Find out about my life as a children’s author.

Here are some answers to the questions that my young readers often ask me.

When did you first start to write?

I remember writing a book about my pet cats when I was 8 years old. I glued photos of them in an exercise book and wrote about them underneath the photos. Why not follow my example? Buy some blank notebooks or exercise books and fill them with your stories, and add some drawings or photos.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Before I start to write a book, I spend lots of time thinking about the person who might be reading it one day. I think about how old they are and what they might want from the book. They might like to have some fun reading it out loud, or they might want to learn some interesting new facts. Then I start to think about ideas for stories or ways of explaining facts. It’s good to sit in a quiet calm place and relax. Then ideas start to arrive.

What was your favourite book when you were little?

When I was a child I loved reading all kinds of things, from storybooks to comics. My parents had a heavy old encyclopedia that I loved looking at, and they also had a book about jungle headhunters. I’ve no idea why! I thought it was fascinating because it had photos of real-life shrunken heads. I loved Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat by Ursula Moray Williams, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and any books I could find about fairies, dragons, pirates and magical things. I also loved The Beano comic.

Where do you write?

I have a little office in the town where I live. It’s right next door to a yummy cake shop! In my room there’s an Apple Mac laptop computer, a desk, a bookcase and lots of bits and pieces stuck on the walls, such as funny pictures, messages and photos. I also have some toys in my window to make people smile as they walk past.

Do you have another questions to ask? Pop it in an email, and I will do my best to reply as soon as I can.