The author of "The Boy Who Kicked Pigs", Tom Baker, is best known for his portrayal of the fourth Doctor Who on BBC Television. He came to acting by an unusual route, having spent most of his teenage years in a monastery, then leaving to serve his National Service in the Army Medical Corps where he discovered his talent as an entertainer. After a couple of years at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, he set out on a long career in West End theatre, feature films and television.

Tom wrote his autobiography, “Who on Earth is Tom Baker” in 1997 (published by Harper Collins), revealing his love of telling a good story, his taste for black comedy and his desire to make people laugh.

In 1999, he went on to write “The Boy Who Kicked Pigs”, published by Faber and Faber. It is a short, gruesome, but hilariously funny story about the fate of a boy with a habit of kicking pigs who causes havoc in the community around him.

The book was illustrated by David Roberts whose black ink sketches reflect the bizarre world of Robert Caligari, the boy antihero of the story. Some of these illustrations feature in this download.

To date, “The Boy Who Kicked Pigs” is Tom’s only published work apart from his autobiography. It remains in print and was published in a number of different forms – from presentation hardback to paperback – and has been translated into 8 other languages – including Chinese!