1. As a two-times winner of the Greenaway (with successive books) you are now established as a major children's books illustrator in your own right. Which other illustrators influence, or have influenced you, in your work?

Errol le Cain, Lidia Postma, Lizbeth Zwerger and Maxfield Parrish are on the top of my list. But I tend to be inspired more by film, animation, and comics, than fine art. Special favorites are the comics of Winsor McCay ,and Walt Kelly, and the animation of Ladislaw Starewicz, Henry Selick, and Nick Park. I also spend a lot of time looking at roadside graphics in the U.S.A.

2. Pumpkin Soup is a marvellously autumnal, wintry picture book. Was it cold, soup-making weather while you worked on it? Do you LIKE pumpkin soup?

I worked on Pumpkin Soup over the span of two years with various breaks for publicity tours and babies, so I worked on it right through the seasons. But any time is soup time. I like pumpkin soup but not pumpkin pie.

It's my favourite picture in the book too. Expressions on big faces are always difficult. I did have quite a clear picture of Cat in my head though,which helped. Getting Squirrels reflection in the spoon right was the hardest bit of all.

I actually always work same size. Many illustrators prefer to work bigger than the printed book so compared to them I work in a small scale.

When I first start scribbling I only have a vague idea of how the book will look. A really good book designer can help me firm up my ideas. He also will suggest typefaces (the sort of lettering I should use,) for the text and cover, and advise on the composition and layout of my pictures. (Composition is the placing of all the things within the illustration. Layout is the placing of the illustrations and words on the page.)

The words always come first. I don't do any drawing until my editor has seen the story and likes it.

7. Your first Greenaway winner was about a baby who wouldn't go to bed. When you wrote that book you were not a parent, but you now have a young child? In what ways has becoming a mother affected the way you work?

I haven't any time to work. That's the biggest effect. However I've spent so much time watching my Baby that I do think that one day,when I do have time to work, I will be able to draw babies better.

8. Your husband is the American-born illustrator, Ted Dewan, and together you have just launched a joint website about your work. What are your hopes for the website?

I am a very slow illustrator, and as Pandora also takes a lot of time up I have almost no time left to do book events. I am hoping that the website will be a way for me to visit all the kids (and grownups) who want to know more about my books and the way that I work.

Yes, Ted' a very good adviser and sounding board for ideas. He's also particularly good at the things I find difficult, like composition, perspective and lighting. I'm better at colour and story line so I take my turn at giving advice on them. But we never work in the same room. We would argue too much if we did. We both have our own studios, and there are very strict rules about knocking before entering. Pandora breaks all these rules.

Not a picture book but we may work on a longer story together.

No I never got as far as working in the classroom.

I'm afraid my current projects are always top secret until they're are finished and in the hands of my publisher. Boring but true. I can say I am seriously behind on my next picture book . But... Next year sees the Publication of 'Toy Tales' This is an omnibus edition of my earlier four mini books 'Tale of Duck' Pig' Bear' and Frog'. There is a new cover and a some new pieces of artwork. I also revised all the existing artwork and it is reproduced very beautifully,(much better than the first versions,) on a larger format. These books never really sold in the same scale as my larger picture books because their previous format was a little unpopular with the shops, but I often find that little children like them the best of all my books. I am really hoping that more children will see these little stories in this format. (It is very realisticaly priced too.)

Well, I did work with several other publishers on my earlier books. I"ve been doing picture books a lot longer than most people realise. However Transworld published my very first book in paper back and then when they started their own hard back list they asked me to do a book for them. I sent them the text for 'Bear under the Stairs', (still my personal favourite text,) which had been turned down by several major publishers. They signed it up straight away, and although only about ten words of the text were ever altered, the two editors there at the time, (Annie Eaton and David Fickling) were really enlightening to work with and permantly changed the way I think when I'm illustrating. Annie Eaton is still my editor at Transworld seven books later. "The Housecat' was published by Scholastic after David Fickling moved there. Recently I have only worked for Transworld because I am very slow and can only manage to illustrate one book a year.The writing never takes more than a couple of days. Oh and just in case anyone was wondering - I spend a whole lot more time thinking about the illustration than the text too.

I love it so long as I live near a big park.