Anything That Gets Children Reading Is Fine.

Any Story You Write About War, Or Film You Make About War, Is Bound To Be Political Whether You Like It Or Not.

Our Great Problem, Is That Children Now Know Whatever They Want To Know - At The Press Of A Button They Can Discover All Horrors Of The Adult World. They Know Very Early On That The World Is Sometimes A Very Dark, Difficult And Complex Place, And The Literature They Read Must Reflect That. Otherwise We're Just Entertaining Them To Pass The Time.

Often It's The Latest Novel That I've Written That Is My Favourite. I'd Been Dreaming It For So Long, Living And Breathing Its Story So That When It Finally Arrives As A Newly Published Book, Smelling Wonderful And Fresh Out Of The Box, There Is Nothing Like It.

When I Write I Try As Far As Possible To Forget I'm Writing It At All. I Tell It Down Onto The Page, As If I'm Telling It To One Person Only, My Best Friend.

Live An Interesting Life. Meet People. Read A Lot And Widely, Learn From The Great Writers