It's a fairly common phenomenon of London life - people having fully developed critiques of books they haven't read and films they haven't seen. I'd probably include myself in that.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've always felt that I was a bit of an outsider to the British children's-book illustration scene, because I don't work in line and wash.
My first book, 'Fast Forward', was about growing up in the shadow of Hollywood and how kids are affected by the culture of materialism and the cult of celebrity, and I've often felt the reason my work has an audience in the U.K. is because it's everything the British love to hate about the Americans.
It would have been very easy to drift into writing a non-fiction book so by taking it away from Nottingham I forced myself to imagine much more of it.
A reader should encounter themselves in a novel, I think.
I think the British audience might be more open-minded with some of my imagery and weird choices.
The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.
If I'd stayed on in London and carried on going to literary parties, it would have wrecked me as a writer.
My life as an author has always been about brilliant, odd people.
London has always provided the landscape for my imagination. It becomes a character - a living being - within each of my books.
It's only a drawback in the States, where most people seem to have no real interest in other countries and the notion of a novel which might offer insight into life in the UK doesn't seem to appeal very widely.