What made you want to write books for children?

I’ve always been interested in writing but have never seemed to have the time. One of the reasons is that for a long time I’ve always been involved in sport and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The other reason is that when my wife and I started our family we soon discovered that bringing up children often takes 25 hours a day!

I started writing when I decided I wasn’t getting any better at basketball and my three children were old enough to allow me some uninterrupted time. Part of my interest in writing probably stems from the fact that my grandfather, George Dumbleton, was a local village poet in Oxfordshire, England.