1. How would you describe Henry, the main character in your latest book Just Henry?
Four teen-year-old Henry has been brought up to believe that there are some people you mix with and some people you don't. He believes that those are the rules. Aside from that he loves going to the cinema and he earns as much money as he can doing odd jobs to pay for cinema tickets. Going to the cinema also means he can get away from home and the stepfather he hates.
2. Can you tell us a little about what Henry goes through in the story?
A new teacher puts member s of the class into groups as par t of a project. Henry asks if he can be put with another group because he doesn't mix with or speak to the two other boys in his one. The teacher refuses to do so and tells him to get on with it. Gradually Henr y begins to see the two boys in a different way and is surprised at what he discovers. At the same time, to gain entrance into a film
at this time you needed to find an adult willing to take you in. An elderly woman not only agrees to get him through the doors but asks him to finish the film in a camera that had belonged to her brother. It is later, in the school developing room, that Henry discovers something disturbing in a handful of these photographs and gradually his life begins to resemble the thrillers he has seen on the big screen.
3. What is it about the World War II era that inspires you to write your novels and create the characters you do?
During World War II people from all walks of life were thrown together and had to cope with the most enormous and frightening challenges. As I researched each novel I was led to more questions that I wanted answer s for and those led me to other novels. Funnily enough, I have only written two novels set in the war. All my others have been set post-war. However, the war still affected people's lives af ter it was over. So many families had been separated. It was a struggle learning to live together again and cope with even worse rationing.
4. What sort of research do you have to carry out when you are writing historical novels?
If I'm for tunate I inter view people who were actually around at the time. I read old newspapers, watch documentaries and read books.
5. If you could travel back in time, what era would you like to visit and why?
Being female I would prefer not to travel back in time. I would be doing even more domestic chores!
6. Many of your novels have been adapted for television. How do you feel when you see your stories portrayed on screen?
I find it ver y interesting. It's as though each novel is having another life in other creative hands from the scriptwriter to the set designer, from the wardrobe to the composer, from the camera operator to the per formers.
