Christopher Awdry

Christopher Vere Awdry (born 2 July 1940) is an English author. He is best known for his contributions to The Railway Series of books featuring Thomas the Tank Engine, which was started by his father, Wilbert Awdry (1911–1997). He also produced children's books based on a number of other railways, as well as non-fiction articles and books on heritage railways. He was born at Devizes, the family moving to Kings Norton, Birmingham, when he was five months old. Awdry was educated at Worksop College, a public school in North Nottinghamshire.

Christopher Awdry and The Railway Series Christopher Awdry is in a way responsible for the creation of Thomas and The Railway Series, which started off as bedtime stories told to him by his father during a bout of measles in 1942. When his father retired in 1972, he wrote an additional 16 books for The Railway Series. The series came to be called Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends after that.

In 2006, the current publishers, Egmont Books, decided to reprint the entire series in their original form; the then-14 books by Christopher were re-released at the beginning of August 2007. His favourite character is Toby.

The new interest from the publishers has gone beyond merely re-releasing the existing books. Christopher Awdry has written a new book for the series, titled Thomas and Victoria, which focuses on stories relating to the railway preservation movement. This, the 41st book in the series, was released on 3 September 2007. In April 2010, Egmont Books confirmed that another Railway Series book, No. 42 in the series, would be published in 2011. The publication date was later confirmed as 4 July 2011, and the illustrator as Clive Spong. It was published under the title Thomas and His Friends. This book would become the final book in the Railway Series to be published.

Other works In 2001, Christopher Awdry wrote six stories featured in two books concerning railway safety, which were distributed to every primary school and library in the country (Bad Days for Thomas and His Friends / More Bad Days for Thomas and His Friends). The train operator Virgin Trains produced a colouring book for young passengers based on the stories.

A series of six books has been produced featuring locomotives from the Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway, and illustrated by Marc Vyvyan-Jones.