 His first piece of work was a 250,000 word story about polar bears for his wife, Jay, to accompany a stuffed polar bear he had bought her as a Christmas present.He didn't write another story for seven years, until he heard about a competition to write a story for young children with a prize of £2,000.The resulting book, "A Hole at the Pole", also about polar bears, didn't win – but he sent it off to a publisher, who accepted it.