I was born in East Cannington, Western Australia, then at 7 years of age my family moved to the Perth inner suburb of Leederville where I finished primary school, then went to Perth Boys High.In 1958, at 14 years-of-age, I started work at West Australian Newspapers and was a copyboy for two years while mingling and listening to the likes of renowned journalists Frank Devine, Kirwan Ward, Hugh Edwards, Mike Willesee and John Cornell. I then completed a five-year apprenticeship as a Compositor and at the same time wrote some feature stories for the company’s Saturday edition of the “Weekend News” newspaper. After becoming a tradesman, I moved into the Advertising Sales Department for the company’s week-day newspaper, the Daily News. Two years later, WAN transferred me to their Sydney office as branch manager. The strategy was to serve three years in Sydney to gain experience, then return to Head Office. I decided to resign while in Sydney and commence my own businesses. The first was a sandwich shop in North Sydney, next a supermarket in Drummoyne then a Detergent manufacturing company which supplied all the major retailers with my branded and some of their generic home brand products. I retired and travelled around NSW in a campervan, then after obtaining a job as a breakfast cook at a local resort in Kununurra which is situated in the remote far north of Western Australia, I drove from Sydney (over 4000 klms) where I worked that job for a year. I then applied and became the weekend cook at the local Kununurra Aboriginal Hostel, operated by AHL (a division of the commonwealth government) which I absolutely loved doing. The kids were marvellous and loved my cooking, especially the very-hard-to-make-ice cream which came straight from the tub!Mainly because of my business workload, my literary aspirations were put on the back burner until I’d well and truly retired. My literary experience began with working for the newspaper and writing some feature stories for their editions. I have now written five books, the last being for kids 8 years and over and is called, “Momento Has Friends!”. My first novel is titled “Sturdy Stuff: Unchained!”, followed by “Benjamin: Unleashed!” then its sequel “Benjamin: Precious Water!” and then came “Enemy On Our Shores…. but!”. Being an old bastard, I have lots of experience and heaps of memories that gives my imagination plenty of scope. Yours Sincerely, PHILLIP H. BENGERRead more about this authorRead less about this author