Jeremy Strong, who has died aged 74 of bone cancer, was the author of some of the funniest contemporary books for children, including two bestselling series, The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog and My Brother’s Famous Bottom. He was also the figurehead of the Booktrust’s Read for My School campaign and a long-term champion of children’s reading. He claimed the ideas for his stories came from what made him laugh rather than from trying to guess what would amuse children, and the books were marketed with the invitation to “Laugh your Socks Off With Jeremy Strong”. They gave simple and boundless fun to readers of all levels.
His first success came with There’s a Viking in My Bed! (1990) which was adapted for television by the BBC. Two more Viking books and other stories followed before his career really took off with The-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog (1995), illustrated by Nick Sharratt, about a boy called Trevor who agrees to look after Streaker the dog in the school holidays, and the increasingly riotous and ludicrous situations that he has to navigate. The Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog was the overall winner of the Children’s Book award in 1997, and was followed by a number of sequels and by a second bestselling series that began with My Brother’s Famous Bottom (2007).
