By Hala Khalaf

Ahmed Al Shoaibi’s success as an author was not shared by all those close to him.

The Emirati, whose work is published in English, recalls that his 9-year-old niece criticised him for not writing a story featuring a female protagonist.

“The initial success of the Hamad stories was so heartwarming,” says Al Shoaibi, whose six instalments of his The Tales of Hamad children’s books last year follow an Emirati boy sharing his nation’s cultures and traditions.

As a result, he wrote four more books about Hamad’s sister, Ayesha.

As an engineer and associate professor of chemical engineering and the dean of academic affairs at the Petroleum Institute (PI) in Abu Dhabi, Al Shoaibi didn’t envisage a side-career as an author.