Frances Thomas

Q: What were you like at school?

Good at English and art. Absolutely hopeless at games, maths, science, needlework. Anything useful really.

Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?

I wanted to write and illustrate stories. I've achieved 50% of that.

Q: Which three words describe you best?

Cautious but curious

Q: What is your favourite word?

English - puddle, cinnamon, scarlet. Welsh - cwtsh, arian, twp I think that's more than one - told you I was hopeless at maths

Q: What makes you cringe?

TV programmes in which people are humiliated for entertainment

Q: What strange habits do you have?

Writing stories is a pretty strange habit

Q: What’s your favourite food?

Eating fresh fish by the sea, or Indian food with a lake and a palace in the distance and sitar music playing....

Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?

I don't think I've ever done anything really outrageous. But there's still time...

Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I'd like to be an artist, but I'm not good enough

Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?

Most days I vary between feeling 5 and 105

Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Shakespeare, but there'll be so many other people with the same idea, I'd be at the back of a long queue

Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?

India

Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Someone once wrote in my autograph album 'What we think, or what we believe, or what we know is in the end of little consequence. What matters is what we do.' It's from John Ruskin, and I'm probably misquoting it

Q: What would you most like to change about yourself?

I'd like to get rid of that old woman who somehow seems to have got herself into my mirror

Q: What has life taught you?

I'll tell you when I get to the end of it

Q: How long have you been a writer?

My first book was published in 1980

Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?

I've always wanted to write

Q: Where do you do your writing?

Hidden away in my study, facing a blank wall.

Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?

The best things are writing, and meeting readers. The worst things are just about everything else

Q: Which of your own characters do you most identify with?

Whichever one I'm writing about.

Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?

Refuse to believe in it

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

The Secret Garden

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

Mostly I don't wish I'd written other people's books, because then I wouldn't have the pleasure of reading them

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Just do it. Don't let anyone else put you off (and believe me, they'll try.)