November

I'm sitting by the swimming pool at our little villa in Southern Turkey. The sun is shining and there's a lovely cool breeze blowing off the very blue sea. People keep telling me that it's been snowing in Britain and it's very cold. That is very hard to believe, sitting here! Yesterday my wife and I and some friends went on a boat trip and swam in the sea – it was so warm. However, later today we will begin the journey back to the UK and winter - ugh!

I love coming out to this place. The people are so friendly, the food is terrific, the views are wonderful and I always manage to get lots of writing done out here because it is so relaxing. I have started work on a brand new series. I can't tell you much about it yet because it's TOP SECRET but I think you will love it becase it's going to be very exciting and funny and full of animals and odd people.

The villa here is full of animals too - at least the garden is. There are a lot of stray cats and dogs in the village and six of the cats have taken over our garden. They have been living here now for three years and it's lovely to come back each year and see them again. One of them even likes to come right inside and sleep on one of the armchairs - which is exactly what he is doing as I write, all stretched out as if he owns the place - and I guess he does, in a way!

That's all for now. Got to go and pack my bags and put on all those horrible winter clothes, ready for the British cold. Brrrrrrrr!

October

What a busy bee! I have just done five days of visits, one after the other, and now I am exhausted. However, it was wonderful to meet so many fans, especially at Bexhill and Bath. I have been trying out a new road show - Jeremy Strong's Big Jam Explosion. It's great fun, although it's still very new and I am going to make some changes to it so it is even funnier. At the end I threw donuts into the audience. (INTO the audience, not AT them!) After that I was visiting schools. The result of all that work is that I am typing this in bed because I am so tired and have a sore throat. Ahhhh! Poor little bunny-wunny! I have got a holiday coming up soon and I am really looking forward to it. Gillie and I have a villa in Turkey. Turkey is very beautiful and the people there are wonderfully kind and helpful. I love going there. Now then, I hope you have all noticed that my new book for Christmas, THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS is out in the shops. It's completely bonkers mad, and exciting too - which is how you like them, I think. Let me know how you get on with it! And while you do that I shall be plotting and planning the next book. Ta ta!

September

Last month I told you I was working on a new Streaker story for Christmas. This month I can tell you that it is now finished. Hooray!

In fact I finished it three days ago and now it is sitting with my editor at Puffin. The next thing that happens is that my editor will read it through. If she likes it she will probably want me to make some changes. She will also point out where I have made mistakes. If you change the word "editor" to "teacher" then you will get the idea!

Sometimes my editor and I don't agree, but we always manage to sort it out without arguing. Of course, it's a bit different when you're in school because your teacher just says you're wrong and you have to go away and put it right. At least that's what my teachers were always telling me. (I must have got things wrong an awful lot.) I guess it sounds as if I spent the whole time just writing that story - and by the way it's called CHRISTMAS CHAOS FOR THE 100 MPH DOG - but my wife, Gillie and I did have a short break out in France.

We went to visit my mother and also to get away from THE HORRIBLE RAIN WE'VE BEEN HAVING FOR THE LAST CENTURY! (That's what it feels like, at any rate.) And it has been so COLD, too - like winter. I keep expecting to have to shovel my way through six metres of snow to get to my shed at the bottom of the garden. Anyhow, guess what? IT WAS RAINING IN FRANCE TOO! It shouldn't be allowed. Luckily it got sunny a couple of days later. My mum has three and a half cats. She doesn't think they are her cats because they don't exactly belong to her.

However, they do spend all their time in her garden, and they would come into the house if she let them because she feeds them. They are sort of strays, but not proper ones. I say there are three and a half because there are three adults and one kitten - Titus, Little Grey, Smudge and Blanc. Little Grey is the furriest, purriest one.

And that's all for now! Hope to see LOADS of you at the Bexhill Festival on Sep 27th, and the Bath Festival on Sep 28th!

August

I seem to remember writing last month about how busy things were getting. Well, things haven't changed. What a surprise! Last month I did lots of work, lots of visits, got married, and went to New York for two weeks. (So not that much happened!) I have to tell you that New York was BRILLIANT. I went to the top of the Empire State Building. Let's face it, if you visit New York there are certain things that you HAVE TO DO, and going to the top of the Empire State is one of them, even if you do queue for ages. You get a brilliant view of the city. Anyhow, Gillie and I spent most of our time eating, shopping and visiting art galleries, because we both love paintings and sculpture and so on. We saw some amazing stuff. After that we went north into the Hudson River Valley to stay with Gillie's uncle in his rather fabulous home. We also spent one night in a lighthouse on the river! It was the night of the full moon so it was all very beautiful and quiet and dark. We had some chinese hot air balloons. You light a wick at the bottom and the paper balloon fills with hot air and they gently lift off into the sky and float away on the breeze - absolute magic! They were different colours and each balloon is about the size of a small bedside cabinet.

Back at the house we spent most of our time just lounging by the pool, swimming, reading and watching the chipmunks playing in the garden, and the squirrels and deer and loads of different birds. It was like being in the middle of a small zoo. The deer would wander around in the evening, with their dappled fawns at their sides. So as you can tell, we had a terrific holiday, which was also our honeymoon of course. Now it's back to normality and I am in the shed at the bottom of the garden and I'm working on the next book. It's not due out until Christmas 2009 and it is a special xmas story about Streaker, the hundred mile an hour dog. I'm also working on a brand new series, but that is TOP SECRET and you're not allowed to know anything about it yet in case I change my mind about some of the ideas I've already come up with. Hope your summer hols have been as wonderful as mine! Byeeeeeeeeeeee!

July

Wow! What a whoosh-whizz-wham-bam-dippity-doo-dah month it's been! I've been whizzing about, as usual, visiting schools and libraries and saying 'hello!' to anyone who'd listen. But on top of that BEWARE! KILLER TOMATOES has won two book awards and been short-listed for two more. I'm so excited! Not only that, BUT - guess what? - I've also got MARRIED! (And that's even more exciting.) Gillie and I had the most fantastic wedding party in a MOROCCAN TENT. That means all the insides were draped in red, blue and gold cloth. There were twinkly lights everywhere and loads of candles. We had a special birthday cake too, although it wasn't just one cake it was actually about seventy little fairy cakes with amazing decorations on them. So we had to slice up one tiny cake - there's this huge knife slicing up a teeny-weeny cakelet. It looks really funny in the photos! We are going to go on honeymoon next week for two weeks, visiting New York for a week and some friends who live near there. I'll tell you all about it when we get back. So, Empire State Building - here I come!

I have also been thinking about the next book. It's going to be a Christmas story about Streaker, but I don't know what is going to happen yet. I'm looking forward to writing a new story with Streaker in it as I haven't done one for little while. I enjoyed writing the last two Christmas stories - INVASION OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS and THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS (out in October!), and I'm hoping I will enjoy doing the new one just as much. I must say it feels a bit odd to be writing about Christmas in July! And it's not even for Christmas

THIS YEAR. It's for 2009!

I shall have to go now - I must start packing for New York. Have a great July - holiday-time soon - yay!

June

I've finished the story! Hooray! It's always interesting trying to write in a way I haven't tried before. I like to give myself little challenges. Like, when I was writing LOST! THE 100 MPH DOG, it's Streaker who tells the story so I had to pretend to be a dog while I was writing it. This time my challenge was to try and write something that was like a horror story but also funny. I think it's worked. It made me laugh, anyhow! Now I have a bit of space to myself before I start work on the next book. I'm still out there doing visits, but there aren't so many now because in the middle of June I AM GETTING MARRIED! (Help!) So please ask for the sun to shine on June 21st!

Now then, last month I was telling you that I was going up to Scotland. Well, I have to tell you that I once went to Scotland for a holiday and it rained EVERY SINGLE DAY for three weeks. We got soaked. Okay, so that was several years ago and it was in August, not May. Anyhow, this time I packed sixteen wet weather coats, just in case. (I'm exaggerating slightly - I only packed one.) And guess what? It didn't rain at all! FOUR DAYS OF SUNSHINE! We had a brilliant time, staying with friends and also visiting a school in Benderloch, near Oban. The children were great. (The teachers were okay, too!) We went for lots of walks in utterly beautiful countryside. It was such a lovely place to be. There was snow on Ben Nevis! (A patch or two.)

Now I have lots of things to do to get ready for the wedding, so it's just as well I have a bit of time before starting writing again. There are all the guests to organise, and the food and the drink and the music and the tent, (it's a Moroccan tent - very colourful inside!), and the decorations and the clothes and the seating arrangements and the glasses and the chiller cabinet and the wiring and the flowers - not to mention ourselves because we have to dress up, don't we? Maybe I'll go as a vampire.

May

Gosh, it's May already. Everything has been wildly busy! I'm working on a new story. I can't say too much about it except that it's a sort of horror story, but a funny one. Funny horror? Will that work? Wait and see! I've had a busy few weeks, with lots of visits. I went to Cork, in Ireland, where I met some lovely people and had a couple of good sessions with children there. I'm hoping to go out again next year. I also met up with lots of fans at Dulwich - so it's 'Hello" to Dulwich! It was a good session. Yesterday I visited a school in my home town for their May Fair. That was fun too. They were celebrating thirty years in their new buildings and they had a special cake I had to cut.

I've got more visits coming up this month - Bristol, London, Scotland - and that's just this week! I'm looking forward to Scotland because Gillie and I are going up for the weekend as well. We have friends who live up there and it will be good to see them. They live near Fort William, which is almost right in the middle of Scotland. Then after that I hope there will be a bit of peace and quiet because I HAVE GOT TO GET THIS BOOK FINISHED, otherwise I shall feel as if I'm in a horror story myself.

It gets difficult to write sometimes because if I get up from my chair and go out of the room my cat, Jeeves, immediately comes in and sits in my place. I used to put a heavy book there to stop him, but he just pushes it off! Now I put two large, heavy objects there. That's stopped him - so far! Oh well, back to work.

April

What a crazy month I've had. First of all I did some visits to schools, which were brilliant. Everyone wanted to get signed books - it was manic. (Well, actually it was more PANIC than manic. Manic Panic? yeah - that's what it was!) I put the finishing touches to a new story - MY BROTHER'S HOT CROSS BOTTOM. Then i went whizzing off to Turkey for ten days and what happened while I was out there? I went to a BBQ on the beach for a friend's birthday. It was all adults except for one eleven year old boy, Callum. He'd bought a book at the airport and was enjoying it. You've guessed! He was reading THE 100 MPH DOG. So the next day his parents invited me to come over and Callum cooked pancakes for everyone. YOU'RE A TOP COOK, CALLUM! It was brilliant. (I had banana in mine.)

When I got back I visited a load more schools and my feet have hardly touched the ground. I'm hoping to get some time soon so that I can start work on the next book. And no - I'm not going to tell you what it's about - at least not yet. (You want to know why? Because I DON'T KNOW what it's going to be about!)

Hope you all have a great April!

March

I've just done something that is nice but very brain-stretching. I have bought myself a new laptop. I have had my iBook for several years and it's been getting a bit slow recently. I have just upgraded to a new MacBook. The problem with new computers is that you have to get used to new programmes and new ways of working. It's all a bit time consuming and since I am also in the middle of writing a new short story it's even more complicated and testing than usual.

'What's the new story?' I hear you ask. Well, it's a special short story about the INDOOR PIRATES. It's going into my Joke Book that will be coming out shortly. There will be loads of good things in the book - not just jokes, so watch out for it!

It was great to meet so many huge fans at the Imagine Festival on London's South Bank last week. I couldn't believe the queue for book signing. It seemed to stretch on forever. Thanks to all those who waited so patiently. Oh well, I guess I'd better get back to the story! Have a good month! I've got lots of schools to visit in March so I'm looking forward to seeing some of out out there soon.

February

Phew! I think I'm still recovering from Christmas and the New Year. My waist still hasn't got back to normal size. By the time you read this I shall probably be on the opposite side of the globe as I am about to set off for a week of working in schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, and also in Singapore. I'm really looking forward to it. Singapore sits practically ON the Equator, so it will be VERY hot! I've been told to take light clothes and an umbrella, as it rains a lot. (Not much different from the UK then, apart from the heat!) This last month I have been working hard on the new book. It's almost finished and I hope to have it done by the time I leave for Gatwick Airport at the end of this week. There's a big change coming up in my writing life too. My editor for the last fifteen years, Yvonne, is retiring and so I shall be getting a new editor, Shannon. Yvonne and I have worked together forever it seems and we have done thirty books together. THIRTY! It's all been great fun and she's been brilliant.

So - HAVE A HAPPY RETIREMENT, YVONNE!

January

Sorry this is late! I have just got back from Turkey. We went there for a week to celebrate the New Year.

It was fantastic! We went to a restaurant beside the harbour. There was a big bonfire outside and several smaller bonfires that had been built in wheelbarrows. Every so often the waiters would move the wheelbarrows round to different tables so that everyone kept warm - it was brilliant! After the meal there was dancing and of course, when 2008 arrived, lots of fireworks went shooting up into the sky. All the dancers had sparklers and flares - it was really great. So we all did lots of jiving around the big bonfire and then some of the Turkish men and women did their traditional dancing, which was AMAZING! It is just so good - and very funny too when some of the waiters joined in and did a lot of clever clowning around. What a great way to see in the New Year!

Now I am back in Britain, in my shed at the bottom of the garden and I have to knuckle down to writing the new book. I'm not saying anything about it yet. It's all top secret, so sssssshhhhhhhhhh!

December

Christmas is coming, etc etc! I quite like Christmas, although I have to admit there are some things I don't like about it. Christmas Pudding - that is the pits! And Christmas Cake isn't any better. Yuk yuk yuk.

Actually, I think my dislike of these things is getting quite well known and it's all because of INVASION OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS.

Despite all this you will never guess what happened yesterday. My partner, Gillie, spent the whole day making christmas cakes - five of them - and then said that she had to go out for the evening so would I keep an eye on them? She told me they were in the oven cooking and all I had to do was get them out, make sure they were cooked through properly and then turn them out of their tins. Well, how daft is that? It's amazing I didn't throw them into the dustbin or flush them down the toilet. Oh well, I guess I don't actually have to eat them, thank goodness.

I have been working on a new Christmas story, ready for 2008 - more news about thast later. In between working I have been out doing my christmas shopping. I have found some brilliant books but best of all is a self-inflating whoopee cushion. I'm going to give it to my grandson, Sam, along with one or two other things. And then I'm going to make his mum sit on it. Whoopee! (Dont tell anyone - it's a secret.) Now I must go and get all my christmas cards done. I hope you all have a fantastic christmas and a brilliant, sparkling 2008.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

November

Oh boy, sometimes, I wonder if I shall ever stop racing round seeing people. October was stuffed full of visits all over the place, and November isn't looking much better. However, I shouldn't complain. I love going into schools, meeting lots of fans and having a laugh with them. (Sometimes we even manage to a bit serious, but not for long!) And this month I have a bit of a treat because I am flying out to Malta where I shall spend a whole week visiting schools across the island and also seeing something of the island itself. I am really looking forward to it. A lot of the children on Malta have already been leaving me messages on the Message Board of the website.

I have also been spending a lot of time recently thinking about the next book to write. It's going to be another story about My Brother's Famous Bottom, and I am wondering just what sort of adventured Cheese can get up to next. I have one or two ideas up my sleeve but I am not going to give away any clues in case I change my mind. This is one of the things I have noticed about writing - I start off with an idea in mind but often it changes as i actually do the writing. That's because I sometimes think of something better to use instead. When you're writing a story you have to be prepared to change what you write.

And now I shall reveal what my most un-favourite question is. This is what I asked in almost every school I visit: "What football team do you support?"

And I shall tell you right now that I never answer that question! If you knew the answer then some of you would go: 'Boooo!' and some of you would go: 'Yeah! Hooray!', and lots of you wouldn't care one way or the other. So I don't answer it at all. Beware - you have been warned!

October

October starts with a bang. I'm visiting schools every day of the first week and then ending up on the Friday and Saturday at the Cheltenham Festival. It's all good fun but also a lot of work. I went to a school on Monday and I was showing the 6 year olds a picture of my mother when she was young, holding my little baby sister. I said: "My mother doesn't look like that now because she's just had her 85th birthday." One of the children called out: "Wow! She's almost dead!"

Well, I managed to get the Christmas story I was working on finished at last. It is now safe with my editor at Puffin. It will come out in time for Christmas 2008. It's all about some very strange and incredible pyjamas. There certainly seems to have been a lot going on recently. I have been writing and visiting and in between I have managed to fit in my daughter Jessica's wedding. We had a great time, with lots of silly dancing and singing. It was a really happy occasion and Jess of course looked stunning! (Her husband didn't look bad either!)

September

I've just been gazing at my blog for August and you know that picture of me at the top of the page? Well the hair's all wrong. I'm grey, not black! I've been grey for years and years!

Anyhow, never mind. I'm still working away on the new story and it's coming on well. In the meantime of course the latest book is hitting the shops. It's a special title for Christmas - INVASION OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS!

It is completely bonkers and I hope you really will laugh your socks off.

There has been so much work going on that I am going to take a bit of a holiday. I shall be spending the beginning of September in Turkey. I still have a lot of work to do on the new story so I shall take my laptop out with me and do a fair bit of writing, I hope. If I get too tired I can always dive into the pool, or wander down to the beach, have an ice cream or two or three and a nice cold drink. We are going to hire a boat for the day too, so we can go to all the little hidden bays nearby and swim in the clear blue sea - fab!

Or maybe I'll just wander into town, have a long, cool drink and a luscious meal. Am I making you all envious? I am so sorry - NOT!

When I get back my daughter Jessica is getting married, so I have that to look forward to as well. It's going to be a great month. Have fun, everyone!

August

It's going to be a busy month. I'm starting a new story. Ssssh - top secret! Don't ask what it's about because I can't tell you. All I can say is that it is going to be upROARious. That's a tiny clue, by the way.

There's a new book out this month - PIRATE SCHOOL: A VERY FISHY BATTLE.

It came out on August 1st. It's another story about that dreadful Pirate School headteacher - Patagonia Clatterbottom, plus all the other teachers and pupils. The Woppagobs return and cause all sorts of problems.

Anyhow, you'd think that because most people are on their summer holidays there wouldn't be much for me to do. In fact I shall be busy up at the Edinburgh Festival. I shall also be helping to judge the Silentnight story writing competition. I have seen many of the stories and there are some fantastic ones. All we have to do now is pick a winner, and that is going to be very, very difficult.

It's amazing how many good young writers are out there, scribbling away.

I visited a school recently and I asked how many liked writing stories at home. Lots of hands went up, and I asked one girl where she went to write her stories at home.

'In the bedroom,' she told me.

'Whereabouts? Do you sit at a desk or lie on your bed?'

She shook her head. 'I hide in the cupboard!'

Brilliant!

I hope I can get lots of writing done this month and then, right at the end of August, I am going away for a two week holiday to Turkey. I've been there twice before, and it's wonderful. It's always good to have something to look forward to, don't you think? Happy hols!

July

Just when I was supposed to go whizzing off to visit some schools I got a cough, and a very annoying cough it was, too. It kept me awake at night and stopped me from speaking during the day. I got rid of that eventually and then went to visit a rather special school in Surrey. I had SUCH a BIG surprise! You will never guess who the head-teacher was?

She turned out to be an old friend from a long time ago (THIRTY SEVEN YEARS!) who used to be involved with the jazz-rock band I was in - The Inedible Cheese Sandwich! We had a great time sharing our memories from long ago and catching up on what has happened to us since.

Now I am back home, sorting through piles of mail - most of it from you lot! - and answering it. I am also preparing to write a new story.

That means I stare out of the window a lot and close my eyes a lot and drift off to - NO! I'M WORKING! HONESTLY! At the end of last week my partner Gillie and I went to a Summer Ball! It was rather posh and wonderful. Gillie's oldest daughter has just left school (she's almost 18) and the occasion was the Leaver's Ball. It was great fun, even though we had to wear evening jackets and bow ties. (I don't like wearing a tie!) I have to admit I got a bit worn out by the frantic dancing and had to sit down. And then lie down. And then go to sleep...

zzzzzz.

June

It's a strange time. It feels as if my mind is in two places. I'm thinking towards the next story I'm planning to write. It's going to be a story for Christmas, 2008, but it has to be written now. It feels strange to be thinking about Christmas when it's the middle of the year and the height of summer.

At the same time I am also very busy visiting schools so I don't actually have the time to write at the moment even though I'm thinking about it.

I have spent most of the last week in Holland, in The Hague, visiting english-speaking schools. It's always fascinating to go into these schools because you meet people from so many countries. One school I visited had pupils from over thirty different countries - and there they all were playing and learning together. It was brilliant! One of the schools had a pair of storks nesting in a tree beside their play area. The storks were raising two young. Storks are quite rare now and are protected birds so everyone was wildly excited to have this pair nesting so close to their classrooms. I went up on the school roof with some of the staff to watch them through a telescope. And I have never seen so many bicycles! EVERYBODY seems to ride a bicycle in Holland. I took a photograph of the main carpark at the central station because it didn't have a single car parked in it - it was filled with thousands of bicycles instead. Amazing!

May

I've had a strange few weeks recently as I have been slowly moving house. I have moved to a pretty, small town in Wiltshire. It has a lovely river and a coffee bar with outside tables and lots of interesting buildings. There's a also a canal and you can go boating. I have been moving bits and pieces over several days. Jeeves (my cat) has settled in very well and he now has three friends who also live here - Bandit, Zorro and Tinkerbell.

Meanwhile I have also been racing to finish a new story about MY BROTHER. I managed to finish it last weekend and it is now with Puffin.

I won't tell you what happens, but I will say that when you read it you will discover a carrot called Cecily Sprout, who wears barbie outfits, several hens (all called Chicken Nugget), and a yurt. So what happens next? Well, I have several visits coming up. I am going to visit some schools in Scotland, and then I go to Brighton, Telford, and the Hay Festival. After that I fly to Holland to visit a school there for several days. Then it's back to England for several more schools before I stop for a summer break.

Maybe I'll see you somewhere!

April

It's an odd life, being an author. Some weeks I seem to spend all day stuck in my room all on my own, writing. And then at other times I hardly seem to be at home. I have spent most of March visiting schools all over the place. For example yesterday I was in Milan, Italy, talking to children in an English-speaking school out there. Life has been very busy! On top of all of that I am also preparing to move house, so there's lots to do.

However, it is also TIME FOR A HOLIDAY - so I say HOORAY! to that. Even writers have to have holidays. I know you lot probably think that all we do is lounge around pretending we're thinking, but I can tell you that LOUNGING AROUND IS VERY HARD WORK SOMETIMES! So I am going to Turkey for ten days to stay in a villa beside the Mediterranean and I hope that the sun is going to shine. I went to the same place last year and it is very beautiful and people out there are hugely kind and lovely. Food's good too! So yum yum! Byeeee!

March

Phew! What a week! World Book Day has just finished in a whirl. I joined seven other Book Day authors at The Globe Theatre in London, where we each did a ten minute 'show'. It was great fun and I got to meet Anthony Horowitz for the first time, and Caroline Lawrence too. We were all given a bottle of bubbly too - yum yum!

At the moment I seem to be spending all my time 'on the road'. I went to the Blue Peter offices on Tuesday to do some filming for the Blue Peter website so you can see that being a writer doesn't mean being chained to my desk all day, scribbling away. In fact I could really do with some writing time at the moment. I need to get a new story done by the end of April. It usually takes a month or so to produce a story, so I'm already running out of time.

Help!

And guess what? I have a new grandchild - Ben. He's my second grandchild. (Sam is three.) And guess what my grandchildren call me? GRUMPY!

February

The last month has been pretty hectic. My editor liked LOST! THE HUNDRED MILE AN HOUR DOG, and it is already going through the next stage of getting it ready for publication. Nick Sharratt is probably working on the cover as I write this! I love it when I see his ideas come in.

But, big secret - I've also been working furiously on a story for next Christmas! I am not going to tell you what it is called yet, but it has an awful lot of deadly christmas puddings in it.

I am now gearing up for next week, when the big HUNDRED MILE AN HOUR DOG ROADSHOW gets under way. All next week I shall be away from home visiting St Alban's, Coventry, Stockport, Manchester and Reigate. I hope to meet lots of new readers and lots of fans.

It's going to be pretty hectic and my cat Jeeves will be pretty miffed because I won't be around to feed him. He is going to stay with some friends for the week.

He's been there before, but he prefers being here because I give him treats!

January

Just finished writing another story about Streaker. It’s called LOST! THE HUNDRED MILE AN HOUR DOG. I had meant to write it this summer, but things didn’t work out because I found myself very busy with other things. It’s always a good feeling to finish a new book. Now it’s with my editor at Puffin and she is busy reading it. I’m waiting to find out what she thinks. It’s a bit like handing your work over to your teacher for marking!

I’m going to make myself a cup of tea now. I still use loose tea - I don’t like tea-bags. I mix my own, with a bit of Assam, some Earl Grey and some English Breakfast. And I only put in a tiny bit of milk. I HATE MILKY THINGS! Rice Pudding - YUK! the SMELL of HOT MILK - double YUK!