News?   Yes, there is, and good news, too!   My first children’s book for five years came out in the summer!   It’s called Bad Cat, Good Cat, and is illustrated by Tony Ross, who did the pictures for my Harry the Poisonous Centipede books.   Of course, I think it’s lovely, not just because it’s a good story about two families, two children, and two cats, but because the cat-crazy heroes are my grandchildren, Paloma and David.   Tony has tried to draw them a bit like they really are!  And the good cat, Peony, is Paloma’s real cat.   The bad cat, Turk, I made up.   No real cat could be that bad!  He’s not as bad as Diabola, in Angela and Diabola, but then, no cat can be as bad as a bad child.

Then there are my two picture-books – my first – available through Amazon.  Here, the illustrator is none other than my son Omri, the hero of The Indian in the Cupboard.  The books are called The Spice Rack, which has lots of (non-human) adventure and will help you to be a good cook, and Polly and Jake.  These two animal pen-pals live far apart, but they long to meet.  Trouble is, plane-travel is tricky if you’ve got a thick white fur coat, or a very long neck!

After two happy years living in West London, we’ve moved into a pretty suburb, near the River Thames.  London kept me very busy, but not so much with writing!   Now in this quiet place I’m getting down to business.  I’m writing a trilogy based on my own childhood.  Of course, that was a LONG time ago, but exciting things did happen back then – growing up with a nanny and a thing about birds’ nests, being sent to a convent boarding-school, and then the war, and going off to Canada as an evacuee.  I’m loving doing these, with lots of memories coming back and a good bit of made-up stuff too.  They’re called The Hair-Seeker, Scarlet Footprints and O Canada!  I’ll keep you posted.