Once one habit peels away the others follow it. You have to hold on, or the next thing you'll find yourself parading down the street in your nightdress. Habit is everything.

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition.

We are creatures of story.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.

A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.