Frequently Asked Question

Did you always want to be a writer?

When I was eight I wanted to be a bareback rider or a cowboy/girI and a few years later I decided to be a nurse. It didn’t occur to me that I could be a writer until I was grown up and had children. I thought writing was something other important people did. In the years when I went to school we didn’t write stories, we wrote compositions such as ‘How to Boil an Egg’ or ‘How to make a Cup of Tea.’

Sometimes when my cousin Belinda came to stay in the holidays we would write stories together. We’d put a sign on the door saying ‘Authors at Work. Do not Disturb.’ This made my younger sister Tessa very cross because she couldn’t join in.

But I have always loved reading, all sorts of books. My Mum says I read my first books while I sat on the potty. My first job was teaching and as I taught the younger children we read lots of picture books. They are still some of my favourite books even now. If you visit our local library the same day as me you may find me sitting on a small chair reading a picture book, sometimes to my grandson Tomas and sometimes to myself. As a teacher I used to write short plays for the children to read and perform.

When I married David, who is an illustrator and a painter, I had someone who loved drawing. It was he who said, “If you write a story I’ll do the illustrations.” So I did.

Do you like writing?

Most of the time I love writing. It is such fun making up stories, playing pretend. But it also makes me cross when I get stuck, when I can’t get the best beginning or a good ending. I do lots of drafts of my stories because they are usually too long. I spend a lot of time changing sentences or even just words.

What was your first book?

‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ (1977) was the first book that I wrote and the first book published. David had previously done illustrations for other people’s books. He used to illustrate all my books but now I have several different illustrators.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Ideas come from lots of places, from things you see, places you visit, adventures you’d like to have, people’s conversation, sometimes from other books. There are stories lurking everywhere. Keep listening for them and watching for them. Sometimes they just pop into your head. It’s a good idea to carry a notebook with you so when ideas drop in you can write them down in case they drop out of your head again.

The idea for The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch came from a question our son Joss asked many years ago, probably when your Mums and Dads were at school. David and I had taken he and Kate down to look at a lighthouse near us. We were standing on the cliffs when Joss noticed a wire running from the cliff down to the lighthouse.
“What’s that wire for?” he asked.

It was probably a wire taking electricity down to the lighthouse so the light would shine brightly out to sea every night, but David didn’t say that.

“Joss,” he said, “I expect that’s for the lighthouse keeper’s lunch.”
DAVID TOLD A LIE!! Well, it was a sort of a lie but you could also say he was making up a story. Now that day I was wearing my best listening ears. I’m sure you’ve got some too. I was listening for stories.

“What a good idea,” I thought. “That’s what I could write a story about, a lighthouse keeper who gets his lunch in a basket down a wire.”

The idea for A New Home for a Pirate popped into my head one day because I was on a boat feeling seasick. I thought wouldn’t it be horrible if you were a pirate and you felt seasick every day.

The idea for my latest book called A Very Strange Creature came about because I love surprises so I decided to write a story where the jungle animals are surprised by something that is not like any of them.

Have you ever lived in a lighthouse?

No, but when I was twelve my parents bought a farm very near the sea. From my bed at night I could see a lighthouse on an island flashing its light. I have visited lots of lighthouses and I stayed for a night in one called Rua Rheidh in Scotland. It is still a working lighthouse so I was very excited to see the light flashing.

Where did the name Mr. Grinling come from?

Several hundreds of years ago there was a man called Grinling Gibbons who was a wood carver. We liked the sound of Grinling so we borrowed his name.

Do you have a cat called Hamish?

We once had a cat called Hamish, but one day a long time ago he just vanished. He was very old. He wasn’t with us when we made The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch. He arrived at the back door just after we’d finished the book. Joss and Kate were delighted because we didn’t have any pets but of course we had to make sure he didn’t belong to anyone. He looked exactly like the Hamish in the book so we called him Hamish.

We found out that he’d lived a mile or so away but one day he had eaten all the cream and icing on a child’s birthday cake. The family were so cross they threw him out. Not a very nice thing to do. We looked after him for about 14 years. He was a fearsome cat, he chased all the animals out of our garden and he never stopped leaping onto the kitchen worktops and stealing food.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?

When I was about four my Mum read me Horton the Elephant Hatches an Egg by Doctor Seuss. I loved it so much that apparently I knew it off by heart. Now I can only remember some lines that were repeated through the story.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant
An elephant’s faithful one hundred per cent.

It’s still in print so you might be able to read it too. But the list of books I loved is so long that I don’t think they would all fit here.

What’s the favourite book you have written?

Whatever book I am writing is my favourite because it fills up my head. Although I can’t draw well enough to be an illustrator my head is always full of pictures of the characters and places I’m writing about.

How many books have you written?

About 30 books so far. Most of them have been picture books but I have written several non-fiction books for older students.