Once upon a time:
I was born long, long ago in Aldershot, Hampshire.
I lived not far from Fleet as a child.
I have two sisters and one brother. I'm the youngest.

I wanted to be:
As clever as my sisters and brother
A hairdresser, a hermit, Biggles
A poet

Pets:
I had two dogs, a cat, a budgerigar, a guinea pig, two hamsters and many mice. Plus a stick insect, but he came to a sad end.

School and so forth:
Queen's Road Primary (Farnborough); Aldershot County High;
National Cathedral School (Washington DC) ; Wycombe Abbey.
Somerville College, Oxford, and then MIT for a year.

Jobs:
Author and editor (both fun).
I edit the revised edition of the Wainwright walking guides.

Home and family:
I have three grown-up children and six grandchildren
I live in Hampstead, north London

Exciting plans:
Lots of school visits.
Visits to Cornwall in Spring 2012.

What I'm working on at the moment:
I'm longing to see Paul Hess's illustrations forTroll Wood.
I'm mulling over a follow-up to Similon about the renegade Chief Wizard Lazarus Logios who cheats death. I'm turning my reading books into e-books (trying to resist the temptation to rewrite them as I go) and creating a website where grandparents and grand-children all over the world can share what they can of each other's lives.  Plus several projects so new I don't talk about them yet.