All about me!
I was born in 1962 in Coventry (scarily ancient, I know). I wrote my first picture book for my little brother when I was eight or nine. I loved making comics, too - pages and pages of picture stories, features and competitions. I'd sell my homemade comic to a friend for 5p, then claim it back and sell it again to someone else,they didn't have photocopiers back then!
I went to Art College in Liverpool, then got a job as fiction editor on the fab and legendary Jackie magazine.For 12 years I was the agony aunt for teen mag Shout, as well as teaching art in several local primary schools, but these days the books are taking up pretty much all of my time and attention. Later, I married my boyfriend Liam, went back to college and trained to be an art teacher. I taught in a Coventry secondary school for a few years, which I loved, then moved to Scotland with Liam to start a family.
My kids are 14 and 15 years old now, and the four of us live in a cottage in the Galloway hills with sheep and cows for neighbours. As well as writing books, I am the agony aunt on Shout magazine and sometimes teach art in the local primary schools, which is great fun and keeps me sane. (Well, maybe!)
I've been veggie for 30 years, and was vegan for 8 of them - a chocolate-eating vegan, like Storm! I love old clothes, old toys, cars, books. We have two dogs called Kelpie and Daisy, three cats called Lily, Pickle & Pepper and three rabbits, Midnight, Snowdrop & Bramble!
I love my family, I love living in the middle of nowhere and I love my work. Of all my jobs, writing has to be the best - it's the perfect excuse to daydream, after all!
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW!
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FAVOURITES
Fave childhood reads....
The Narnia books by CS Lewis
The Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome
The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Fave reads now!!!! (non-fiction)
Think Pink by Lisa Clark... a fab, cool, go-for-it guide-to-life for young teens.
For younger teens...
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Misfits by James Howe
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Check out Michelle Magorian, Michael Morpurgo & Gennifer Choldenko, too....
For older teens.....
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
You Don't Know Me by David Klass
Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine
Check out Jaclyn Moriarty, David Leviathan & Kevin Brooks, too...
Fave colour...
Moss green, but I wear a lot of black, too!
Fave bands...
The Cure
Echo & The Bunnymen
The Killers
Placebo
Red Hot Chillis
Green Day
The View
(plus a million others, old & new...)
Fave things to do...
Read, write, daydream....
Swim, walk, eat cake with friends...
Hang out in my tepee on summer nights
Rattle around in my camper van!
My books!
