Ian is the fourth generation in his family to become a published author, his maternal grandfather, Bernard Capes, and Bernard's sister Harriet Capes, son (Renalt), and uncle (John). His writing began in secondary school, extending into comedy sketches and lyrics for the stage. The catalyst for fiction writing was a story a colleague told him about a bunch of kids riding home on the back of a huge horse, which insisted on walking through a dam! This led to his first book, Scratcher (1987), published by Heinemann. Since then he has written and self-published another fourteen titles. Ian has many years' experience in education, project development and management, media concepts and production, and business and creative writing. He formerly headed TAFE Victoria's curriculum research & development function, and has various publications (including two Australian Country Papers for international UNESCO conferences and the first report into computer based training in Australia). He was one of the group that produced the I am Australian television campaign (Australia’s most successful social marketing campaign), and project managed several other community-oriented initiatives. He is presently Chairman of Greybold Investing Pty Ltd, developing an online mixed reality virtual world to help children’s personal development. Ian is active in his local community. He received a Commonwealth Community Australia Day Award in 2006. He has three adult children and nine grandchildren.