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You have doubtless heard, my dear mother, the misfortune of Madame de Chartres, whose child is born dead. But I would rather have even that, terrible as it is, than be as I am without hope of any children.

I have two little children. I didn't want to be missing their childhood while I was away, busy writing about children.

I want to move people the way Edith Piaf did.

I thought I had a handle on my priorities before Elizabeth and I lost our oldest son to stillbirth.

I had achieved the most important things in my life when I married Joan and had the sons. Given the choice between Joan and the boys, and being a writer, I world give up being a writer without a blink.

I had a daughter and lost her a long while ago. That's too sad a story to go into.

I write in that space between Ella's childhood and mine. I know it all sounds a bit sinister.

I denied this for many, many years and years... but you cannot help but not see a little of my mother in the character of Edna.

I didn't belong to the sort of family where the children's classics were laid on. I went to the public library and read everything I could get my hands on.