Did you know that Julian had written a book?

Well he has!

It’s called Drunk Bird and it was written in Australia in 2019 with granddaughters Sophie and Zara.

Here’s the man himself to explain how Drunk Bird came into being…

I wrote Drunk Bird with my two  granddaughters in 2019. They live in Australia; we were out there visiting and we all got confined to the house because of the acrid smoke from bush fires.

So, to entertain ourselves,  we started scribbling stories and drawing pictures and my eldest granddaughter Sophie, who at the time was 8, was full of knowledge.

She told me a true story about a koala who lived in a eucalyptus tree and munched away at the leaves – and all the alcohol in his tummy made him drunk, to the point where he fell out of the tree!

So we started imagining what would happen if a flock of birds lived in the tree – they’d have a party! So Drunk Bird was born.

I took it over and I wrote the details – all the characters – while Sophie and Zara contributed their sketches, which can be seen in the book.

The professional sketches are done by a Russian author whom I found on Fivrr.

Some of the characters come from real life – Gee Wizz is Jackie’s late father. Gee Wizz  was his nickname. The little Scottie dog, Haggis, is based on my daughter’s dog Hamish. He saved two of the kids one day when he killed a snake in the garden!

Phil, who helped me edit the book, is Jackie’s nephew.

The beautifully illustrated story of Drunk Bird is available to buy from Julian’s Restaurant for just £7.