I Would Hate To Live In The

If You Are Going To Make Companies, Corporations, Actually Responsible For The Safety Of Other People's Lives, Then If They Fail In Their Duty, The Only Thing To Prevent Them Failing In Their Duty Is The Fear That They Would Be Put Behind Bars.

I Hope In My Books I Help Children To See Their Strengths, And Show Them I Have Some Idea Of What They May Occasionally Be Going Through. Especially At Tricky Moments When It Is Easier To Go Back And Evade Things Rather Than Go Forwards And Confront Them.

All Writers Are Thieves; Theft Is A Necessary Tool Of The Trade.

I Was Cleaning Out The Pigsty At A Farm In Wales, Where My Mother Had Rented A Room, When The Results Of My Final School Exam Were Handed To Me By The Postman, Along With The News That I Had A State Scholarship To Oxford. I Had Waited For This Letter For So Many Weeks That I Had Abandoned Hope, Deciding That I Had Failed Ignominiously.

Life Isn't So Complicated For Children. They Have More Time To Think About The Really Important Things. That's Why I Occasionally Moralise In My Children's Books In A Way I Wouldn't Dare When Writing For Adults.