Adrian Jacobs’ work “The Adventures of Willy The Wizard” was well received when it
was sent around in manuscript form by his literary agent to potential publishers
in 1987.
Publishers were enthusiastic about his ideas, including:
i. The Year of Wizards’ Contests - the central theme of The Adventures of Willy the
Wizard
ii. stories and reminiscences of wizards college
iii. parallel worlds of real places and wizard magic
iv. wizard trains where Wizard Chess is played
v. the theme of alcohol brewing villages
vi. gambling wizards
vii. wizards prison
viii. wizards needing to earn money
ix. the central character of an empowered child wizard
x. Wizard special Hospitals
However his literary agent advised him that the work needed some re-writing and was
densely packed with themes and ideas that needed expansion and development.
Adrian Jacobs was impatient to publish and not wishing to re-write , Adrian commissioned
an illustrator- Nick Tidnam RBA and retained him to illustrate the manuscript. Cecil
Turner of Bachman Turner published the book in October 1987. Some 5000 copies were
printed. Adrian sent a large number of copies of the highly colourful finished book
to his literary agent. Adrian Jacobs visited several schools and read extracts from
AWTW. The book was reviewed in papers including the Daily Express.
Adrian wrote a sequel- Holiday Antics, which was passed as a manuscript to his literary
agent but never published. Here on the website we include for your pleasure some
of the visionary themes from Adrian Jacobs’ Holiday Antics manuscript. (©1987 ©2008)
