RICK O'BRIEN

I have been asked the following . . .

Have you always been a writer? No. When I was three I couldn't write at all.

Where did you learn to draw? Sitting on a chair. I bought a pen and just started on a blank piece of paper.

Is your main character, Deni Tutting, a real person? I'll ask her.

Have you ever won awards for writing? When I was about 13, I won a Cadbury's writing competition and they sent me chocolates. I've entered every year since but not won again. I love chocolate.

Will your next book be about Deni, Chloe and Dirk? Yes.

Were you born? - Do you mean where? - London Hospital, where the Elephant Man lived for a while.

When did you realise you wanted to be a writer? When I gave up teaching, 2013.

MY PHOTOS

(1) Me aged 5 with "The Lady and the Tramp."

(2) My dog. This is my painting of her staring at a bowl of Maltesers.

(3) This is me grown up, writing and painting. Notice cake in the foreground (we all need cake).

(4) Deni Tutting. She likes big hair.