Author Peter Millett

I'm children's author Peter Millett. I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and my descendants came from Cornwall, United Kingdom. Our Millett family home in Penzance featured secret smuggler's tunnels and a distant link to King Henry VIII.
My great-grandfather migrated to NZ and became a lighthouse keeper and a sulfur miner on a volcano
I live with my family in a bay across the sea from a volcano called Rangitoto. Hopefully it won't erupt anytime soon!

I was inspired to write children's stories after hearing my teacher read Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our primary school class in 1977. It was an amazing experience and all of the characters felt lifelike.

I also found inspiration from reading the brilliant poems written by comedian Pam Ayers. Her funny poem I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth made me laugh out loud every time I read it.

One of my favourite pastimes as a child was reading the hilarious Krazy Comics published by IPC. These comics were filled with hidden jokes, pranking tips, pop culture parodies and they had the coolest fake covers ever so I could safely sneak them into my school!

The single biggest influence on my decision to become an author was listening to Spike Milligan's zany audio story Bad Jelly the Witch on the radio. It was outrageous, wild and anarchic and I couldn't believe that an adult could write such silly nonsense and get away with it. It was a dream come true to be able to work on a collection of own funny audio stories many years later.

When I was at middle school I unexpectedly transformed into a giant. I was six feet tall by the age of 12 years and taller than my teachers and our headmaster. This made my love of playing pranks extremely difficult to pull off as people could always spot me in a crowd.

At school I played a lot of football and my favourite player to watch at the time was Glenn Hoddle. My favourite modern day player is Gareth Bale

Outside of watching football, one of my most creative hobbies is producing animated videos. I find it super interesting and I'm able to blend my love of storytelling and technology to help produce videos like The Kiwi Go Marching One by One

My wife Ruth is a primary school teacher and she has helped me create many of my children's stories. She is one of the funniest and cleverest people I know and a lot of her jokes and ideas are included in my books. If you look closely at the publisher's notes in my stories you'll often see my dedications to Ruth in them.

I love writing kid's books that the whole family can enjoy reading and listening to together. My number one goal is to help make reading and writing a rewarding and fun-filled pastime for kids worldwide.

Thanks for dropping by my website!

All the best.

Pete