In Her Own Words

I was born and brought up in the town of Paisley in the west of Scotland. Paisley was once famous for its thread mills and its beautifully patterned Paisley shawls. I met my husband, John, at a Glasgow university student dance, and we have two grown up children called Susie and Jonathan.

I now live in St. Andrews, a town famous for its golf, on the east coast of Scotland. My house is a converted three-storey grain mill and I write my books in a little, very untidy, room at the top of the house just above the big water wheel. My room looks out onto a large garden with lots of wildlife, including the red squirrel which features in the Airy Fairy books.

When I was at school I was terrible at drawing, not very good at maths, but quite good at writing stories, though I never thought I'd end up being a writer. I was a teacher to begin with and I enjoyed that. Writing was just a hobby. But the hobby grew and grew and I won a children's story competition. That led to having stories on the radio, then television. After that, my books began to be published so I decided to give up teaching and become an author full time. It's a lovely job. I get to meet so many people and get so many letters from children all over the world.

Other things I like doing include reading, swimming, badminton, going for long walks to look at the wildlife and playing the piano. Very badly. My family always leave the room when I start to play. I think they might be trying to tell me something.