JACKIE MARCHANT

‘I had no intention of writing for children, until my son, aged eleven, asked me about writing a will. I may have wondered why a boy would be thinking about a will, but thought nothing about it until I found myself knee deep in his messy bedroom. That’s when these words popped into my head:

‘To my mother, I leave the mess in my bedroom, which she may put into black bin liners and throw them out of the window – I know that has always been her greatest wish.

Those lines are now published in the first of the series, Dougal Daley That may make it all sound rather easy, but a lot happened between writing those words and publication.