English born Anthony Eglin, former owner and partner of two award-winning San Francisco advertising agencies, is also author of six mystery novels, including The Blue Rose, winner of the Prix Ars�ne Lupin award, for France's best mystery novel, and The Alcatraz Rose, judged first place in the International Book Awards. With The Larkspur Company, he wrote and directed seven acclaimed and award-winning documentaries featuring British Gardens, Roses and how-to gardening shows. His former Northern California garden was winner of Garden Magazine's Golden Trowel Award for best U.S. Rose Garden. At home, you'll most likely find him in his Sonoma garden. If not, in the kitchen, with his talented wife Suzie, cooking up a gastronomical dish under the officious eye of their cat, Feral Frankie.
"In All I Ever Wanted to Be was An Ad Man, Eglin's memoir, he offers a vivid retrospective of his remarkable journey spanning over five decades. Eglin's narrative resonates with precision and intimacy, from his formative years in war-torn Britain, where he faced bomb attacks, to his diverse array of occupations: competitive cyclist, clarinetist in a London-based, New Orleans-style jazz band, filmmaker, bakery owner, and a gardener. His recollections of childhood antics, the camaraderie among schoolmates, his experiences serving in the Royal Army, and his involvement, as an advertising man and business owner, in efforts like Sam Wanamaker's 1970 campaign to rebuild the epochal Globe Theatre, all come together in a rich tapestry of memories. Eglin recounts discovering the talent for art that would bring him into advertising, marketing, and design as a boy hunkered ""underneath the shelter of our sturdy table,"" awaiting the all clear. Small details, like traveling by Greyhound bus for the first time, strategizing a plan for a newspaper's biggest advertiser, and obsessively researching how to create a hybrid blue rose highlight Eglin's keen eye and curiosity. What sets Eglin's memoir apart is his attention to detail, capturing not only the significant milestones but also the seemingly mundane moments that shaped his journey and the factors that powered his decision making, from accepting job offers to moving to a new country. All I Ever Wanted to Be Was An Ad Man is a testament to a life lived to its fullest potential. -BookLife"