My name is Rupert Davies-Cooke…
I grew up in the 60s when it was common practice for parents to send children to boarding school and for those kids to communicate with their parents by writing letters. When I turned 13, I started to keep a diary. After a couple of years, this turned into a journal. Writing this journal was the moment I discovered the power of a personal narrative. It was the first time I wrote not for a teacher or my parents but for myself.
When I was a teenager, my parents sent me to stay with my grandmother who lived at Owston Hall, an old rambling house in Yorkshire, full of long dark corridors, ancient dusty furniture and family portraits. Lining the walls were oil portraits, drawings, sketches, watercolours, and a photograph of a cowboy leaning against a horse. My grandmother told me it was her father. Five years later, that photograph was the inspiration for a BBC Radio4 documentary. I did not let go of the story. It got me interested in writing and is the inspiration behind The Tenderfoot.
Working on the Tenderfoot inspired me to work in film and television. For ten years, I worked in advertising at EuroRSCG, as a TV producer and video editor. In 1994 I set up Acorn Films specialising in making films for businesses. Then in 2006, I founded The Original Writers Group.
pdcooke.com 