Recently I was very lucky to be interviewed for the Owlish Books blog. Loes M, who runs the site is a true fan of books and has set up an amazing site that should hopefully go from strength to strength. The background to the interview was that she had kindly reviewed one of my earlier books The Frog who Loved Mathematics and gave it the thumbs up, so I dropped her a line to thank her. Honestly, it was refreshing change to find someone who didn’t tear it apart and just took it at face value – other people can get quite worked up about a simple frog who likes Maths. The book was actually a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards and that gets judged by school children, but it doesn’t stop some adults trying to make conclusions on behalf of children about what they can understand and enjoy!

I really enjoyed answering the diverse questions that Loes M. gave me. There were ones about the background to my books (why do I like writing about frogs for instance?) and general stuff about my approach to the writing process (…random and disorganized would most likely be a kind way of putting it!). I also got the chance to talk more about my upcoming book The Frog Who Was Blue, my associated work with the World Medical Fund charity and some of the literacy and education projects I do with schools.

What I enjoyed were the more unusual fun questions:
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
What did you want to be when you were little?
If you could have dinner with any character from a book, who would it be and why?

Yes for a brief moment, these kind of questions allow you to shake of the stuffy old writer image that some people want you to live up to…