He was born in Vienna in 1951. After finishing school, he started but never finished the study of German and History. He was an actor, a singer-songwriter, a journalist, and a magician, before he published his first book in 1986. Since then, he has published more than 40 titles, about two thirds for children. He has been awarded several prizes, among them the Austrian National Prize for Children's Literature in 1994, 1998, and 2000. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1997, and has been made an Honorary Professor in 2005.