December 2009

Older than a paintbrush but younger than a mountain fish.

Actually I do. I expect the people at the bookshop eat them before you get there.

He’d work at a bookshop just so he could steal all the Smarties.

‘Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree’. I wish I could tell you all about it, but you’ll just have to wait. But don’t you worry – I think it’s gonna be a good one.

I broke my brother’s uncle.

Hi, Seth! Good question. My favourite sentence is probably: ‘No words are needed between us to communicate the things we feel,’ said Friday.

Yes, you can have a medal made of words. Here it is: WELL DONE, JINGLEO! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY NUMBER 1 IN THE ANDY STANTON CLUB OF CHILDREN WHO SPEND FAR TOO LONG LISTENING TO MY VOICE ON CD. :)

We shall see, Michael. I’ve got an idea he might make a reappearance one of these days.

Lily, I just don’t know. Love is a mysterious and squishy thing and no one can explain it, not even Friday O’Leary. In fact, especially not Friday O’Leary.

The weirdest thing that ever happened to me was becoming a children’s author! As for dragon names, I can do some stupid ones. How about Hot Adam, Voom-Factory or Pram Listener? Here’s some cooler names for serious dragons: Strikeclaw, The Gryx, Lazaros. Sorry if they were a bit rubbish, they’re all I can think of right now.

Hi, Christina the non-flappy fan! Mr Gum has indeed got a mum and perhaps she might appear in a future story. Or perhaps not. We shall see. You’re welcome, come again!

Polly, I accept your mighty challenge. I DO dare to answer. Um, let’s see. I think I’d be Polly too, not because I want to wear a dress (I don’t, particularly) but because she’s brave and honest and adventurous. If I wasn’t allowed to be Polly I’d be Friday because he’s good at music. And if I wasn’t allowed to be Friday either, I’d just sulk.

Whoa – don’t mess with Sian, Simon. I’ve seen her break a breadstick with her own bare hands.

Ha! Another day, another Ween fan! I know I must have a favourite quote but my mind’s gone blank. All I can think of is ‘Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow’, from Frank Zappa. Pretty good advice for this time of year, really.

Probably Billy, his arms are quite muscley from all the meat-chopping he does. My arms are quite weedy from all the exercise I don’t do – although my fingers are filled with the power of adjectives, similes and exclamation marks.

That is SO unfair, Willow!! Boooo to your teacher! Booo! The most unjust thing that ever happened to me wasn’t exactly a punishment – but when I was about your age, I told my mum I absolutely couldn’t stand eating the horrible sloppy mince they served at school dinners. So she told the dinner ladies not to give me any mince in future. But the dinner ladies misunderstood and thought my mum was asking them to give me EXTRA mince. So the next time mince was on the menu, they slopped an absolutely huge pile of the stuff on my plate. It was like a little brown steaming hill, lumpy in some places, watery in others. And the dinner ladies stood over me while I attempted to eat it and they said things like, ‘that’s right, eat all your lovely mince! You love your mince, that’s what your mum told us!’ I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve this terrible fate. There they stood, encouraging me, with kind expressions on their faces... Oh, it was horrible, Willow, it really was. In the end I managed to get through about half of it but my head was spinning and my stomach too, and I spent the rest of the day being sick in the Nurse’s room. That was nearly thirty years ago but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Urgh!

Aww, thanks, Ella. But to be honest, I’m just not as good as David. I can draw a bit, but boy, he can draw a lot.

I liked some of them, not all of them. And not all of them liked me. I used to wind up the ones I didn’t like and drive them crazy.

What a good question! No, Daisy, I should write every day – but I don’t always. I am trying to train myself to write a bit each day but it’s hard because I’m naturally lazy and waste far too much time on silly things.

Hello, T! I was probably in the top two or three writers in my class. Perhaps I was the best, I don’t know. I used to write funny poetry and silly stories at school – just like I do now, really. I went to a primary school called Elmgrove just down the road from where I grew up in a place called Kenton, in Middlesex. In fact, that’s where the horrible Mince Incident (or ‘Mincident’ for short) happened. Thanks for your questions, everyone. Have a good festive season and see you in 2010!