As a child, British author, performer and poet, Nathan Penlington became obsessed with the series of Choose Your Own Adventure books. Years later when he discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid.
What he found intrigued him. In the margins of each book were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them. He wrote jokes and hints for adventurers following the same stories as him. More troubling, among the notes were intimations of a tormented childhood. Nathan decided he had to find that boy.
He has written about his quest in his new book, The Boy in the Book (published by Hachette New Zealand) as te tells Lynn Freeman during Nine to Noon.
