My friend Tony Mitton, the popular and prolific children’s writer, has died of leukaemia at the age of 71.
He was born in Tripoli, Libya, to Stanley, a professional soldier who had risen from private to the rank of major, and Peggy (nee Locke). Stanley was stationed in Malta, and the life of a military family took Tony to Germany and Hong Kong. In 1959, Stanley left the army and the family settled in England. In 1961, owing to his mother’s poor health, he and his brother, Bernard, boarded at Woolverstone Hall state grammar school in Suffolk, where Tony was happy and became head boy.
