Sally Prue first started making up stories as a teenager, when she realised that designing someone else's adventures was almost as satisfying as having her own! At school, Sally was always fascinated by words and their histories, but was never particularly good at creative writing and her stories inevitably ended up a splattery blotty mess! Sally then went on to join practically all of the rest of her family working at the nearby paper mill and ended up marrying the man who sat opposite her. They live in Hertfordshire and have 2 daughters. Sally now works as a recorder and piano teacher and enjoys walking, painting, day-dreaming, reading and gardening. She has two elderly guinea pigs, one of which, Sophie, appears in Cold Tom. Cold Tom is Sally's first book published by OUP.

We asked Sally a few more questions...

Q. Where did you get your inspiration from when you were writing Cold Tom?

A. It started off with me reading a clever article which proved that there is no such thing as love. I didn't understand it at all, so I tried to imagine a society where love was taboo. The great woods near my home helped too, as well as seeing a boy who looked like Tom playing the violin at a concert.

Q. What job did you want to do when you were a child?

A. When I was a child, if you were a girl and fairly bright but not posh, you could only be a nurse or a teacher. That was depressing, because I quite fancied being an explorer.

Q. What was your favourite book as a child?

A. I had a brilliant teacher called Miss Wheeler who read us Paddington and the Narnia books. Later on I enjoyed Jennings and books by Ronald Welch.

Q. What's the best thing about being an author?

A. Exploring, without having to get wet or cold. And having people listen to what I'm saying for once.

Q. Who is your favourite children's author?

A. Diana Wynne Jones; I really fancy Chrestomanci.

Q. What book are you currently reading?

A. Shadow of a Hero by Peter Dickinson.

Q. If you could be a character in a novel, what kind of character would you be?

A. I'd probably be handing out packed lunches and saying "have a nice time and watch out for dragons." Either that or Wondermum!

Q. Do you have any tips for someone who wanted to write a novel?

1. They say that if a monkey sits at a keyboard long enough eventually he'll type the works of Shakespeare. So that means that anyone human can write a novel.
2. Daydream a lot. This gives you lots of practice at stories without actually having to bother to write anything.
3. Start at the beginning and aim straight for the end. (It does help knowing where the end's likely to be.)