Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
My father was a soldier and the longest we stayed in any one place was 2.5 years. I lived in Berlin, Hong Kong and different parts of England, always the outsider. I explored this lack of roots in my autobiography 'How Blue is my Valley' as well as the ways in which Wales became my adopted home, followed by a love affair with the south of France, where I now live. Perhaps it's because in compensation for my childhood that places are so important in my books and are real places, usually ones I know intimately.
When did you first start writing?
I wrote a tedious novel in school when I was 11 called 'Jill's Stables'. If I'd finished my work before the other children, I was allowed to continue with my masterpiece, which ran to several chapters. The teacher's only comment, preserved in red ink, was 'This would be better with more illustrations'.
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