Val Rutt divides her time between teaching in a North London primary school and writing. She and her musician husband live with their two children in Tufnell Park. Val's most treasured possession is her English springer spaniel called Dave.

NAME:
Val Rutt

PLACE & DATE OF BIRTH:
London, 26th February 1959

FAVOURITE BOOK:
(at the moment) Wives and Daughters, Mrs. Gaskell. My favourite children’s book is Small Pig by Arnold Lobel. This is a perfect story. When my son was two years old I read it every night for several months... and I still love it.

FAVOURITE SONG:
‘Young at Heart’ sung by Frank Sinatra

FAVOURITE FILM:
Kaos directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
An English springer spaniel

When did you start writing?
Probably around 1964 when I was five.

Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
I will suddenly notice that what I’m thinking about is a good idea for a story. What I have actually been doing is daydreaming...

NAME:
Val Rutt

PLACE & DATE OF BIRTH:
London, 26th February 1959

FAVOURITE BOOK:
(at the moment) Wives and Daughters, Mrs. Gaskell. My favourite children’s book is Small Pig by Arnold Lobel. This is a perfect story. When my son was two years old I read it every night for several months... and I still love it.

FAVOURITE SONG:
‘Young at Heart’ sung by Frank Sinatra

FAVOURITE FILM:
Kaos directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
An English springer spaniel

When did you start writing?
Probably around 1964 when I was five.

Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
I will suddenly notice that what I’m thinking about is a good idea for a story. What I have actually been doing is daydreaming and then somehow the daydream will grab my attention. Once I have an idea I play with it; what if this happened, what if that happened?

Can you give your top 3 tips to becoming a successful author
1. Aim to enjoy it. When my writing is going well for me I find it entertaining and pleasurable to do.

2. I am a teacher and I am sure it helps my writing to be spending so much time with my potential audience.

3. If I don’t write at all for a month or so – not even a diary or jottings in a notebook - I start to feel irritable and miserable. Sometimes it is difficult to settle to writing but now I know that writing is something I have to do I almost always enjoy it.

Favourite memory
Listening to my father make up stories when I was small and the summer holidays I had between the ages of seven and twelve which blur together into one long, happy sunny day on the beach.

Favourite place in the world and why?
A beach in Scotland because it is where I currently spend summers with my family.

What are your hobbies?
I walk my dog and I read. And writing!

If you hadn’t been a writer what do you think you would have been?
Well, I have been a bank clerk, a nurse and I am a primary school teacher. I’ve always fancied owning a little bookshop but I don’t think I would be very good at it; in my fantasy I’m to be found sitting among the shelves reading, not doing any selling or the accounts.