1. What is your earliest memory?
Stepping off a log onto what I thought was grass, but turned out to be duckweed. My mother was livid with my grandfather, who was in charge of me, because my only coat took fully four days to dry.
2. You have had over fifty books published to date, but what would you consider to be your best work so far?
They’re all so different. For comedy, I’d say the Mountfield Family series (The More the Merrier, Eating Things on Sticks, and Trouble in Toadpool). But I suppose The Road of Bones and The Devil Walks are two I’d clutch as I ran from a fire.
3. You have won several prizes for children’s literature and you’re a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature too. Did you ever imagine you could reach those heights when you were first published?
At the start, any author is simply thrilled that someone’s publishing the book at all. Most think no further than that. So no, I never imagined any of what has happened since.
4. Who is your best friend?
It’s a toss-up between my partner Richard, who makes me laugh, and my Bernese Mountain Dog Lulu, who makes me walk.
5. Why did you choose to study Politics at degree level?
I was so stupid at the end of school. I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about politics, so I’ll do that.’ Staff changes meant no one who knew my real interests was around to tell me not to be so daft. And once I got to Warwick, it never occurred to me to ask to switch subjects, so I just ploughed on. But some of it must have taken because I did end up with a real interest in many aspects of politics.
6. And how important do you think your university education has been to your overall career?
Enormously. Just generally, I don’t think the importance of a university education can be discounted. And I’m proud of the way that I do manage to raise important political issues in books like Goggle-Eyes, The Granny Project and The Road of Bones in ways that are comprehensible and accessible to young readers. Even books like Bill’s New Frock and The Chicken Gave it To Me deal with social issues I first learned to think about more clearly while at university.
7. You were appointed OBE in 2003 – what does that mean to you?
I’m a republican, so I had very mixed feelings about accepting that honour. And if I’m honest, I still often wish I hadn’t.
8. You were the second Children’s Laureate from 2001 to 2003; what did that involve?
I was horrifically busy. I gave dozens of keynote talks on all sorts of subjects surrounding children’s literature. I persuaded two hundred illustrators to design modern, freely downloadable book plates so children could use them to cover the last owner’s name and make second hand books ‘new to me’ in their own home libraries. I helped Clear Vision set up their brailed picture book library, which entailed visits to high security prison brailing units. I put together three anthologies of poems for different age groups that I considered – and called – A Shame to Miss. I persuaded someone to design and build a tactile wall for Linden Lodge School for the Blind playground.
9. How did the role influence your time to do your own work?
I never found a moment to do any writing. But everything I started is still rolling on, so it was all worthwhile.
10. Why was Enid Blyton your favourite author when you were younger?
There is some childlike quality to her stuff that is compelling to very young readers. Also she churned out so much that there was always something new. She turned a whole generation of children into proficient readers. But I moved on to Richmal Crompton of the William books, and Anthony Buckeridge of the Jennings books, and after that there was no going back.
11. How long does it take you to ‘tweak’ or polish off a book?
I’m ‘tweaking’ from the first page. I don’t do drafts. I just take ages to write each page from the start, trying to get it right as I go along. An adult book will take well over a year. A book for older children about ten months, and books for very, very young readers are pretty quick, once I have the idea.
12. If you weren’t a writer, what do you think you’d be doing?
Sitting reading, I’d hope.
13. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
The same as Robert Louis Stevenson: ‘Read, read, read. Read everything.’
14. What are your plans for the future?
More reading, and, with luck, more writing.
15. What is your favourite book?
I don’t have ‘favourite’ books. I have so many author passions that the word no longer works on me.
16. Are there any maxims that inspire you?
There’s an old Persian saying I quite like: “Riches are like manure. They do no good till they’re spread.”
17. If you could sum your career up in one sentence, what would you say?
It was dead right for me.
18. What has been your happiest moment to date?
You can’t beat mucking about with your own toddlers, doing nothing much.
19. Could you tell us a secret?
I’m so horribly indiscreet that I don’t have any.
20. And what global issue would you like to see tackled today?
The rich getting so obscenely rich at everyone else’s expense.