Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

The first five years of my life were spent on a farm in Surrey . As far as I can remember , it was idyllic . And then my father died and my mother had a sort of breakdown , so my travels began ; I ca n't recall all the people and all the places I was sent to , but wherever I was I would raid the bookcase and read - anything and everything . At six I went to boarding school where I decided I would become a concert pianist . I thought you had to be man to write books , probably because of Rudyard Kipling , R L Stevenson , Charles Dickens and Co. I had n't met Jane Austen or the Brontes . For two years I was frightened of everything and everyone , and then I became bad . When I was sixteen I decided to run away , this took the form of joining a repertory company instead of taking my A-levels . It was heaven . At twenty-one I went to London to seek my fame and fortune on the West-end stage . Nothing happened . So I became a Governess in Italy . The boys I was supposed to be teaching were bigger than I was , they educated me instead . When I returned to Britain I joined the BBC as a photographic researcher , then worked my way up to Floor Manager in the News Department and finally a Director / Editor for children's television . My producer told me I should write my own books but I did n't think I was good enough . One day I met a Welsh painter , whom I eventually married . My husband inherited an old watermill in Powys , so we came to Wales and had three children who are all bilingual . They taught me to write real stories for children , and then they grew up and went to Rome , Edinburgh and the World . But they still help me to write my books . AuthorZone 2 - September 2000 .