Describe the place where you write/draw

I can’t work at a desk! I will work anywhere in my house, usually in my dining room or on the sofa. I have to be relaxed and comfortable to be able to be creative. I have various sketchbooks and my laptop scattered around the house.

What is your most treasured possession?

 I can’t be specific on this either as I have too many things I can’t live without! Some of my favourite possessions are books signed by fellow authors and illustrators, I have quite a nice collection now. I did an event recently with Marc Boutavant – the amazingly talented french illustrator and he signed a ‘Mouk’ book for me. He spent ages doing a beautiful drawing on the title page, in fact he spent so long doing the drawing he didn’t get to eat much of his dinner before we went on stage.

What times of the day do you work? All day, every day. I do stop sometimes but I don’t have a strict routine! Once I worked until dawn to try and meet a deadline, needless to say I wasn’t very productive the next day so now I do try to be sensible and have lots of bourbon biscuit breaks.

What distracts you?

Twitter, tea, my family, random ideas for stories, things in the fridge. I live on a busy residential street and there are always people to spy on out the window if I’m bored!

What is your favourite smell?

Damp leaves in the wood after it has rained…. ooh and grass cuttings.

Cat or dog?

Dog, I have one and we do dog agility together (the thing they do at Crufts with jumps, obstacles and tunnels, except we’re not quite to competition standard!). Here is a picture of him in the sea, he loves to swim too.

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I was delighted when I was asked to illustrate  ‘I Don’t Believe it, Archie!’ by Andrew Norriss. I always love to illustrate funny and bizarre scenarios and the wackier the illustration request, the better.

I’ve had a few strange things happen to me but this one is one I remember from when I was little…

I grew up in the countryside without a TV and sometimes my imagination would run away with me. I like to think of it as a good thing as it has probably helped me become who I am today.

My dad loved to play April Fools jokes and he somewhat exploited the fact that both my sister and I were completely gullible and believed almost everything he said. His usual trick was to shout that he’d seen something amazing in the garden (e.g. an escaped tiger from the zoo, a yeti, that sort of thing). He would yell “WHAT is THAT outside?! Come and look girls!” and we’d rush excitedly to the window.

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At DFB, we love stories – and who better to tell them than our award-winning writers and illustrators?  That’s right, our new storyblog is going to be jam-packed full of writing, photos and exclusive artwork posted by over 30 DFB storytellers.  We’re really excited about this new project, where you can follow posts by your very favourite writers and artists, as well as meeting new DFB debutants!

Our group of DFB bloggers will take it in turns to post on a different question or topic, brought to mind by our new DFB titles.  For this first wave of storyblogs, they’re thinking about I DON’T BELIEVE IT ARCHIE!, and the unlikely situations and rib-tickling predicaments that Archie ends up in. You see, due to his incredible luck – and a fair few misunderstandings and bizarre coincidences! – Archie never quite ends up where he plans to..  Our bloggers will be sharing their silliest, funniest and most embarrassing stories with us – so you can expect a new post every couple of days, direct from the DFB authors themselves. So, enough from me - look below for the first post from author Candy Gourlay!

‘I Don’t Believe it Archie!’ is written by Andrew Norriss and illustrated by Hannah Shaw.