Illustrated
Edition published
2 October 2008
Now
in Paperback
As
I grew up, I went on writing - always and everywhere - never really expecting
to get published. I did a lot of jobs - secretary, teacher, journalist, sub-editor.
But I wrote as I travelled to and fro to work: it was my hobby. Now I stay
home all day and write. It's great, but it still seems odd to earn a living
by having so much fun.
Sometimes
I go into nearby schools to talk about being a writer and play story-making
games, and, of course, to find out what the really important people - the readers
- are thinking.
I
have written over a hundred and forty books, mostly for children, some for
adults; also a play for radio about trawlers sinking and fifty little plays;
(I love drama). Maybe you'd like to act some of them. Nowadays, I have an
eighteen-year-old daughter, Ailsa, to read my stories, a husband, John, to
check my stories and
a Golden Retriever, Daisy, to eat my stories.
I
have a very clever older brother called Neil. When I was young, everything
he did, I wanted to do. So when, at 14, he had a book published, that became
my great ambition of mine. I was also very shy and timid. (I still am.) The
one place I dared to have adventures was in my imagination, writing stories.
Dad was a fireman, Mum was a teacher. We did not have television at home until
I was 9, so you can imagine how exciting it was when we got one.
