Me?” She smiled. “I’m the lodestone of the house. I keep you all from flying off into the dark.

He knelt in the grass and gently pulled off the helmet. A familiar face smiled up at him. Charlie couldn’t speak. His astonishment, his joy was too great. He could feel the others gathering behind him, murmuring, ‘It can’t be!’ ‘Is it, really?’ ‘Why didn’t we know?

Manfred sighed. He looked at the ceiling and declared, ‘I am behind words on the way to music beneath a wing and before trumpets, masks and brushes.’ He paused for effect and brought his gaze back to Charlie. ‘Do I make myself clear?’ In any other circumstances, Charlie would have said, ‘Clear as ditchwater,’ but as the situation was already pretty grim, he decided to say, ‘Yes, Manfred.

Waiting and hoping is a hard thing to do when you’ve already been waiting and hoping for almost as long as you can bear it.

It was an exceptional sensation, reading by spiderlight.

Inspiration comes from the world around me. I'm an inveterate eavesdropper.

I try not to identify too strongly with any of my characters. I like to stand back and see them objectively. I think this is why I often use boys instead of girls, just in case I get too close and lose the overall picture.

I've read up on magic, and I think it sets you free, and it gives you hope. You can explore worlds you didn't know existed. It stretches your imagination, and I like my own imagination to be stretched and also the children I'm telling the story to. It gives you a sense of wonder.

There's nothing like the peace of the countryside, the quiet and the lack of distraction. It helps you to focus your mind.

Every book that you pick up takes you a step away from your real world, but if you read a book about magic, it takes you an extra two steps.