1. Where do you get your ideas from?

From all sorts of places! I can't put my finger on exactly where. I often use my own experiences with horses or dogs or cats as a starting point. I read lots of other people's stories. I enjoy talking to people about their lives and I read newspapers. I'm always asking myself what would happen if? Or what led up to that happening? Then if I'm really lucky a wonderful idea will pop into my head, usually, when I least expect it.

2. Are your characters based on real people?

I don't think they are when I'm writing about them. So far I have never deliberately used a real person in one of my stories. I have used my dog Meg though. Yet I am certain my experience of real people influences how my characters behave. There will be a little bit of me in there too somewhere! I suspect that everything that happens in my real life influences my imagination and from that mixture of real and imagined out pops a character.

3. What was your first book called?

The title was "Heggerty Haggerty and the Dreadful Drought." It wasn't the first story I wrote. That was called "Heggerty Haggerty and the North Wind" but I knew I could write a better story than that and wrote several more. "Heggerty Haggerty and the Dreadful Drought" was the one that the publisher chose.

4. What do you most like about being a writer?

The nicest thing is being able to create a world in which I am totally in charge. Or at least that's what I think when I start to write. I find that my characters have minds of their own and want me to do things I hadn't thought of at certain points in the story. Sometimes I have to race to keep up with them and that is fun too. Also, I write when I like. If, on a lovely sunny day, I want to go out for a walk I can.

5. What don't you like about being a writer?

Having to keep going when I'd rather stop. I give myself a daily word goal of a thousand words at least and when I get stuck it's such a horrid feeling. But a good night's sleep usually sorts things out and by the next morning I'm ready to carry on.

6. Where do you live?

I live in Stroud in Gloucestershire on the side of a hill overlooking a valley. I can walk out of my house and up the hill where I can see across the River Severn to the Black Mountains of Wales. It's a wonderful view.

7. What do you do in your spare time?

I go walking with friends and with my dog. I read a lot. I travel when I can and visit friends in England and in France. I enjoy watching films and plays and singing in a choir.

8. What is your favourite book?

I've just read "Saffy's Angel" by Hilary McKay which I loved and "Stravanganza - City of Masks" by Mary Hoffman was unputdownable. One I have read twice is Philip Pullman's "Northern Lights" which was utterly gripping both times. But it's so hard to have one favourite. I keep reading and reading and there's always another great book to find - it's impossible to have an overall favourite.

9. What is your most favourite book of your own?

Another difficult question! I find it so hard to choose that I really can't. In lots of ways it's the book I am writing at the moment. That's the one I'm most involved with and excited about.