January 2008

I hope so! In fact, the next "Mr Gum" book will be out in February 2008 and it's called "Mr Gum and the Power Crystals". It's spooky! It's sinister! It's stupid! Look out for it! At the moment I'm working on a FIFTH "Mr Gum" book but I don't have a title for it yet and I wouldn't tell anyone if I did. It's a secret. OOOOOH.

I don't have any small children of my own but I do have lots of small cousins. One of them is called Ben, actually he's not that small but he's got long hair like a girl. I sometimes call him "the beautiful lady" and then he calls me "caveman" because I'm quite hairy myself. I don't have any whopper dogs like big old Jakey either. Actually, just like Friday O'Leary, I'm secretly a bit scared of whopper dogs.

I honestly don't know but it's lucky he has them or he'd just lie around a lot doing nothing.

You're very welcome, Eloise. Thanks for your fab questions and for having a very cool name!

I just wanted to come up with the nastiest, smelliest, stupidest villain I could think of. Bingo! Up popped Mr Gum. And I put him in old-fashioned tramps' clothing because that makes me laugh, for some reason.

I wanted to write a story to make my cousins laugh, yes even my cousin Ben, or "the beautiful lady", as I call him.

Hi, Ollie. I know your dad! Hey, everyone, Ollie's dad is a famous author who writes a series called "Spy Dog". OOOOOH! Now, in answer to your question - I'm not sure, sorry. Perhaps we'll find out in a future "Mr Gum" book. But I'm afraid that even I don't know everything about the characters. As Billy himself would say, it's a mittersy.

No, I hate them, and as you're my mother you should know that already.

It's in the town of Lamonic Bibber, of course. Do send me a postcard from there when you visit, I'd be very interested and quite surprised to see it.

Polly doesn't really go to school, she seems to get away without it but I'm not sure how or why. Luckily, though, she has two friends who are good at teaching her stuff: Friday O'Leary to teach her about the Universe and Alan Taylor to teach her about the natural world.

The goblins were children who went to Doctor No-Fun's School of Boredom. But they got so bored of it they ran away, and now they go to Alan Taylor's school, Saint Pterodactyl's School for the Poor, which is much better and loads more fun.

My favourite word at the moment is "pennywhistle" but it changes a lot. Now it's "robot". Now it's "loganberry". Now it's "fickle". See what I mean?

No, but I go there a lot in my dreams.

I don't know what to say to that. I don't feel very strange and wonderful at the moment, I feel quite tired and I've got a sore throat.

You're very welcome. What a polite young 39-year-old lady you are!

Thank you very much for your question, Christopher.*

*Actual answer may not include any information about Crafty Tom.