Ian Sugarman was a primary school teacher before he began to specialise in maths. He believed that teaching maths should not only be challenging but also fun, and devised lots of practical games and puzzle activities that became popular in his home county of Shropshire and beyond. Some of these activities later became incorporated into NumberGym, a software package for schools.More recently, he has become a volunteer reader in a local primary school, as well as a grandparent. He likes the idea that stories can open up alternative worlds to their readers.