Feb 28

Feb 28 Peter Wunderlich

Author Peter Wunderlich

Biography

I was born in 1956 and lived in a caravan with my parents, brother and sister. We had to move because of my poor health and were housed in a council house in Halesowen West Midlands, where my second sister was born.

I didn’t have a very good education and to be honest, I was not very bright. So I left school at fifteen and went to work as a bricklayers labourer. From there I got myself a bricklaying apprenticeship and went to college one day a week.

Most of my working life has been in construction, but I have done other, more exciting things.

In the early eighties I wrote, produced, directed and played the lead role in a musical called ‘Time Stages.’ I was helped by a lot of wonderful people, who gave their time for free and not one of them had ever been involved with the theatre. My sister Mandy had a lead role and my brother John helped me with some of the songs. The show was put on at a local school theatre and quite a few people actually paid to see it.

In the same decade, I went out to Indonesia for a year with Voluntary Services Overseas, which was an amazing experience. I then went on to spend a year in Orange County California. That certainly opened my eyes to how the other half live.

I also spent two weeks in Zambia as a volunteer, building accommodation for children who either had AIDS or had lost their parents due to that awful disease. I came home emotionally wrecked and realised how fortunate we are.

As for books, well the first book I remember reading all the way through was ‘Skinhead.’ It was a few more years before I picked up another book and man was I hungry for the written word from then on, and still am.

I wrote my first story in 1975 and now in 2022 I am being published. There were many times, after dozens and dozens of rejections that I felt like giving up. But I couldn’t because I love writing so much.

What else do I do beside write. Well, I love running and have taken part in full marathons, half marathons and 10k’s. Sometimes for charity, but mostly for fun.

Another big pleasure of mine, is listening to the amazing songs my son Josh writes and performs and going to watch the awesome ‘Punch The Sky’ a band my son is in.

There’s a lot more I could say, especially about the ‘fads’ I have been involved in, but that’s for another book in the future.