they watch their little legends living their best lives. There's plenty of happy and sad times along the way following Freddie, his friends and family along the journey from summer holidays to his first day in reception class, through early years and into the final stages of primary school, to the worry of wondering which secondary school they will end up at (will they be with their friends etc.) to sitting those dreaded exams, parents having 'the talk' with Freddie and his friends the first time girlfriends or partners come to stay over and the college years and then onto eventually learning about money, rents/mortgages and how not to get into an almost endless cycle of debt from a young age. 

There are plenty of fun and imaginative adventures as Freddie finds his own way through life and Freddie is excited to take you all along for the ride of his life!

A Brief About the Series

The Freddie series of books are a colourful depiction of Freddies life story in his early to adolescent years, and are deliberately designed to engage both the young people who read the book and any adults, be that a parent, grandparent, carer, guardian or maybe even older brother or sister reading to a younger sibling. 

They engage through questions which encourage conversations that family members may not always have time to have throughout busy days at work, school, after school or weekend activities or college. The questions asked and information communicated from the book series will help young people and adults alike to potentially learn things about each other and things throughout day to day life that they may not have known before.

Throughout the series you will find that real life events, celebrations, issues and most importantly emotions and feelings are addressed, which hopefully will lead to conversations which prompt young people to talk about how they are feeling when they may not ordinarily feel comfortable seeking out people to relay their thoughts, feelings and emotions too. 

The books cover all manner of subjects which encourage diversity and inclusion and right from the get go try to breakdown the stigma's relating to disability, medical conditions, mental health, diagnosis including ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) and many more. They encourage discussions regarding race, religion and in the later books aimed at an older audience for teenagers and young adults, subjects such as mental health are covered more deeply, social media pressures/risks, sex, addiction and many more personal and social issues that most people will come into contact with during the younger years of their life. 

I can almost guarantee that there will be at least one character within the series that each reader both adult and young person will be able to relate to as they follow Freddie and all of the people he comes into contact with along the way. 

Thanks for taking the time to read about me, my background and my inspirations for creating this series, maybe one day these stories will come to life on a bigger screen, who knows, watch this space. 

For now I wish you good health, wealth, happiness and happy reading!!

Sean McDerby