A BESTSELLING Ealing author who fulfilled his dream of writing for Marvel Comics at only 16, returned to his old school to present an award and meet aspiring writers.

Jason Rohan, bestselling author of Japanese Kuromori series of fantasy books and ex-pupil of Alec Reed Academy in Northolt, met pupils and staff and gave a talk about his successes last month.

Six other schools joined the Academy to give presentations on books they had read, Jason presented the winning team with a prize and hosted a special assembly.

The Ealing Times caught up with Jason ahead of the third instalment of his Kuromori trilogy, after The Shield of Kuromori and The Sword of Kuromori, being published next May.

Jason said: “It’s interesting coming back. The school has changed so much! When I was here, between 1980 - 1986, it was called Walford High School!”

Now a dad of five, Jason admits that his literary career is a bigger deal to him that his children, as he’s ‘still dad’ to them.

It will come as no surprise to fans of Jason’s YA novels that he began his distinguished career while still in the classroom, winning a number of prizes for creative writing.

Although he said teaching must have been ‘challenging’ for some staff, he was lucky enough to have ‘excellent and inspirational’ teachers.

“I knew I wanted to become a writer at eight years old, I had a natural flair for English and it was noticed and encouraged by my English teachers,” he said.

“They used to read my work out loud and I used to see the other students laugh.

“My English teacher, Mr Maycock, recognised my potential and made it a personal mission to kick my backside, metaphorically speaking, into gear and he had written professionally before taking up teaching so I knew it wasn’t an impossible dream.”

Staff and pupils were delighted to hear that Jason is still in touch with his old English teacher Mr Maycock, who has also since left the school.

Describing travelling to New York to become an intern for Marvel Comics at just 16, Jason explained how his persistence won him his dream opportunity.

“I wrote them a letter because I knew I’d be in New York after GCSEs and I asked them if I could work for them. Naturally, they ignored me, so I wrote again and said I’d be there in June and if they didn’t want me, write back and tell me,” he said.

“When they ignored me again, I took this as tacit permission to come. It came as a shock to them but they were stuck with me and we worked something out!”

During his time at the iconic comic HQ Jason secured his first professional sale of writing, penning a Captain America story which his editor bought, before moving to Japan for five years to teach his passion – English.

He said: “New York was amazing! As you can imagine, I was 16 and in one of the most exciting and vibrant cities in the world. It was dangerous then, which I think only added to the edge!”

It was in his pre-teen years that his live of comics was born, alongside his creative drive.

“My parents didn’t let me read comics when I was younger, so I didn’t have the chance to outgrow them before my teenage years,” he said.

“When I discovered these fantastic worlds of escapism, I was hooked and wanted to create my own.”

Now as Jason anticipates the publication of his third book which ends the Kuromori trilogy he promises he has plenty of other ideas he is working on.

He said: “Each book has a different theme – however they all have one underlying theme – the common theme for this series is that you can change the world if you believe strongly enough.

“If you can imagine something, you can manifest it physically into the real world.”