Veteran graduate finds new career as children's book author in Asia

Roger has maintained close contact with the institution where he graduated with a teaching degree in 1968 from what was then Brighton School of Education – going on to have multiple careers in teaching, IT and international business. This inspired a previous book published in 2013, called Creating the Entrepreneurial Mindset.

Roger's view of achieving success stresses the importance of creativity – he cites Einstein’s quote that creativity is “intelligence having fun” - and he has now expressed that idea in the unexpected shape of a children's story called The Secret Mission of the Malaysian Squirrel, which he began to write during a spell under lockdown in Malaysia.

Written under the pseudonym August Moon, the story follows a Malaysian squirrel called Shaari on a 6,500 mile mission across Asia and Europe, in which we meet a host of local animals that help him along the way, as well as discovering facts about the many countries he travels through.

Roger Cowdrey and his book The Secret Mission of the Malaysian Squirrel

Roger said: “It is never too late to start another career! My original story was a simple two pager for my granddaughter - but it steadily grew to eighteen chapters. Using the name August Moon came about as I suppose I was a bit shy about writing a children’s book... The choice of name was because my granddaughter came to visit one year in August and we used to go to the terrace each night to say goodnight to the moon. The moon plays a big part in the book and appears in every chapter – and the squirrel at the end of the mission is also named after my granddaughter.

“The first publisher I approached snapped it up. The contract also required that they had first refusal on other books in the series! So now book two is underway and book three is planned. The books involve travelling across various countries and are all factually correct.”

In 2019, Roger also received the university's Alumnus of the Year award, and he continues to provide generous support to fund the Roger Cowdrey Entrepreneurship in the Arts Breakthrough Award - a £500 annual prize to celebrate and reward the most entrepreneurial ideas developed by the university's arts students.