Ever since I was small I’ve always loved a wide range of stories. I was a bit of a tomboy and didn’t really buy into the idea of princesses being swept off their feet, preferring instead the original Brothers Grimm versions of the fairytale classics.

As a child I shared Hans Christian Anderson, J R R Tolkein and Roald Dahl with my dad. I loved strong characters who didn’t quite fit in, The Ugly Duckling, Gollum and Charlie Bucket to name three. The idea of ‘once upon a time…happily ever after’ was always a little tedious for me and I preferred the stories where things went dreadfully wrong before they were put right. My favourite books of all time are The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers and Return of the King and I still read them regularly as an adult.

As a parent I love reading with my children and have developed a fondness for new characters. Shakespeare shorts and all the Harry Potter books are firm favourites in our house with my eldest, and the little one and littlest one love anything with bold and bright illustrations. My daughters avoid Disney princesses almost as much as I did, preferring instead funny stories that make them laugh, like Bear’s Big Bottom by Steve Smallman and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems.

As a parent, and author, I am astounded by the work of Julia Donaldson. Her ability to suck the reader in to whatever world she is writing about is magnificent and the illustrations by Axel Scheffler bring those worlds to life. I was told at one of my 2018 events, featuring The Creature, that my rhymes are “nearly as good as Julia Donaldson”. That made me burst with happiness and I will never forget it. To be nearly as good as someone so incredible was a brilliant compliment that I was so very glad to be given…in fact for just a second I contemplated having business cards made up with that quote on them.

My first primary school teacher, Miss Edwards, made a big impact on me. I remember happily cross-stitching a diplodocus while she told us a story about dinosaurs. She always made learning fun and I remember writing stories on bits of paper that she used to clip together for me.

In high school it was my English teacher, Mrs Sneyd, who taught me that all good stories have a beginning, middle and an end, but great stories have a conflict in the middle of the story that is more than likely resolved by the end. She inspired me to read and write poetry, she introduced me to Shakespeare and gave me confidence in what I wrote.

At college I studied English literature and language, as well as drama and media studies, and it is here that I began writing stories, poems and plays with adult themes. I continued this as I studied for my degree in English at university.

It is only after graduating that I became aware that I could entertain children with stories. I would make them up on the spot for young relatives and would always get told that I should be on children’s television. Years later I began writing stories down and illustrating them. I worked on private commissions for birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions. It is because of these commissions that I finally took the leap and started working on books for publication.

Since then I have published many and I always have ideas for many more. I adore writing stories and I mostly love illustrating them, though my pictures don’t always look on the paper as they do in my head. One day I would like to be as good as Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, but I know I have lots more work to do before I get anywhere near their standard of excellence. I’ll keep trying though, as that’s what Miss Edwards and Mrs Sneyd taught me to do.