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Siobhan Parkinson

Siobhán Parkinson is one of Ireland's leading authors for children and teenagers, and she has won numerous awards for her writing. Siobhán lives in Dublin with her husband and grown-up son. Her books include Blue Like Friday, Second Fiddle and Something Invisible.

Place of birth and birthday: Dublin, 23 November 1954

My favourite book:
For grownups it's ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen and for children it's ‘A Little Princess’ by Frances Hodgkin Burnett, though I also like ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and ‘Bridge to Terabithia very much too, and ‘The Tale of Desereaux’. There are so many, I am not much good at favourites.

I can’t decide what my favourite song is, but I love Abba songs. I also like opera, especially the ones by Mozart, and my favourite aria, which is what they call songs in operas, is ‘Suave sia il vento’ (which sounds like it might be a kind of wine, so maybe I am mixed up, and I do not vouch for the spelling either) from the opera ‘Cosi fan futte’.

My favourite film for grownups at the moment is ‘The Lives of Others’ and my favourite children’s film is ‘Mary Poppins’.

My most treasured possession is my MP3 player. I have a visual disability, which means I can’t read, so instead I listen all the time to audiobooks. I download them (legally – I pay!) from the Internet or from CDs onto my MP3 player, and I go around almost permanently plugged in. People in my family have to shout at me or pull out my ear-phones if they want to talk to me.

I started writing so long ago I forget. But I was still in primary school. I wrote a play when I was about 11, with a friend. It was a detective story and the detective was Chinese. I have no idea why, though I had a Chinese dressing gown that made a good costume, so that might have been the reason. We put it on in my friend’s back garden and we wore our mothers’ shoes. It was great fun, but I think the actors enjoyed it more than the audience, who had to pay, of course.

My ideas come out of my head. At least, that seems to be where they come from. I could be wrong. I ever seem to have any ideas until I start writing, but when I get going, the ideas come tumbling out through my fingers onto the keyboard, so I suppose they are coming from my head, but I can’t be sure. I am prepared to entertain another theory, if anyone has one.

Three writing tips: (1) read a lot, (2) write every day – keep a diary, or email your friends, (3) when you write a story (or a letter or email), always think about the person who is going to read what you write; your mum will read every word you write, because it’s her job to think you are wonderful; if you are lucky, your friends, classmates, teacher might like what you write too; but imagine a stranger reading what you write – how are you going to make this person keep reading?

My hobbies are reading (listening to audiobooks), singing and learning new languages (currently Russian and Chinese). I also like travelling, but I like coming home too.

My favourite country is Italy, but my favourite city is Munich and my favourite place in the world is my bed. (Is this not true of everyone?) When I am writing and I get stuck, I like to lie in bed in the mornings and think about the problem. Unkind people say I am being lazy, but I know I am really working hard. It just doesn’t look that way.

If I hadn’t been an author I would have been … unhappy.