Stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions.

Being his real brother I could feel I live in his shadows, but I never have and I do not now. I live in his glow.

For me,the greater part of writing is daydreaming, dreaming the dream of my story until it hatches out-the writing down of it I always find hard.But I love finishing it,then holding the book in my hand and sharing my dream with my readers.

I spend months, sometimes years, doing what I call dreamtime, weaving it together inside my head. But when I actually feel that the egg of my story is ready to hatch, then I can write it in three months. Then I know the landscape and the people well and from the inside, but I don't necessarily know where the story is going to take us.

I was never a great reader, but there were two stories I loved best: Kipling's The Elephant's Child and The Jungle Book. Deep down, I've always wanted to write a book about a wild child and an elephant.

What's really good is that there are people making stories and writing them and the vast majority never see the light of day and it doesn't matter a fig.

I don't want to be separate from something that's important to me.