Pip Burley has built a wide-ranging career across television, theatre, music, advertising, marketing, writing and broadcasting, after a late change of direction took him away from an expected career in engineering. He founded Excelsior, the production company best known for the television dramas ‘The Darling Buds of May’, starring David Jason and launching the career of Catherine Zeta-Jones; ‘A Touch of Frost’, also starring David Jason; and ‘My Uncle Silas’, starring Albert Finney.
As a writer, director and producer, Pip has worked extensively in theatre. He served as Artistic and Festival Director for the National Trust at Polesden Lacey, produced work at the Edinburgh Festival, and has written and directed four plays. He also created the stage adaptation of ‘The Slipper and the Rose’, which has been performed internationally. A self-taught pianist from the age of four, he composed much of the music for ‘The Darling Buds of May’ in 1992, including the theme tune for which he received an Ivor Novello Award.
His first book, ‘Views from the Back of a Taxi’, was published in 2007, followed by his semi-autobiographical ‘Briefest Encounters’ in 2016. ‘Go Harmony’ is the third novel in the Harmony Legacy series, written under the pen name Philip G Walsh. Pip has been involved with Variety, the Children’s Charity, formerly the Variety Club of Great Britain, since 1990, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. He lives in Surrey with his wife and has three daughters.
Philip Walsh
Why I wrote the Harmony's Legacy series
I have always enjoyed setting myself challenges, each one a little more ambitious than the last. Writing a trilogy of novels proved to be one of the most demanding projects I have ever undertaken - certainly among the most difficult, but also among the most rewarding.
The idea began with a chance encounter during a family holiday in Spain. From that small spark, my imagination carried me on a remarkable journey. Characters appeared, relationships developed, mysteries unfolded, and plot twists emerged, often taking me by surprise as much as they will, I hope, surprise the reader.
As the father of three wonderful daughters, I have spent the last thirty years watching them grow from children into accomplished and independent women. Those experiences inevitably influenced the creation of Harmony Nader. We first meet Harmony as an eight-year-old girl and follow her journey into adulthood. Like many young people who face adversity early in life, she develops wisdom beyond her years, together with a resilience and determination that help shape her character.
By the time we reach Go, Harmony!, the final volume in the trilogy, Harmony has become a remarkable young woman - intelligent, courageous, beautiful, and resourceful. Yet the greatest challenges of her life still lie ahead. The story brings her success and happiness, but also danger, heartbreak, and ultimately love, as she faces a threat that could cost her everything.
As the trilogy evolved, I realised I was unconsciously writing what felt very much like a television series - perhaps inevitably after spending twenty years in the industry.
Harmony is surrounded by a rich cast of characters, each with their own hopes, flaws, and ambitions. Their individual stories intertwine as they are drawn together by loyalty, affection, and a shared determination to protect the person at the centre of it all.
I loved writing these books. I hope readers will come to know and care about the characters as much as I do, and that they will enjoy sharing Harmony's extraordinary journey from childhood to adulthood. It has been an adventure I have treasured - and one I am reluctant to leave behind.
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