My mum tells me that I was very reluctant to learn to read, which she couldn’t understand because she knew how much I loved books. It turned out that I thought no-one would read to me, if I could read on my own! Once that misunderstanding was cleared up, though, there was no stopping me.

I remember always heading straight for the Dr. Seuss section in the library as a child, and Andrew (my husband) and I have very fond memories of our daughters, Jemima and Maddie, shouting out the final words of rhyming couplets in books like ‘There’s a Wocket in my Pocket’ and ‘The Gruffalo’. We were – and are – very big fans of Dr. Seuss and Julia Donaldson in our house, which probably explains why I like to write in rhyme most of the time.

When our girls were little, cuddling up with a book was one of our favourite things to do. But by the time my first picture book was published, in 2014, Jemima and Maddie were mostly reading YA and chapter books. Fortunately for me, thanks to some very lucky breaks – including the chance to work with amazingly talented illustrators like Deborah Allwright and Ben Mantle – I now get to read our picture books to lots of other lovely children instead, in magical places like bookshops and schools.