Creator of The Goldsmiths, University of London, Creative Arts AwardsWhat influenced you in deciding what to do in life? Perhaps you have a particular talent, or you always knew what you wanted to do. For my part, I was strongly influenced by reading two novels when I was young. Murder Must Advertise – Dorothy L. Sayers’ murder mystery – and Eric Hodgins’, Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House. Both the main characters in these two books are advertising copywriters. But what appealed to me was that Lord Peter Wimsey, Dorothy Sayers creation, spent most of his time solving murders while Blandings’ time seemed to be spent organising the building of his house. Neither of them stretched themselves unduly in their day jobs, and yet both were paid shedloads of money just to come up with the odd advertising slogan. That sounded good. Not too much work but plenty of cash.Having spent many years working in international advertising agencies let me say that I couldn’t have been more wrong in my early assessment of how easy it is. However, I was lucky to have some quite brilliant mentors. People who had worked on classic campaigns for Guinness and Coca Cola and Martini and so on. It hasn’t all been flashy stuff though. Much of my time has been spent selling products off the page and through the mail for some of the big mail order companies. It’s good to see what you’ve contributed to when it appears on TV, but much more rewarding to count the money coming in from an advertisement you’ve written for the Sunday Times. But the biggest contributor to my understanding of what makes people tick and how to influence them came from the years spent as marketing director at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The most amazing, incredible, outrageous, exciting company I have ever been involved with. Last few years have been spent writing distance learning and promotional material on a myriad of products – medicines, antibiotics and vaccines – for the pharma industry such as GSK and Roche.Brian Sharp› Visit Amazon's Brian Sharp PageSupporting Friends of Conservation http://www.foc-uk.com/Editor: GlaxoSmithKline Diseases of the Developing World. Author: In these Eyes; Jungle Magic; Direct Response Advertising and Mail Order (Royal Mail)Creator of the Goldsmiths University of London Creative Arts AwardsFormer Marketing Director Encyclopaedia Britannica Head of European Direct Marketing at McCann Erickson Advertising Agency