CONTENTS
Jane Tozer
What was your favourite childhood toy and why?
My second-hand panda is more like a small grey-and-white teddy bear. He arrived just before my 4th birthday in February 1953, from a family friend who was a bit too grown up for stuffed toys. At night, panda and I joined the Canadian Mounties, or took off in a spaceship.
What book have you owned the longest?
Arthur Ransome : Swallows and Amazons. I adore the entire series.
What made you want to write?
To be the first woman poet laureate. (Damn you, Carol Ann Duffy!)
What’s the story you’ve always wanted to write?
At the age of 103, I shall recline on a chaise longue and dictate my scandalous memoirs to a beautiful youth. Every rich juicy incident will be true, as I shall demonstrate to him.
What sort of pen do you prefer to write with?
A mouse or a 4B pencil. Fountain pens leak. Biros seep until they dry up. I’m always splattered with ink, coffee, tea, wine, custard. Gel pens may just be the answer.
E-books? The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?
How could you! Paper, sumptuous paper, every time. Imagine lifting the first copy of your first book out of a cardboard box. I used to eat the corners of pages in my Blyton books, because they smelt and tasted of cornfields.
What time do you get up in the morning?
On working days, in time for the 9.30am boat to St. Michael’s Mount. Otherwise: Wake up ? Too early. Get up? Too late – preferably after four mugs of tea and a chapter of Henning Mankell.
Where do good ideas start?
With a sudden electric connection between an observed image and the heart’s obsession.
