usan, your books have been described as ‘impossibly outrageous horror stories’. Wacky, unpredictable and always hilarious, where do you get  your ideas from?

When I'm looking for plots I read a lot, particularly science and history. But all sorts of other things too. For instance, I got an idea for Killer Mushrooms Ate My Gran from the magazine Marie Claire when I saw a photo of a modern African Chief with his royal ceremonial spitting pot. The other thing is, lots of things people think I've made up for my plots are true. The spitting pot exists; fainting goats in Night of the Haunted Trousers exist. I love it when truth is stranger than fiction. When I've got a collection of topics that fascinate me I start thinking laterally and try to construct a plot. Like Meccano. Or those old "eleven plus" essay topics (Am I showing my age here?) that asked you to "Write a story that involves a banana, being stuck in a lift, a hamster and a garden hose." Sometimes the plot fits together beautifully. Sometimes it just collapses. So I have to start all over again.

If your best friend had to describe you in three key words, what would she/he say?

I asked one of my friends (also a writer) this question and she came up with "forthright, generous and loquacious". This last is her writerly way of saying I never shut up. She also said "argumentative" but, of course, I strongly disagree with that.

The titles of your books sound like sci-fi films and the plots themselves are very sci-fi’ and cinematic in feel. Is this deliberate?

I did love sci-fi when I was much younger, although I don't read it at all now. I remember being allowed to take books out of the "adult library" when I was twelve. It seemed to me like being in a treasure trove. I read my way through all those sci-fi "Gollancz" books with bright yellow covers. Also I was brought up in the fifties, the glory years of the American "B" movie, so something must have rubbed off. In fact, when I was writing Vampire Spiders I printed out an old 50's B movie poster from the Internet. I can't remember the title of the film (Was it "Vampire Spiders from Mars"?) but it had a scantily clad female in the dripping fangs of a giant arachnid. Anyway, I had this stuck on the wall by my desk as I wrote the story. So to answer your question, making the plots of my comedy books sci-fi and cinematic isn't deliberate. I probably just can't help it.

What would you say to people who think that children should be reading ‘serious’ literary fiction?

I'd say, chill out, we all need to laugh.

But seriously! - this is a tricky question for me. I don't want to get all defensive. Although I did spend years (Good Lord, I was commended for the Carnegie, and won other prizes) writing what people call "serious fiction" for children. See, told you I'd get defensive.

Actually, I came to comedy writing quite late and I suspect it's the eternal cry of many comedy writers that critics don't take them seriously. I've been told, for instance, that in the children's literature world, "funny books" hardly ever win prizes. But I honestly view my Puffin books, in the way I plan them and write them, as "serious literature". I don't make any compromises. And, the truth is, I find comic prose a real challenge. It seems to me a very complex balancing act. I'm still learning - and that's exciting. The other thing is, I don't think my books are just "funny books." There is tragedy in them and serious issues and , I hope depth. But I don't apologise for the laughter. I think laughter is vital to children (and adults too of course). However, research has shown that adults laugh about 15 times a day and children 125. I'm probably quoting the wrong statistics here but you get the picture. Laughter is a major part of children's lives. Children laugh for all sorts of reasons. Not only because they're happy but because they're embarrassed, or scared, or confused. I think they often relate to the world around them and try to cope with it, through laughter. Why shouldn't we acknowledge it when we write for them? If we don't, we ignore a huge part of their experience. Sometimes I believe that adults find children's private laughter very unsettling, even intimidating. It's too anarchic - are they mocking us and our adult world? Do they know something we don't? Also, adults can easily misinterpret it. I've done it often myself often, with my own children and when I first started teaching, mistaking laughter for defiance, when it was really embarrassment, or distress.

Is there such a thing as a reluctant reader?

No. Perhaps this term has a more specific meaning in schools but to me it seems one of those catch-all terms that's so undefined it's almost meaningless. Who says the reader is reluctant? Reluctant to read what? Reluctant compared to who? And are we only talking about books here? One of my sons doesn't read books. But he reads newspapers avidly. And art and music magazines and "The Big Issue". Should he be labelled a "reluctant reader."? Perhaps it's too easy to apply this term to children who aren't reading what we think they ought to. I've been a bookish person all my life but I'm a "reluctant reader" every time I have to read things that don't inspire me.

What do you have on your desk?

At this precise moment? A computer, a cup of coffee and heaps of junk, including articles I've ripped out of newspapers for various reasons. The top one is about a carbon monoxide detector. Thanks to this questionnaire I've just remembered I ought to buy one for my daughter, for her student lodgings.

I also have white board markers in six colours. I've taken to plotting things out on a white board. Underlining things in different colours somehow makes it all look so much more purposeful.

You used to be a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. What made you change career?

I taught English in a comprehensive school for ten years. I didn't leave teaching with any plan. It was all rather sudden. I lost a baby and the day I went back to work I walked into the Head's office and resigned. Looking back, it seems a reckless thing to do but I wasn't thinking logically at the time! Afterwards I thought, "What have you done? You've thrown away your career." So I tried to make myself another one, writing for children. I started with school books because I often used to write my own material, especially drama and poetry to use in lessons (Would I be allowed to do that now?) and then I moved into fiction. No-one was more surprised than me when it all actually worked out.

Do you have any remaining ambitions?

Yes, I'd like to be known as a really good children's comic writer. Seriously. Also, I'd like to learn to play the classical guitar, speak fluent French, go and see more live music, live on the Northumberland coast, be a more confident driver ---------how long do you want me to go on?

Can you tell us what you’re working on at the moment?

Another Puffin book. And, let me tell you, the plotting doesn't get any easier. That white board is a rainbow of colours!