It is the child's understanding that teaches the adults the way of the future. They're still doing it today with modern technology.

Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.

Any problem can be solved between people if only they can trust each other

I was brought up, as a lot of kids are, on 'Aesop's Fables,' 'Brothers Grimm,' 'La Fontaine,' all those sorts of things. Hans Christian Andersen is a hero of mine.

Elephants are my favourite creatures and have been since I was a boy and my mother read Kipling's The Elephant's Child to me. It was loving elephants so much that made we want to write my own story with an elephant at the centre and its bond with a child.

But just as soon as this war's over and finished with,I'll get back home and marry her.I've grown up with her, Joey, known her all my life. S'pose I know her almost as well as I know myself, and I like her a lot better.

I fill up the well of stories in my head - without ever knowing I'm doing it.