I was fascinated by The Lord of the Rings from about the age of eight and that lasted well into my teens.

You aren't a hero and I'm not beautiful and we probably won't live happily ever after " she said. "But we're alive and together and we're going to be all right.

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.

I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.

Moving cities are a fairly hoary old sci-fi trope - I seem to recall they were always cropping up on Doctor Who when I was young, though I may be misremembering.

Godshawk looked surprised, the way that people generally do when you ask them philosophical questions in shrubberies in the middle of the night.

I was fascinated by The Lord of the Rings from about the age of eight and that lasted well into my teens.