Walking in the Air: Aled Jones on the Christmas song that changed his life

It's the soundtrack of our Christmas - but how does Aled Jones feel when he hears Walking in the Air on a loop each December? 

Aled Jones: has maintained a lifelong love of music.

It is very fitting that the boy in Bobby Dean Saves Christmas realises he has magical powers when he sings, but Aled Jones, famous for his own singing particularly when he was young (he joined the choir of Bangor Cathedral at age nine, quickly becoming a lead soloist before a certain song catapulted him into the public domain), insists he isn’t based on himself. “I had the idea about this boy who sang when he got nervous or scared. And it's not me really, it's probably more my son he’s based on as he had a lovely voice when he was younger,” said Aled of the book’s main character.

“But music has always been in our house especially with the kids growing up (Aled has two children) and during lockdown all my live concerts went out the window. And I’d written a book last year called Blessings for Hodder and said to my editor that I had an idea that I'd like to write this story about this boy who had been homeschooled for first of nine years of his life, and then decides he wants to go to school to make friends – and that’s how it all started.”