ACHUKA Authorfile #51

Julia Donaldson

My hair colour: Still mostly brown.
My eye colour: Blue.
My shoe size: 7.
My star sign: Virgo (but I'm a astrological cynic).
My favourite book when child: BALLET SHOES by Noel Streatfeild
Books that inspired me to become a writer: THE SILVER CURLEW by Eleanor Farjeon; THE ENCHANTED CASTLE by E. Nesbit; lots of poetry and songs, such as those by Flanders and Swan.
My favourite fictional character: Richmal Crompton's William.
My favourite author: My favourite book is perhaps TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee, but it's all she ever wrote! The authors whose books I currently most long to come out are David Lodge and Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine (but not the Inspector Wexford ones).
My ideal reading position: Any. My mind escapes from my body when I read.
My usual means of marking a place in a book: Memory.
My favourite time of year: The merry month of May.
My favourite time of day: Summer evenings.
My best time for working: I don't have any sort of routine: once an idea grabs me I keep on and on at it obsessively, regardless of the time of day.
The first piece of work I was paid for was: OLD MAN'S HAT, a song for the BBC programme "Play Away".
My favourite TV show: I don't watch a lot but I loved the Alan Partridge programmes.
My favourite actor: Maybe Judi Dench (but I'm biased because she was in that Old Vic production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM)
My favourite song: Apres Un Reve by Faure
The creature comfort I would most unwillingly relinquish: The bath: all my inspiration would go down the plughole if I had to give it up.
My favourite sweet food: Creme caramel.
My favourite savory food: Varies, but at the moment I always seem to be craving rocket.
My typical bedtime is: Midnight.
My favourite year of childhood: 13.
The tidiest place in my home is: The sitting room, though that's usually strewn with guitars, recorders, cards and backgammon.
The untidiest place in my home is: My teenage son's bedroom.
My mousemat design: It's a horrible one advertising some treatment for diabetes (my husband's a doctor and he must have got it as a freebie).
The working tool I would least like to do without: Pencil and paper.