Norman McGreevy was brought up and educated in Glasgow, Scotland. He lived quietly in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and a small menagerie. For a number of years Norman worked with universities, corporations and government agencies, writing, designing and delivering information technology training and communication for groups of often bewildered executives. He tried to combine his passion for relaxation and walking, but with limited success.

Norman’s first book, Mr McGreevy’s Absolute Howlers was published in 2006 by Allen & Unwin and in 2007 in the UK by Constable & Robinson under the title Must Try Harder. A collection of schoolchildren’s grammatical and spelling howlers, it has sold over 30,000 copies.

A second volume was published by Constable & Robinson in 2010. It is entitled Could Do Better and is a brilliantly entertaining book that unearths the children’s mangled attempts to get to grips with the English language – from surreal spelling errors and grammatical catastrophes to cringeworthy malapropisms, Could Do Better has the lot.

“An octopus is a person who hopes for the best”.

“Rhetoric is a form of arithmetic”.

“Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark. He built an ark which the animals came on to in pears”.

Very sadly, Norman McGreevy died in September 2017.