Author and Illustrator of Tiddler, Stick Man & Tabby McTat

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1. Tabby McTat, your latest hero, is a lovely and very talented cat.  Are you a cat lover yourself and do you have a favourite kind of cat?
I have always loved cats. When my sister and I were little we had a fat black and white cat with a speckly nose called Geoffrey (named after a cat in a poem), and we were sure he was a prince in disguise and would one day change back and marry one of us.
During my life I have had 4 female kitten-bearing cats and must have found homes for about 100 kittens of all colours. (Contrary to what one usually hears, it’s very easy to find good homes for kittens – demand exceeds supply.) I don’t really have a particular favourite kind, but I prefer ordinary moggies to thoroughbred cats.
I now have two cats. Tortoiseshell Campsie is the mother of black Goblin. Very sadly, my third cat, Goblin’s brother Gizmo, who was a grey tabby like Tabby McTat, died earlier this year, aged 14.

2. Have you ever had any experience of busking yourself and if so, are Tabby and the busker’s adventures based on any of your own?
Yes, I did lots of busking in my younger days, and that’s how I got to know my husband Malcolm (who will play Fred the busker when we act out the story). As students we used to sing in the Champs Elysees when I was supposed to be studying French at the Sorbonne, and we used to pay for all our overseas holidays by busking; I would write songs in the language of the country (the best song was an Italian one about pasta.)
Fortunately we never had Fred’s misfortune of having our busking earnings stolen.
We did have lots of adventures, though, included being spotted by a French recording company, and applauded by an African president on his Venetian balcony. And the busking led to my songwriting career, which in turn led to the books.
Performing is still very important to me, and I possibly spend longer devising how to stage my stories than I do actually writing them.

3. Tabby McTat and the busker have a lovely refrain – do you find that the musical elements come first or do you weave them into the story once you’ve decided what the plot and characters will be?
The song was an essential part of the story, and I wrote the words along with the rest of the book, but I didn’t write the final tune till afterwards. I had a makeshift tune in my head (a “working” tune), but then once we were preparing to perform the story I composed a better tune. I wanted the tune to be really heart-rending (specially for the version sung by old Fred when he has lost Tabby McTat - “Just me and the old guitar...“)

4 . You’ve spoken before about your musical childhood.  Is there a special reason why you’ve dedicated this book to your sister Mary and that Axel has dedicated it to his brother?
I’ve always been very close to Mary and she often joins in the shows, singing the songs and acting parts in the stories. She’s also a great cat-lover, so this seemed a good book to dedicate to her. I don’t know why Axel chose his brother for this particular book, but I like the balance of the two dedications.

5. As a child growing up in a musical household and then as a musical wife and mother with your own family how important do you think it is that people share music?  Is Tabby McTat about passing on and sharing music and song with a younger generation as the busker and Tabby McTat do?
I think it’s lovely when families can share music. My husband Malcolm is always jamming Queen and Pink Floyd and Blur songs with our sons, and at Christmas we have lots of friends round to sing carols round the piano. I suppose the theme in the book of handing things down to the next generation could spring from an awareness of getting older myself. I do like the idea of passing one’s talents and enthusiasms (not necessarily musical) on. As a child I loved to learn rhyming poetry, and I’m always delighted when people tell me their children can recite my rhymes off by heart; I find myself hoping that those children will in turn grow up and pass this rhyme-making and reciting on to the next generation.