Tony Park’s 17 African thrillers are international

best-sellers wrapping high octane action set against a background of safari

park politics and wild life protection.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler . Tony gives the true story of the undiscovered  Australian who’s a key protagonist in his latest book, Ghosts of the Past, and talks about living his dream life, split time between Australia and South Africa. 

Six things you’ll learn from this

Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The importance of 'living your dream'Splitting time betrween Australia and South AfricaThe unknown hero he'd like to see recognised Tony's work with Veterans For WildlifeThe looming crisis in animal and plant protectionTips for safari seekers

Where to find Tony Park:

Website: www.tonypark.net

Facebook:  @TonyParkAuthor

 Twitter: @TonyParkAuthor

Instagram: @TonyParkAuthor

What follows is a "near

as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to

it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: But now,

here's Tony. Hello there, Tony, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you

with us.

Tony: It's great

to be here. And thank you for having me.

Jenny: You've had a  long career as a journalist, a very full career. But was there a Once Upon a Time moment when you thought you really did want to write fiction rather than just the non-fiction that you were doing?

Tony Park - International thriller author

Tony: Yes, Jenny, I think it goes way back, even before I started working, before I went to school. I think I knew from the time I was a very small boy, when my Mom got me reading at a very early age.  I fully believe it's the best gift a parent or grandparent, too, can give to a little kid.It's a love of books and a love of reading.

I knew from probably the time I started reading that what I wanted to do in life was  write a book. I mean, my Mom would 'park' me in the Municipal Library, probably sit there for after- school-care unattended, and I'd walk around looking at all these books in the little town where I grew up.

 I thought 'someone

must be writing all these books and I would like to be one of those people.' So

I knew from the time I was a very small boy, if ever anyone asked me what I

wanted to do when I grew up, I would say I wanted to write a book. And

particularly, I wanted to write fiction.

Love of reading nurtured

Jenny: And was

that in rural Australia somewhere?

Tony: I was in the western suburbs of Australia, in Campbelltown. Interestingly, I was actually born in New Zealand. I'm from an Aussie mum and  a Welsh dad but  I came to Australia - back to my mum's country - when I was about three or four years old.

And so I grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. It was a pretty basic existence. We weren't particularly well off. The town was on the outskirts of Sydney, and it had a very small library. It's one of those things where when you're a little kid, it seems big. I went back out there and they've got a very big new library now.

But I went to the building where it originally was, and it's

probably not much bigger than the average lounge room. Yes, that was where I

remember spending a lot of time. We were always getting books out of the

library. Always. And I was reading - 

reading Biggles books when I was a little boy.