Christopher Awdry
'The Railway Series Boy'
Christopher Awdry was the boy who the stories were created for, and the man who chose to revive the Railway Series by taking over from his father.
Ironically his stories too started out as bedtime stories for his son, Richard, which he submitted to his father for a look at. Wilbert thought them good enough for publication and suggested that he send them off to Kaye and Ward to see what they thought.
Kaye and Ward were very keen with what they saw when Christopher's manuscript for REALLY USEFUL ENGINES landed on their desk. The endearing stories were back and Christopher played a very active part in Thomas for many years. He was even asked by Britt Allcroft to produce a few stories for the second series of Thomas, due to a clause in the agreement that stated that all stories put to film, must be in print form first.
Not only this, but he was also the writer for many of the yearly Thomas Annual stories from 1984 onward. Christopher went on to produce 14 titles of the Railway Series, ending with the 40th and intending for a 41st to be produced the following year, which still hasn't happened. His involvement in Thomas since both the sale of the copyright and death of his father in 1997 has been largely limited, and not through his own choice, but that of the copyright holders.
For a while Christopher was found to be touring promoting the REAL Thomas books, and appearing at many different events and writing new Railway centred material on his own publishing group, SODOR ENTERPRISES which he ran with his then wife, Diana. In 2007, Christopher's first Railway Series volume for over ten years was published - Thomas and Victoria, and the Awdry family now have their own online shop for selling Thomas related merchandise both Awdry and TV series related.