It's lovely to meet you! Here's my story. What's yours?
The beginning
According to my mum, I taught myself to read when I was three years old! I have no memory of that, but I've never stopped reading since. As a child, my favourites were Enid Blyton or anything about adventures, mysteries and animals - especially horses. My absolute favourite was Watership Down by Richard Adams. I bought it when I was eight years old and read it ten times, back to back!
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Then
I began keeping a diary at the age of seven. I wrote in it every day, and have kept up that habit ever since. A lot of it was everyday stuff - I went to Brownies, we did baking at school, my friend got locked in the toilet. But I also wrote about more exciting things, like the time a farm trailer squashed our car, or the day our school caught fire.
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I went to four different primary schools, but one of them was extra special. The pupils were allowed to choose what they wanted to do all morning, every morning, and the teachers weren't allowed to make you do anything else! So I wrote stories, and that's where my love of writing really began. My first poem was published in 'Pony' magazine when I was eleven years old.
Next
I always wanted to be a writer or a vet (and sometimes an astronaut). But my first job when I grew up was a scientist. I spent three years studying daisies! Then I became a primary school teacher. I lived in Australia for four years, seeing all kinds of interesting and unusual animals and birds.
Now
When I'm not busy being an author, I love being out in nature as much as possible, whether it's in my local park or hiking in the Lake District. I love being active and I'll try almost anything, from tap dancing to archery, water-skiing to adventure caving. But my favourite thing is to find an interesting-looking path on a map and explore it in real life. Just like a great story, you never know what you're going to find...