I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading.Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-06-09 10:15:46 Associated-names Richards, Lucy Boxid IA1822106 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Describe what the rainforest might sound like at night time. Could you try to make some of these sounds and record them? This is a fabulous book for all little dino fans with a sense of humour. Ten freshly hatched baby dinosaurs sneak away from Mum to explore and immediately get into all sorts of trouble with other, bigger dinosaurs, flesh-eating plants, geysers and volcanos.

Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA18098 Openlibrary_edition Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. Take some photos of different places when they are light and dark. Make a photo collage to compare them.

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I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).