Johnny Ball speaks to Slough Writers

Johnny with a volume of the encyclopedia that inspired him as a child.

Johnny Ball has been entertaining for 60 years. 12 in Stand Up, 51 in TV, 38 in education. They overlap! He is not 101!

In a wide-ranging talk Johnny described his varied life and career. Aero engineer, Butlin’s redcoat, civil servant, drummer, radio comic, TV presenter and personality, author, mathematician, educator, writer and producer of educational roadshows, musicals and latterly a poet, Johnny’s c.v. is truly remarkable.

The message Johnny gave to the group concerned the power of writing. Early on in his career he realised that having control over one’s material made everything else more fulfilling and rewarding. He mentioned encouraging the daughter of a friend, an aspiring actor, to write. He explained that being a writer gave any performer a great insight into the intent behind the material he or she was interpreting.

While Johnny is a great advocate of the benefits of writing, his career has been far from plain sailing. Illness meant that his education was disrupted, causing him to leave school with only two ‘O’ levels. Despite these setbacks his powerful, natural drive made him an autodidact, spending hours in libraries absorbing facts from encyclopaedias, facts that he retains to this day. Johnny educated himself before helping countless thousands to improve and widen their own learning. He has never been one to accept the word, ‘can’t’.

You would think, given Johnny’s fascinating, varied and successful life, he would make a great subject for an autobiography. Well, he has written one (actually two).

The irony? He has not yet been able to find a publisher for them!

The Slough Writers audience with Johnny Ball