Christopher Awdry

Christopher Awdry, born 1940, is the son of Wilbert and Margaret Awdry, the nephew of George Awdry, brother of Veronica and Hilary, and father of Richard Awdry. He has written sixteen books of the Railway Series and many other spin-offs.

Life with Thomas
The first few stories of the Railway Series were created for a two and a half year old Christopher when he was sick with measles. He was later to revive the series by taking over from his father, the Reverend W. Awdry.

Ironically, his stories, too, started out as bedtime stories for his son, Richard, which he submitted to his father for a look at. Wilbert thought them good enough for publication and suggested that he send them off to Kaye and Ward to see what they thought.

Kaye and Ward were very keen with what they saw when Christopher's manuscript for Really Useful Engines landed on their desk. The endearing stories were back and Christopher played a very active part in Thomas for many years. He was even asked by Britt Allcroft to produce a few stories for the second series of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, due to a clause in the agreement that stated that all stories put to film must be in print form first.

Not only this, Christopher was also the writer for many of the yearly "Thomas" annual stories from 1985 onward. Christopher went on to produce fourteen titles of the Railway Series.

His involvement in Thomas since both the sale of the copyright and death of his father in 1997 has been largely limited, and not through his own choice, but that of the copyright holders. For a while Christopher was found to be touring promoting the real "Thomas" books, and appearing at many different events and writing new Railway-centred material on his own publishing group, Sodor Enterprises, which he ran with his wife Diana.

In 2007, Christopher's first Railway Series volume for over ten years was published - Thomas and Victoria - and the Awdry family opened their own online shop for selling Thomas-related merchandise, both Awdry and television series related. The shop, however, has been offline for quite some time and is believed to be defunct.

He has recently been interviewed on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio Devon, and BBC Radio Shropshire for Thomas' 65th Anniversary. He was also interviewed on ITV Wales News for his father's 100th birthday and just recently on BBC Radio Solent promoting book 42.