Heather Dyer

Q: What were you like at school?

I wish I'd been a bit naughtier. I worked hard but when I had finished my work my teacher let me write stories at the back of the classroom.

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

I wanted to live in a house in the country and have a monkey who would hold my hand. I thought I might become a vet. I would have liked to write books, but I thought it would be too hard.

Q: Which three words describe you best?

You little monkey!

Q: What is your favourite word?

Terse.

Q: What makes you cringe?

Lying in bed at night remembering the things I've said that day.

Q: What are you afraid of?

Love.

Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?

I went to a play last week and it was so funny I couldn't help it.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

My family.

Q: What do you do as a hobby?

Read and walk. Both are also work.

Q: What strange habits do you have?

Singing lines of songs that seem to reveal what I'm thinking about, before I realized it myself.

Q: What’s your favourite food?

Creme brulee.

Q: What do you day dream about?

Absolutely everything.

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

Become a writer.

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

Pottery.

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

I feel eight.

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

My aunt May, who ran off with a Frenchman. Or my auntie Louie, who wrote children's books and proposed to her husband.

Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?

Goodness.

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

My childhood home, where we lived residentially at a large school, was fascinating to me. And still is - it was a wonderful place to live.

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

Make decisions based on your gut feeling.

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

I'd like to loosen up.

Q: What has life taught you?

Life is short, and love is all that matters.

Q: How long have you been a writer?

Since I was seven.

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

I always tried to write, but when I got my first short story accepted by a free magazine, I looked at the sky and felt for the first time that I knew where I was going.

Q: Where do you do your writing?

At my laptop in my bedroom.

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

The best is when the story feels as though it comes to you without you trying, as though it's already there. The worst is when you're forcing it and forcing it and nothing works.

Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

Goodness knows. Ideas just come, like gifts. Usually in the shower.

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

All of them in some way. But I probably appear on the outside more like stiff and pompous James or Alex, but I'm getting more like free spirited Hilary or Francis every day.

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

Just write rubbish until something comes.

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

The Magician's Nephew by C S Lewis.

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

The Magician's Nephew by C S Lewis. Or The Ogre Downstairs, by Diana Wynne Jones.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Read and write.