Pip Burley was born and educated in Croydon and left Whitgift School in 1962. He subsequently went on to study graphic design at the London College of Printing, now the University ...view morePip Burley was born and educated in Croydon and left Whitgift School in 1962. He subsequently went on to study graphic design at the London College of Printing, now the University of the Arts, at the Elephant and Castle. He was a self-taught pianist from the age of four and, although destined to be an engineer, a late change of heart led him to a career spanning music, marketing, advertising, publishing and broadcasting. He has founded three companies including most recently Excelsior, best known for its television dramas The Darling Buds Of May and A Touch Of Frost starring David Jason and My Uncle Silas with Albert Finney.As a writer, director and producer he has been active in the theatre, particularly as Festival Director for the National Trust at Polesden Lacey, and has produced at the Edinburgh Festival. He has written and directed four plays as well as the stage adaptation of The Slipper and the Rose which has been performed all over the world. In 1992 he composed the theme music for The Darling Buds Of May for which he received an Ivor Novello Award. His first book, written under the name of Philip Walsh, "Views from the Back of a Taxi", was published in 2007.Pip has been involved with Variety the Children’s Charity, formerly the Variety Club of Great Britain, since 1995 and was Chief Barker in 1999, the charity’s 50th Anniversary year. He lives in Surrey and has been married for more than forty years. He has three daughters and eight grandchildren.view less