MELBA’S Malcolm Gerloch wrote his first book at 78.

At the age of 82 and 12 books later he’s completely “hooked”.

Gerloch, mostly a children’s book author, is living proof that you are never too old to try something new.

“Too bloody right you’re not,” Mr Gerloch said.

“And I want to keep writing as long as I can.”

His latest book “Blue” tells the adventures of Flea the cat, and her marmalade-coloured brother Ridden. Accused of stealing jewellery, Flea’s family must prove she’s innocent. Meanwhile, Ridden has gone missing and the family is worried. On the hunt for Ridden, they stumble across a bowerbird nest, could this be the culprit? 

“It’s all fiction, and a bit of fun,” said Mr Gerloch, who has loosely modelled the story on a couple of cats he once owned.

“Most children’s books are a few hundreds words long with lots of pictures, but my books are about 6000 words and the sort of thing that parents and grandparents would read to the kids,” said Gerloch who himself is a grandfather.

“I’ve slipped in a few adult jokes because if you don’t hook the adults you don’t hook the kids.”

Mr Gerloch, a retired quantum chemist, was 78 when his debut book “Bird” was published.

His second book was “Flea”, and his third, “Spike”. Other children’s books about animals followed including, “Zada”, “Bahs”, “Rosie and Co.” and “Chook”, which he wrote with his wife Gwyneth. 

“Three more are yet to come out,” said Mr Gerloch, who’s also written books for adults.

“One is a collection of stories called, ‘Old Harald and Other Stories’, another is ‘A Strange Tale or Three’ and ‘Second Best Luck’ is an autobiography of the things that have happened to us since we’ve been in Australia, and the fact that I’ve had two cancers.”

Mr Gerloch, who also enjoys gardening and cooking, said his autobiography endeavours to assure people that: “When bad things happen, you can survive”.

UK-born Mr Gerloch, moved to Canberra 22 years ago, after retiring from a career as academic and research scientist in the field of quantum chemistry at the University of Cambridge. 

He always wanted to write but said: “By the time I got to 65 I thought I’m too old and I can’t start a new career, so I forgot about it.”

Ten years later, after writing a paper on something that had been “nagging” him scientifically, he decided he wanted to write more.

“I could live without the science part, but the writing part was what I enjoyed,” Gerloch said.

“So, I did what every man and his dog has done and wrote a family history. “Then I thought maybe I could write a book, and that’s when I wrote Bird.”

“Bird” is about a currawong who strikes up an unusual friendship with a cat.

“That novel was partially true but, of course, the conversations between the cat and the bird were pure imagination,” Gerloch said.

“Then I imagined that that cat had offspring, which were called Flea and Ridden, and the currawong and his missus gave birth to kids called Coo and Ee,” Mr Gerloch chuckled.

“The stories developed from there.”

Having dedicated much of his life to science, he said he has his wife Gwyneth to thank for introducing him to the world of non-scientific literature.

“Upon retirement I thought I should start reading and she pushed me towards 19th century English literature,” Mr Gerloch said.

“I fell in love with it.”

Canberra is something else that – over time – he has grown to love.

“I never thought much of it at first,” Mr Gerloch said.

“But when I came out in 1997 to do some research at the Australian National University during a Canberra winter, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. It was just beautiful, it’s been a great place to retire.”

Having caught the writing bug later-in-life, Mr Gerloch said he’s in a “hurry” to write more. 

“I want to keep up the books,” he said.

“I see my doctors regularly and my favourite line to tell them is that I intend to be around for the next 20 years and it’s their job to see that I am.”

“Blue” is published by Pegasus and is available to buy from most good bookstore websites.