How Was Airy Fairy Born?

You never know when an idea will strike. I was looking up at the fairy on our tree one Christmas thinking,' What an uncomfortable job that must be. Imagine being perched up there for the whole of the festive season with pine needles sticking in your bottom.'

Then I thought, 'Oh, that might be an idea for a book,' so I gave the fairy a name. I called her Airy Fairy. That name gave me her character, i.e. someone who's terribly nice, but gets a little bit muddled at times. Though in the books Airy Fairy always has her own logic, which makes perfect sense to her.

But, I didn't want a story with only one person in it, so I gave Airy Fairy some friends. She's a nice person and would naturally have friends. I gave her an enemy too, Scary Fairy. Sometimes when people are quiet or shy or perhaps just a little bit different, like Airy Fairy, they can be bullied. Often they're bullied at school where there's no mum or dad or family to help them. They have to rely on themselves. They're on their own. So is Airy Fairy and she has to pluck up the courage to stand up for herself, which she does. When Scary Fairy pokes her with her wand, she always pokes her right back, though she's the one who gets caught.

I decided to set the stories in Fairy Gropplethorpe's Academy for orphaned fairies because I wanted to focus on Airy Fairy herself and how she coped with every day life. I thought giving her a family might prove to be a distraction. I've written a lot of stories about families and I wanted this one to be different.