This month, I got a list of questions from a school in Barrow-in-Furness.

Are you writing any more books?

When did you become an artist?

Where do you get your book ideas from?

How do you draw really good pictures?

What materials do you use for your illustrations?

Here are my answers.

Yes! I am writing more books all the time. Right now, I am working on a longer book about a little girl who moves house, and the strange things she finds in the new place.

I have always been an artist, just like you!

There are book ideas everywhere. They just come to you like birds come to a tree if you let them. Try imagining that your feet are roots that go far down into a big hill of everything you ever thought about, and make yourself tall on that hill, and spread out your arms and say: I want to write a book. Then see if an idea lands on you. It works for me! Or maybe you prefer digging down into the hill for ideas that live there, like moles and secret treasure. That also works.

To draw a really good picture, draw a picture and look at it to find what’s really good about it. Then draw more pictures, and over time it will get easier to see how good they are.

For my illustrations, I use everything that makes marks that I enjoy. My favourite material is ink, but I also love finding colours that I want to use by trying out all the crayons and paints that I can find. Sometimes I even make my own. Maybe you can find out about that as a project – there are many ways of making colourful inks and paints!

Feel free to send me questions – I will usually answer them (if I am TERRIBLY BUSY it may take some time).