Ryan grew up in Aston, a culturally rich part of Birmingham where West Indian, South Asian, Pakistani and British communities shaped the rhythm of daily life. After his parents separated, his mother raised him alone in a council flat, her resilience becoming the quiet anchor of his early years.

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His late grandmother, Philomena “Pearl” Butler, left the deepest mark. Loving, wise and quietly defiant, she had a gift for creating magic — especially at Christmas, when her beautifully curated trees looked as though they had slipped straight out of Narnia. In those warm, glittering rooms, Ryan learned that ordinary spaces could become portals if you looked with enough imagination.

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Birmingham in the 80s only deepened that sense of wonder: knee-deep snow, neighbourhood-wide blizzards, and radio-announced school closures. While other children raced outside, Ryan built worlds in his mind — brighter, stranger, and rule-bending places where imagination felt like survival. But imagination was never an escape from discipline. It became the foundation for it.

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Ryan always knew he wanted to write. That conviction led him to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, then to the BBC at Pebble Mill, where he learned how stories work from behind the scenes. Yet alongside his creative path, education became his calling. Over more than 15 years as a classroom teacher, Ryan worked closely with children from diverse backgrounds, witnessing firsthand how confidence, structure and belief can transform a child’s future.

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It was from this lived experience that LTRW Tuition Academy was born.

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LTRW (Disciplina et Dignitas) exists to combine academic rigour with character formation — strengthening English and Mathematics foundations while building resilience, confidence and disciplined learning habits. For Ryan, LTRW is not simply tuition; it is a continuation of everything he learned growing up — that resilience can be taught, imagination can be nurtured, and structured guidance can change trajectories.

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Today, alongside leading LTRW Tuition Academy, Ryan continues his creative work as founder of The Brand Thinker, where he transforms abstract ideas into vivid, human-centred identities. His mind moves intuitively — seeing the world each idea could grow into.

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Through it all, the boy from snowy Birmingham remains: shaped by grit, wonder, culture and a grandmother who taught him that magic often hides in the smallest details.

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Now, Ryan is also pouring that lifelong imagination into writing fantasy worlds for young readers who might need escape, hope, or a reminder that wonder can grow in hard places. His ambition is clear: to become a New York Times bestselling author — not for the accolade, but to share his stories with the widest possible world.

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“I grew up surviving on imagination,” Ryan says.
“Now I want to help children build confidence through discipline — and still believe in wonder.”