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Read our quick quiz with Kate Forsyth

1. What was your favourite book when you were a child?

The first book I ever read all by myself was ‘The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe’ by C.S.Lewis, when I was five. It’s always had a magical aura for me as a result. I also loved ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R Tolkien, ‘The Glass Slipper’ by Eleanor Farjeon, ‘The Little White Horse’ by Elizabeth Goudge, ‘The Wolves of Willoughby Chase’ by Joan Aiken and any of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. As I got older my favourite writers were Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula le Guin and Diana Wynne Jones. I also liked mystery stories, like the Nancy Drew books.

2. If you could be any character from a book, who would you be and why?

I’d like to be any of the heroines in my books, because they all get to do the things I’ve always wanted to do – talk to animals, change shape into birds and lions and dragons, have amazing adventures.

3. Can you tell us a secret about yourself? Something that readers might be surprised to learn?

I spent most of my childhood daydreaming, much to the despair of my parents and teachers, and when I wasn’t daydreaming I was reading books. I used to have to hide books all round the house because I was meant to be doing my homework or my chores or outside playing in the fresh air. My mother’s way of punishing me was not to say ‘Go to your room!’ because she knew I’d just curl up with a book, so she used to say, ‘Kate, you’ve been very naughty. Go outside and play!’

4. Lots of readers love writing and aspire to be authors when they're older. Please could you suggest a first line (or a title) for them to turn into a story?

I know most people think it’s very strange to have a ghost as a best friend….

5. What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I think I was born knowing what I was destined to be. All through my childhood I wrote novels and poems and stories, and as I grew into an adult I began to get them published. I feel very lucky that I can spend my days making up stories and be paid for it!

6. If you weren’t a writer what job would you like to have?

I can’t imagine a life where I wasn’t writing, but it would have to be something to do with books.

7. Who is your favourite character in The Gypsy Crown?

Well, I love cheeky Luka and tender-hearted Emilia, of course, but after that I think I love Sweetheart the dancing bear the most.

8. What inspired you to write the Gypsy Crown?

When I was a little girl, my mother inherited a very old and valuable charm bracelet that had been handed down for generations. My great-aunt had always worn it, and used to tell me the stories behind the charms. The very first charm on the bracelet had been picked up off the shore of the River Thames by my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother the night before she left England forever, to travel to Australia which was then a newly discovered country filled with dangers. I loved the idea of a charm bracelet with a story – an adventure – behind it, and always thought it was a good idea for a novel. I have lots of ideas for novels – I keep a big, fat notebook full of them – but usually I find you need three really good ideas before it actually triggers a novel. So the idea of the charm bracelet was transferred from notebook to notebook for quite a few years, until suddenly I got my next idea.

It was all because of my niece Emily. I was writing a series of Magical Misadventures for younger readers, and I asked her ‘What were the five things she most liked in a book?’ She answered ‘princesses, fairies, mermaids, ponies and tropical islands.’ I was a little disappointed, because it seemed to me that there were a thousand books for kids about princesses, fairies, mermaids, etc. I wanted to do something that no-one had ever done before. So I wondered to myself, what did I love reading about or playing when I was a kid that no-one seems to have done to death? And at once, I thought, ‘Gypsies!’ I had been fascinated by the Rom ever since I was a kid, probably because my father was an adventurer who went off travelling all the time (usually in a boat, not a caravan). I had collected books on them for years, with fascinating titles like ‘Gypsy Magic and Witchcraft’ and ‘Secrets of Gypsy Fortune-telling’. And I knew from my reading that no-one had ever written a children’s book where the Rom were the heroes. So at once I was tremendously excited. I knew I could write the sort of book I most loved, one full of mystery and adventure and magic. I sat down that very minute, and begin to pour out ideas for the book. I knew at once that this was the idea that my charm bracelet story had been waiting for, and I just needed to think of the where and the when and the how. By the end of the day I had most of the book mapped out in my brain and I began writing it the very next day!

9. Have you ever visited any of the places in the book?

Hmm I have a few, and many of them involve talking about someone in the loo only to discover they were in the stall next to me. Lesson: never gossip, or if you are going to gossip, check under all the doors first.

10. What are you working on next?

I am now writing a novel about a girl who discovers that her family was cursed many of hundreds of years earlier, and decides that she must break the curse. To do this, she and her friends need to go back in time to find the four loops of a puzzle ring, which was broken during the turbulent reign of the tragic Mary, Queen of Scots …

11. Would you like to live in the time of Cromwell?

I am so glad I don’t live in the time of Oliver Cromwell! It was a very dark and dangerous time. Punishments were very cruel, and rules very strict. No dancing or feasting were allowed (two things I love to do!), you could be accused of treason simply for raising a glass to absent friends, and no-one was allowed to think or believe or wonder anything new or different.

12. How did you find out what life was like for the Finch family?

You can find out anything you want to know in books! Luckily I love to research, and so would spend hours curled up happily reading books with titles like ‘The History of Torture’, ‘The Tudor Housewife’, ‘Fireside Tales of the Traveller Children’ and ‘Reformation and Revolution’. Then, of course, there is the Internet. What a marvellous, wondrous, endlessly fascinating tool! It’s incredible the things I was able to find out. I was even able to see what hillsides and river-banks on the other side of the world look like, using satellite technology, and I could search the court records of the Old Bailey and find out about trials of people who died three hundred years ago. What a gift to a writer!

13. Are any of the characters based on real people?

Usually I answer ‘no’ to this question, as my characters are born from my imagination. But in ‘The Gypsy Crown’ I based the character of Luke – cheeky, talkative, always on the move – on my son Ben and the character of Emilia – gentle and warm-hearted– on my niece Emily. Ben and Emily were born only 3 weeks apart and are best friends, just like Luka and Emilia; Ben loves music, just like Luka, and Emily loves to dance and has always wanted her own pony, just like Emilia.

14. Quick Quiz

Dogs or Cats? Both! I have a slim, elegant black cat called Shadow who is mute. She slinks around the house, never making a sound, so that you are never quite sure where she is. I rescued her from an amazing run-down old house like a castle when she was only a kitten. I also have a very large, boisterous Rhodesian Ridgeback, red as desert sand, who races round the house knocking over ornaments with her tail, chewing up the kids’ toys and imprinting muddy pawprints on the couch. She’s is the grand-daughter of the dog my father had when I was a kid. I love them both!

Chocolate or Sweets? Chocolates

Pizza or burger? Lobster with caviar and champagne!

Favourite websites? Anything to do with books.

Text or call? A lot of calling, a little texting.

Favourite lesson at school? Creative writing.

Worst lesson at school? Maths.

Favourite colour? Blue

Favourite film? I can’t possibly choose. I love going to the movies!

City or country? My perfect life would be a big country house with a big garden by the sea, with a city apartment within walking distance of the theatres and shops. I’d spend most of my time in the country house, and go to the city regularly to see plays and music and the ballet, and have lunch with my friends, and go shopping. Perfect!