Illustrated
Edition published
2 October 2008
Now
in Paperback
I'd
like to write more plays - for stage and radio and schools. Maybe Peter Pan
will give me the chance. I'd like to get on a train or Tube or bus and see
the passenger opposite reading a book of mine. One day!
What ambitions
do you still have?
The
first one I remember is the Orchard book of Greek Myths. I didn't really start
to appreciate the novels until I was 11 or so. Now I really like the fact that
I am the first person to see them. Mum tries them out on me. She even believes
me when I tell her what needs changing! My favourites are The White Darkness,
A Pack of Lies and Not the End of the World. One day I'm determined to act
in one of her plays.
Daisy,
a Golden Retriever. Until recently we had never had pets - except for fan-tail
doves which the neighbourhood cats quickly ate.
What was
your favourite subject at school?
What does
Ailsa think of your books?
Do you
have any pets at home?
What is
your favourite book?
As
a child I remember enjoying The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis as well as horsey
books like Silver Brumby and historical novels by Rosemary Sutcliffe. I think
now that Alan Ahlberg's Jeremiah in the Dark Woods is literally 'perfect' -
not a word wrong, not a comma out of place. My favourite adult books get inside
the heads of each character in turn and makes you like and understand every
single one.
Home,
definitely, though I do like hot sun and blue-sea-side and bright, bright light.
I get gloomy in the winter.
I
write. The only time I get really miserable is when I can't get any work done.
I only put off working when a novel is proving really difficult and I know
the day's writing won't go right.
What is
your favourite place?
I
can sometimes work myself into a good frame of mind by going to the theatre.
It makes me feel things more strongly and see things in sharper focus. I often
also style my characters on actors because real people don't use their faces
and voices as much as actors on a stage; they exaggerate movements and expressions
in the same way a writer needs to.
English
Literature - though it was better at college, where the teachers asked what
we thought of the books instead of telling us.
