| My hair colour: | My hair is currently red, orange and brown. | |
| My eye colour: | Dark chocolate | |
| My shoe size: | 5 and a half | |
| My star sign: | Aquarius | |
| My favourite book when child: | I'm not sure I can give just one, there were so many. I loved Margaret Mahy's The Changeover and Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones. Other favourites were Kim (Kipling), The Phoenix and the Carpet (E. Nesbit) and The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien). | |
| My favourite fictional character: | At the moment I'd probably say Kim, but I tend to change my mind according to what books I'm reading at the time. | |
| Books that inspired me to become a wirter: | It's hard to pin this down to a specific book. I read a lot of bad
science fiction and fantasy that made me think I could do better. But I
was also inspired by many authors whose work I admire and I continue to
discover more authors who inspire me to write better. I have tremendous
admiration for Diana Wynne Jones, Margaret Mahy, Annie Dalton and
Cynthia Voight as writers of fantasies and I recently discovered Phillip
Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy which is also excellent. But I was really inspired to be an author by my mother, Mary Hoffman, who writes childrens books and with my father brought me up to enjoy reading and writing stories. |
|
| My favourite author: | Diana Wynne Jones | |
| My ideal reading position: | Stretched across a sofa, lying on my back with my head on one arm rest and my feet on the other. Preferably with a cup of tea beside me and a cat on my lap. | |
| My usual means of marking a place in a book: | Remembering the page number. I always lose my bookmarks and I don't like turning the corners of pages down or bending the spine. | |
| My favourite time of year: | The end of summer and beginning of autumn, although I also love snow. | |
| My favourite time of day: | 11pm, when all my friends come round to watch a film. | |
| My best time for working: | Mid-afternoon or late at night. | |
| The first piece of writing I was paid for was: | An article I wrote for the Independent on the TV programme 'Absolutely Fabulous', while I was still at school. | |
| My favourite TV show: | The Simpsons. | |
| My favourite song: | 'Something for the Weekend' by The Divine Comedy or 'Ready to Go' by Republica. | |
| The creaure comfort I would most unwillingly relinquish: | Sleep | |
| My favourite sweet food: | My father's 'chocolate pudding with the hole in the middle'. | |
| My favourite savory food: | Fresh tomatoes. | |
| My typical bedtime is: | When I get tired. | |
| My mousemat design: | A very cunning ergonomicly designed purple palette shaped thing with invisible pyramids for extra gripping. But I was recently sent a mousemat with the cover of my book on it which I keep as an alternative. | |
| The tidiest place in my home is: | On top of the wardrobe. | |
| The untidiest place in my home is: | Everything else. | |
| The working tool I would least like to do without: | My computer (a Mac). | |
| My favourite year of childhood: | I don't know if I had I favourite year but I do know I refused to be five. I was once asked how old I was and said solemnly 'It's a number I don't like to mention.' | |