Harry MacLure
was born on the 17th of October, 1959, at Trichinopoly Junction,
a South Indian town once famous for its cigars and the exploits
of Robert Clive.
His father was a railway mail engine driver, so Harry had his
initial schooling at the Railway Anglo-Indian High School at
Golden Rock. Later when his father retired, the family moved
to Madras where he completed his education at
St. Joseph’s.
Harry was still in school when he sold his first short story
to ‘Champak’, a children’s magazine based
in New Delhi. Seeing his name in print for the first time and
getting a cheque from a professional magazine did wonders to
his literary leanings. He started to read anything and everything
on the subject of writing. Soon his stories began appearing
in Indian magazines like Eve’s Weekly, Savvy, Caravan,
Women’s Era, Home Life, Mirror, Junior Statesman and Swarajya.
Harry did a stint with the hospitality industry, working for
the Taj Group in India and the Hyatt chain in the Gulf State
of Kuwait. He also worked as a Copywriter and Art Director at
reputed Ad agencies in Kuwait and in Madras.
He has been entertaining children with his cartoons and comic
books for many years. A self-taught artist, he has retold and
illustrated thirty six favourite fairy tales and twenty four
famous classics. They have been published in India and Malaysia.
One of his comic book characters, Zzapi Nercor, zoomed to popularity,
promoting pizzas to kids in the Indian subcontinent. Created
for the Pizza Corner chain, the adventures of Zzapi gave their
dine-in restaurants a boost in sales.
His script ‘Incident’ was translated into Hindi
and made into a forty-five minute film called ‘Ghatna’
by Harish Tulsulkar in Kuwait in 1989. He has also assisted
writing a screenplay entitled ‘Popcorn’ that was
made into a full-length Tamil movie directed by M. Nazar in
2003.
In 1998, he started Anglos In The Wind, an international
magazine for Anglo-Indians, in conjunction with London-based
publisher Les D’Souza. Edited, designed and printed by
Harry, this magazine has become a household name with Anglo-Indians
who live in India and other parts of the world.
Apart from his daily routine as an editor, writer, illustrator
and cartoonist, Harry runs a small advertising agency. His work
over recent years has included editing, designing and printing
self-published books by authors from India, Australia, Canada
and the US.
Harry is the recipient of The Anglo-Indian Media Award 2001,
from the Anglo-Indian Newsletter, Calcutta. His short stories
Cat and Whose Baby? have been published in
'Voices on the Verandah' – an anthology of Anglo-Indian
Poetry and Prose, by CTR Books, USA. He lives and works in Madras;
he is married to Jillian and they have no children, only two
cats – Punch and Judas.
He is currently working on a novel entitled Nineteen
Forty Heaven – a zany comedy set during the time
of India’s Independence – 1947.
