Philip Burton

Q: What were you like at school?

I was a little lemon.

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

A big bold grapefruit! Oh, and I wanted to own the local gasworks. Later I wanted to be the boss of the bosses, which is why I became a head teacher I suppose.

Q: Which three words describe you best?

energetic, energetic, energetic

Q: What is your favourite word?

energetic

Q: What makes you cringe?

big wild animals in little cages

Q: What are you afraid of?

stinging nettle soup

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

Yesterday at a Wendy Cope poetry reading

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

my family

Q: What do you do as a hobby?

I grow stinging nettles, brave vegetables like leeks, strong flowers like Calendulas, high in the Pennine hills.

Q: What strange habits do you have?

I say poems in the bathroom

Q: What’s your favourite food?

Cumberland sausage

Q: What do you day dream about?

I go into a poem. They are like little jewels. You see wonderful things.

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

I once hit a hockey ball so hard before a match that it knocked my own goalie's teeth out. He smiled. He was a big tough guy.

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

Mountaineer, but I'd have a letter from my mum excusing me just in case!

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

Every day in every way I feel a little younger - it's working with kids and their poems.

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

My grandad who I never knew.

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

Confident tranquility

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

Loch Haven, Pennsylvania

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

When one door closes another opens

Q: What has life taught you?

Keep your chin up

Q: How long have you been a writer?

eleven years

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

when I sent my first poem off and it did well in The Kent and Sussex Poetry Competition.

Q: Where do you do your writing?

in a little office or sometimes in the large world

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

the best is the thrill of writing something that no-one ever ever thought-up before. the worst is when you get stuck for the right word; you know it's out there hiding among every other word, and thumbing its little nose.

Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

things, places, people, events, smells, sounds, sights, textures, enthusiasms, hates, joys, loves

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

I sit and dream

Q: What was your favourite book as a child?

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Graham

Q: What book do you wish you had written?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Be brave, be bold, be happy