World Book Day Q&A with Jill Murphy

We loved Peace at Last. If we went anywhere and forgot to take a book with us me and the kids used to recite it [there's a lovely rhythm to it]. My little boy was terribly late talking but I can remember him lying in his cot; I was reading Peace at Last and got to the bit with the aeroplane and he started making aeroplane sounds [I can still picture it now]. So, no questions but a big thank you for writing what was 'the' book from my childrens early years.

Hi Jill,
Your books were always a great favourite with my daughter. One of the high spots of her school days was when you came to a Book Fair at Richard Lander and she got your autograph! Sadly, her 7 year old son is only interested in books with guns or aliens, or preferably both. But we still have happy memories of the Worst Witch.

Hello Jill,

This is more of a statement than a question. My son is an author too having appeared at WBD twice and written one of the 99p books.

From the prospective of his family, the life of an author is far from the rosy picture of sitting quietly in his studio writing.

It comprises writing to deadlines, answering fanmail, replying to a myriad of related emails, travelling all around the country visiting schools, flying off to foreign invites and being moved from place to place daily so that he hardly knows where he is. Attending Festivals where the payment for authors is by bottles of alcohol which are too heavy to carry on the train !

All of this has to be dealt with before a finger touches the computer to start writing.

No doubt you Jill will empathise with the above and you like 'my boy' wouldn't change your career for anything.

Hi Jill. I read somewhere that you started writing The Worst Witch when you were at school and was published by age 24! That's very impressive. How did you get noticed and what advice could you give young aspiring writers?