PLACE & DATE OF BIRTH:
Hertfordshire, 29th May 1952

FAVOURITE BOOK:
That’s difficult, because I have many favourites. Can I name three? OK – The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling, The Complete Book of Ghost Stories by M.R. James, and all the C.S. Lewis Narnia books. (Well, that’s more than three, but…)

FAVOURITE SONG:
Again, lots, because I love music. Top favourites are songs that I like to sing: titles like “Unicorns” and “Ready for the Storm” – though I don’t suppose you’ll have heard of them! Oh, and I mustn’t forget “The Cats’ Duet” by a composer called Rossini. It’s one the funniest songs I’ve ever heard!

FAVOURITE FILM:
2001: A Space Odyssey. I think it’s the most brilliant film I’ve ever seen, even though it was made years ago.

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
My husband! No, seriously… Simba, our lovely black cat, isn’t really a “possession”, but I treasure him. My most treasured non-living object is my acoustic guitar, which is hand-made and which I’ve had for twenty years.

When did you start writing?
When I was about 8. I used to write stories at school when I should have been concentrating on lessons, and I’ve never stopped since!

Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
That’s the hardest question in the world to answer! I get some of mine from dreams, or from folklore and legends. But mostly, they just seem to pop into my mind.

Can you give your top 3 tips to becoming a successful author
1. Write about something that interests you. If you’re excited by a story you’re writing, your readers will be, too.

2. Always be on the lookout for new ideas in the world around you. It’s amazing how many you’ll find just by watching people and events.

3. Never give up! The famous author Ian Fleming had loads of rejections before the first James Bond book was accepted and published – and look what happened to him!

Favourite memory
Ooh... at my age, there are lots! ;-) Probably the party we had at home after our wedding five years ago. The weather was glorious, and everyone danced in the garden. Then my husband let off a rocket to celebrate! (We told the coastguards first, in case they thought it was a distress signal!)

Favourite place in the world and why?
Cornwall. It’s where I’ve always wanted to be, and where we now live. I love it because it’s wild and beautiful, a very magical place that gives me a lot of inspiration for my stories.

What are your hobbies?
Writing – of course! And I also like singing and playing guitar and keyboard, gardening, cooking, and messing about on the beach; fishing in rock pools and looking for shells. Surfing, too; though I’m not very good at it and I just use a little boogie-board in the shallows!

If you hadn’t been a writer what do you think you would have been?
It’s hard to imagine being anything else, but… I think I might have liked to be a singer. Though whether I’d have been good enough is another matter!

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