So - what made you start writing?

I wrote my first story when I was five: a rip-roaring adventure about an escaped Tyrannosaurus rex and a rabbit called Hamish. I don't remember what made me start writing stories: it was just something I knew I wanted to do, as soon as I could read.

What did you find the hardest thing to do?

Simply to keep writing - day after day, week after week, and year after year, when I had no idea whatsoever if I'd ever get published. I used to get up very early in the morning in order to put in a couple of hours before going to the office, and sometimes I'd sit at my desk listening to the dawn chorus starting up outside, and ask myself if I was completely crazy, wasting my time like this? But the thought of chucking it in - of not writing - was just too bleak to contemplate. So I'd make another mug of coffee and shuffle back to my desk, and get on with it.

How would you describe the ‘writer's life?’

Marginalized, solitary, sometimes worryingly lonely, but above all, not in the slightest bit grown-up. I spend my entire time day-dreaming, and getting paid for it. That's why I love it!

Do you miss the excitement and pressure of the lawyer's boardroom?

When I heard this question for the first time, I laughed so hard that I nearly fell off my chair! This may sound as if I'm ‘protesting too much’, but since I left the law at the end of '98, there hasn't been a single moment when I've felt the slightest nostalgia for my old job. And that's not to say that I hated it, far from it - at least, to start with. I was a litigator for 13 years, and to begin with, it was wonderful to be learning the ropes of what was then still very much a man's job; and then there was all the excitement of going for partnership; and then - ? Well, then there was ‘more of the same’. More big-ticket cases about drugs and tobacco and disposable nappies (oh yes, I was one of the doyennes of the ‘Nappy Wars’ litigation of the 80s and 90s - which just about says it all); more horribly urgent ‘deal with it yesterday’ faxes from Japan and the States and wherever, more postponed holidays, and more weekends lost to work.

What were your favourite books when you were younger?

As a small child, I adored Tove Jansson's Moomin books (I wrote to her once, and got a lovely long letter back, all about Moomins' dietary requirements), and then it was Tolkien, and Alan Garner's Elidor and The Owl Service; John Gordon (especially The Giant Under the Snow); all of Roger Lancelyn Green's masterly re-tellings of the myths - Greek, Norse, Egyptian; and any anthology of ghost stories that I could get my hands on: M.R. James, of course, and E. Nesbitt. I was ten when I first read her Man-size in Marble, and it kept me awake in a cold, terrified sweat, for hours.

Who or what has influenced you?

That's really hard to answer, because some of the most powerful influences are the hardest to spot. But I'd certainly name my mother as a strong influence - because she never cuts corners, and always does her best at anything she sets her hand to.

I remember once when I was about seven, I got the part of the queen in the school play, so I needed a crown. My mother got to work that night, and didn't just come up with the usual foil-covered cardboard zig-zags: she also made a dome of red velvet to fit inside, and an `ermine' trim of cotton-wool and black fluff. With an example like that, it's no wonder that I grew up a little finicky when it comes to details!

Where did you grow up, how did this place influence you?

I grew up in Wimbledon, south-west London, and I don't think it did influence me very much, because I had a happy childhood, and in my experience happiness doesn't tend to provide easily identifiable `influences'.

Adolescence, however, was another matter. I was overweight, spotty, and generally obnoxious. I hated everything, and that included Wimbledon, which was then just starting to get a bit more upmarket, so everyone suddenly seemed to be very thin and sure of themselves and fashionably dressed.

That did influence me, enormously. For one thing, I stayed in and read everything I could lay my hands on. For another, I experienced at first hand what it's like to feel lonely, unlovely and generally miserable, for what felt like a very long time. It all proved pretty helpful when I started writing novels.

If you could invite five people alive or dead to dinner, who would they be and what would you eat?

Charles Darwin, Gaius Valerius Catullus, Sir James Frazer, Anthony Trollope, and Jane Austen. I'd be far too intimidated to open my mouth, but I'd love to meet this lot, so what the hell. As for food - I definitely would not want to be responsible for the menu. Instead I'd take them all to the Ivy - and with any luck, Catullus would end up choosing for everyone.

Who are your favourite authors?

As you've probably guessed, Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope are high on the list. Also Kipling, Ray Bradbury, Keats, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. And I wouldn't want to leave out Catullus or Propertius.

I've always loved the nineteenth century writers. They were so sharp and honest about human nature, and they really knew how to keep a reader hooked. I also relish the ghost stories of MR James and Sheridan Le Fanu. And I love Homer, but I have to be careful about when I read him, because if I approach the Iliad when I'm feeling less than confident, I end up asking myself why I ever bothered to pick up a pen. Well, wouldn't anyone?

Since I became a full-time novelist, I tend to read much less modern fiction than I used to, because it's awfully difficult to avoid making comparisons with one's own work, and that's the opposite of relaxing. For example, if I think the author writes badly, I get discouraged because it still got published anyway, so maybe that's what people really want, etc, etc. And if he or she writes well, I just get discouraged, plain and simple.

Are you as bold in real life as you are in your writing?

I don't think I'm anything like as bold in real life! I loathe confrontation, and tend to be much more of an observer than a participator. But I suppose one might say the same of a lot of writers.

How do you go about constructing your story lines? Do you know what will happen before you begin writing the first page or do things develop as you go along?

I'm a typical Virgoan, that is to say, extremely orderly, with a passion for planning and lists - so yes, I do spend a lot of time planning the story lines, once I've acquired a reasonable understanding of my characters, and done some basic research. Then I do more research, and more planning...Then I start writing the story. Often there will come a point when I have to change the plot because the characters are acting up... and so it goes on.

Did you conduct your research? What were your sources? Have you actually travelled to the places you describe in your books?

For the historical research, I find that the gold standard is the wonderful British Library, where you can unearth the most amazing contemporary sources if you know where to look. For example, for my first book Without Charity, I found the privately published memoirs of a British field surgeon from the Boer War, which contained a wonderfully vivid (and very funny) account of a small field hospital in the veldt, with lots of unexpected detail.

As regards what you might call the `location' research, there's no substitute for actually going there. For A Place in the Hills, this included a freezing week spent in a rented cottage in a tiny French Pyrenean village.

When did one book grow into the six books of CHRONICLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS?

Almost immediately. I quickly realized that Torak's story doesn't end with WOLF BROTHER: that's just the beginning. And in summer of 2003, during a heat-wave, I spent a wonderful week sitting in my small, overgrown garden, while the whole of CHRONICLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS just unfolded before me. It felt as if it had always been there; as if I was merely discovering it. For a writer, that doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's wonderful - and also slightly spooky.

How did you make the character of Wolf so real?

Since I was a child, I've always read everything I could find about wolves, so I know a fair bit about them. But to get to know Wolf, I had to get inside his mind: to see the world through his eyes, and more importantly, through his nose and ears! From the start I knew that when he first meets Torak, Wolf mistakes him for another wolf, because of the strip of wolf skin which Torak wears on his jerkin. With that in mind, I began to see how Wolf would perceive Torak, with his complicated forepaws and his furless underpelt - and his puzzling lack of a tail. From then on, I began to know Wolf better, and it went from there. Being in the forest in Finland helped a lot too, because while I was there, I spent some time trying to perceive it as he does.

So what's the first book you remember reading?

The first book I remember looking at was a big illustrated book about Stone Age people, although at the time I was too young to read the captions. Two of the first books I actually read were Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, and a terrifically exciting adventure about a horse, called The Sagebrush Sorrel. I've still got all three books.

What's the greatest influence on your writing?

Concerning literary influences, I'd name two principal ones: JRR Tolkien, who inspired a lifelong love of myth and Anglo-Saxon and Norse literature, and who also deepened my appreciation for trees and forests; and Anthony Trollope, whose page-turning novels taught me much about storytelling.

Concerning non-literary influences, I'd have to name my parents, who ensured that I grew up surrounded by books (despite not having much money at the time), and who always encouraged me to follow my interests and take risks, while somehow managing to instill a bit of commonsense about how far to go!

Where do you write?

In my study. It's very simple but I love it, because it's totally given over to writing. There are several plain chipboard bookshelves, two big white Ikea table-tops on trestles (which wobble a bit, but I'm used to them); a computer, and some bits and pieces from research trips. The walls are yellow, because I read somewhere that it's hard to be unhappy in a yellow room.

Typewriter, Word Processor or pen?

I scribble the first version of each chapter on a pad with a rollerball pen, but it's such a scrawl that I can only read it while it's still fresh in my mind, so I try to type it onto the wordprocessor on the same day. Then I go over it a few times on the computer before moving on to the next chapter, and so on.

Name your favourite literary hero and villain.

They change from time to time, but here are the ones that have lasted. For heroes, it's Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings and Hector from The Iliad. For villains, it's Dracula (the Bram Stoker one, of course), and Stavrogin from The Devils.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born in Nysaland (now Malawi), but came to England when I was small, and lived in Essex till I was eight, when we moved to Wimbledon. Apart from a couple of years in central London, I've lived there ever since.

Did you enjoy school? What is your most vivid memory?

In the main I did, but my most vivid memory concerns my one bad year. When I was about eleven, a new girl joined the class and took such a dislike to me that she got everyone else to gang up against me. It doesn't sound too bad, but it was miserable and very lonely to go through. My mother told me to ignore the lot of them, which I did - and after a pretty rough year, the ringleader left, and things drifted back to normal. But I've never forgotten it. And it probably helped make me a writer, because for that year, I retreated into my imagination.

Have you had any formal tuition in creative writing? If so, where and what? Did you find it useful?
Some years ago I enrolled in an evening class in creative writing, but I only went to three sessions. I'm afraid that I didn't get a lot of out of listening to other peoples reading out their work; I was too impatient to get on with my own writing!

What were the first pieces of writing that you produced? eg short stories, school magazine etc.

I wrote my first stories on my mother's typewriter when I was five. I've still got some of them. One was about a rabbit called Hamish and a Tyrannosaurus rex. Another, Ebany the Mouse Goddess, concerned a tribe of mice who burrowed to safety beneath an oncoming glacier. At school I wrote several plays, including one about the murder of Tutankhamun, and another about a family of cavemen.

What jobs did you do before you started writing?

I worked as a solicitor in the City for thirteen years: lots of all-nighters and weekends in the office. The challenge made it fun for a while, but that soon palled. I don't miss it at all.

If your house was burning down, what would you save?

Nothing. I'd just try to get out alive. (And lest anyone think me callous, I should add that I don't have any pets!)

What is the most embarassing thing that has happened to you?

As an undergraduate at Oxford, I was cycling down the High Street one sunny morning, gawping at how beautiful everything looked, when an enormous bluebottle flew straight into my mouth. Coughing and spluttering, I lurched to a halt, and bent double over the gutter to spit out bits of fly. I must have looked idiotic. Or drunk. Probably both.

What do you do when you are not writing?

There hasn't been much downtime for the past eighteen months, but usually I either read a book (preferably something completely different from my own, such as a crime thriller) - or watch a movie. These days, though, my spare time tends to consist of short spells spent sitting in the garden or going for a walk, just to clear my head.

What single thing might people be surprised to learn about you?

I can't whistle. I just never acquired the knack!

How far back in the deep past is Torak's world?

It's six thousand years ago, which is after the Ice Age, and before farming reached this part of northern Europe. The land is one vast Forest, peopled by small clans of hunter-gatherers. They have no writing, no metals, and no wheel. They don't need them. They're superb survivors. They know every tree and herb in the Forest. They know how to make beautiful, deadly weapons from flint and bone. They know the animals they hunt, and they respect them, because without them they won't survive.

How did you capture the way of life of the clans?

To find out what the clans wear and eat and live in, I've studied archaeology, which has always been a passion of mine. In Torak's world, each clan has its own particular clan-tattoos and clothes; its own weapons and shelters and hunting customs. Torak is going to discover a lot of strange things as he journeys through his world, meeting the different clans.

But that's not all. How do the clans think? What do they believe about the Forest, and about hunting and animals and death? For that I've learnt from more recent hunter-gatherers such as Native Americans, Inuit, Sami, the Ainu of Japan, and many African tribes. And again, in Torak's world, each clan has its own ideas about how the world came about, and what happens when you die, and how to avoid demons and sickness. Sometimes these ideas are very different from those of other clans, as Torak is going to find out in later books.

What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I think the main thing is to keep writing, preferably every day, no matter how busy you are with your job, children, etc. Reading some ‘How to write a novel’ books can help too, as it avoids having to reinvent the wheel. But there's no substitute for keeping writing - despite rejection letters, frequent bouts of ‘I'll never get there in a million years’, and well-meaning friends' suggestions that maybe you should try something else in the interests of sanity.

One other thing: I don't think it's a great idea to talk about your work in detail to other people; just get on with it. I've noticed that people who tell me the plot of their novel-in-progress or screenplay or whatever in fascinating and exhaustive detail tend not to be the ones who ever get it finished.

How do you go about constructing your storylines?

I’m a typical Virgoan, that is to say, extremely orderly, with a passion for planning and lists – so I do spend a lot of time planning the storylines, once I have a reasonable understanding of my characters and done some basic research. Then I do more research and more planning before I start writing the story. Often there will come a point when I have to change the plot because the characters are acting up…and so it goes on.

What do you do in your free time? Do you have hobbies?

I don't have an awful lot of free time, but when I'm not writing, I love watching films - old, modern, foreign-language, silents, whatever. I'm also a committed “Trekker”. I also love travelling to remote places on my own, particularly in the USA, because it's so easy to hire a car there and get around, the people are really friendly, and the scenery is so amazing. I'm also enjoying having my own (small) garden for the first time. I currently have eight different kinds of bamboo in it - which is probably about all it can take!

Are there times when you are so absorbed in your story that you have a hard time relating to the ‘real’ world?

I find that's the case most of the time, but it doesn't usually bother me. It occurred to me the other day that, what with writing, watching television, going to the cinema and day-dreaming, I probably only spend a small fraction of every day in the ‘real’ world. Perhaps that's why I enjoy travelling so much: suddenly I'm catapulted into the ‘real’ world for whole days at a time, which makes a refreshing change.

They say writing is a lonely job. Do you find that to be true?

Yup, no getting away from it. If you're a writer, you spend virtually all of your time on your own. When the writing's not going well, that can be difficult (but then, isn't that why videos were invented?). But when it's going well, it hardly feels like solitude, because you're with your characters.

What do you do when you feel exhausted and burnt out? Do you sometimes just run away from it all?

What I should do is go away somewhere for a short break and a change of scene. What I tend to do is watch back-to-back Star Trek or The Simpsons videos - in other words, something completely different from the sort of thing I write - or put in a long day in the garden. That usually does the trick.

What is your biggest dream?

An Oscar for my yet-to-be-thought-of original screenplay would be rather nice.

How did it come about that Sir Ian McKellen agreed to read the audio book of WOLF BROTHER?

It was one of those amazingly lucky chances. My agent was at a drinks party, and met Sir Ian (whom henceforth I'll refer to simply as Ian!), and this resulted in a copy of the book being sent round to him. A few days later he got in touch, and was kind enough to say that he'd enjoyed WOLF BROTHER very much, and would be interested in reading the audio book. I was in Greenland, researching SPIRIT WALKER, when my agent rang with the news. I was over the moon!

You were in the recording studio for the whole of the session. How come?

Originally, I was only going to be there for an hour or so at the start, and only if Ian didn't mind. But it soon transpired that I could help a little now and then, for example, with the odd bit of explanation; so with the director's agreement, I stayed. Obviously, it wasn't exactly a hardship for me to sit and listen to my book being read by one of our greatest classical actors!

What kinds of `explanation' did you have to provide?

One bit stays in my memory. Towards the end of the story, Torak is studying bear tracks in the snow. I ended up explaining the pattern of tracks to Ian by miming how the bear had placed his hind paws in front of his front paws as he galloped along. I nearly fell over while I was doing it, but it seemed to help.

Any highlights you'd care to mention?

Ian read the waterfall sequence so beautifully and so excitingly that I nearly put him off by clapping. And his approach to Wolf was, I thought, exactly right: he played it straight, but somehow managed to get across that Wolf is a cub. He just sounds exactly as Wolf does in my head. And the Walker is memorably wheezy, with a suggestion of snot that, again, is just right. And then there's the climax of the story - which had me snuffling into my Kleenex for pages.

For me, it felt as if I were listening to one of the clan elders sitting around a campfire, telling a story to the rest of his clan. That fits in with what I was trying to do when I wrote WOLF BROTHER: I wanted a sense that this could be an ancient legend that has perhaps been lost for thousands of years. It was incredibly special, a real privilege, to be in the recording studio and to watch that brought to life by Ian McKellen.

What is the most rewarding and enjoyable part of being a writer?

Two things. First, when (very occasionally) a scene comes alive the first time you put pen to paper. That's what I write for: that rare buzz when it's really going well. The second reason has to do with when I receive a letter from a reader, saying how much my novel meant to her. It's an exhilarating feeling, as well as a privilege, to know that you have moved someone whom you've never met.

What is the scariest experience you’ve ever had?

It was a few years ago, in the Sierra Nevada of southern California, and I was hiking alone on a deserted mountain trail. Suddenly, on the opposite side of the stream I was following, a large female black bear and her two cubs appeared out of nowhere. One moment I was in the twentieth century; the next, I was back in the prehistoric forest.

An old rancher in Wyoming had warned me that a female bear with cubs is at her most dangerous. He'd also told me that as bears can't see too well, and hate surprises, it's vital to make a noise to let them know you're there: his tip was to sing! The mother bear and her cubs was only thirty feet away from me, on the other side of the stream - but she clearly hadn't spotted me yet; and my way home led right past her. I couldn't hope to creep by unnoticed; I had to tell her I was there. So I took a deep breath and launched into Danny Boy.

To my horror, instead of just watching me go, she pricked up her ears and started purposefully across the stream - towards me. That's when the fear really kicked in. If I made a wrong move, she might attack. And I had no defences. All I could do was try to persuade her that I wasn't a threat. I stopped. She stopped in mid-stream. We looked at each other. She rocked slowly from side to side, as if considering whether to rear up on her hind legs and go for me. For what seemed like a lifetime I side-stepped slowly past her. She watched me all the way. Then, finally, my path dipped out of sight - and I ran like hell.

It was the most terrifying and exhilarating experience of my life. It also felt weirdly as if I'd been back in time. In those brief moments when I was facing the bear, thousands of years of civilisation were suddenly irrelevant; I knew what it was to be prey. I'd been in Torak's world.

How would you describe your style?

Stone Age Chic!

How do you get around town?

I walk everywhere.

What are the principles by which you live your life?

Be happy and have no regrets.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to others?

Don’t spend your life doing something you don’t enjoy. Think about what you really want to do and go for it!