| My hair colour: | Dark brown, going on distinguished. | |
| My eye colour: | Deep blue, like the computer! (my wife has just snorted with derision). | |
| My shoe size: | 10 | |
| My star sign: | Sagittarius with Aquarius rising, which means I'm an enthusiastic fibber with a scientific bent. | |
| My favourite book when child: | Back in the Jug Agane. I like anything daft. I also read the Jennings books, but very little else. | |
| My favourite fictional character: | The wonderful Paddington Bear. | |
| Books that inspired me to become a wirter: | The wonderful Paddington Bear. Books that inspired me to become a writer: None whatsoever (pause for gasps of shock). I came to writing through songwriting. | |
| My favourite author: | Toss up between Allan Ahlberg and Michael Bond, but it's an impossible question, really. | |
| My ideal reading position: | Sitting up in bed, though I rarely do it. | |
| My usual means of marking a place in a book: | Memory - which probably explains why I spend the first fifteen minutes of any reading session thinking, "Hang on, I've read that, haven't I?" | |
| My favourite time of year: | Late autumn, when squirrels are very active. I like squirrels. | |
| My favourite time of day: | The ten minutes I spend coochying my cat before I put her to bed at night. I like cats, too. | |
| My best time for working: | Hmm, this is tricky - see question 12 in the interview! | |
| The first piece of writing I was paid for was: | An adult short story shortlisted in the Ian St James Awards. I got a Parker fountain pen which they assured me was worth seventy-five pounds. | |
| My favourite TV show: | 'The X-Files' just about shades it. But I also like 'Whose Line is it Anyway?', 'Match of the Day', 'Shooting Stars' and any horse racing that happens to be on. | |
| My favourite song: | 'I am the Walrus'. More recently 'Into Temptation' by Crowded House'. | |
| My favourite actor: | Anthony Hopkins. | |
| The creaure comfort I would most unwillingly relinquish: | My computer chair, even though it squeaks. | |
| My favourite sweet food: | Ice cream, any flavour. I was going to say 'Sports Mixtures' but everyone would go: "Whaaat?" | |
| My favourite savory food: | Ever since I have been looking at the ACHUKA website and dreaming of being a special guest I have been dreading this moment, because I don't like savoury food very much; I have a very sweet tooth. So I am going to use my artistic licence and say, Bananas. And you can make your own mind up whether that's intended as an expletive or not! | |
| My typical bedtime is: | I'd like to say, "When I'm tired" but work commitments keep it to about 1 a.m. | |
| My favourite year of childhood: | 8-9 when I discovered The Beatles. | |
| My mousemat design: | A grey seal lounging on an ice floe. | |
| The tidiest place in my home is: | Everywhere! Boy, you should see me hoover. I am a bit of a 'nineties man'. | |
| The untidiest place in my home is: | The shelf where I dump all my post. | |
| The working tool I would least like to do without: | My wife! She's a true wonderwall (thanks, Noel). | |