I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.

If you just literally stand still for a while, listen and think, things will eventually get sorted out.

I hope that when children read my stories that they evoke images for children. I four stories can help children use their own imaginations and lead them to act the stories out or to embark on related research, they will learn more and learn to love reading more.

If I'm reading about a river or the trees or the wind blowing or the stars at night, if you can hear that in the music in some way, you've wedded the two and your imagination takes off. To be able to hear that in music is really important.

For the last time, you cannot wear that cropped fleece vest

I think that the best way to explain that is that my mother gave me all the color and character and flare and liveliness, and my father gave me all the sanity and nature and all the things that helped me be a more rounded human being.

The old fairy tales are very, very violent, and these days I think we could do with a little less of it.