The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.

At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be, but what I was, of course, was a writer.

I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.

When I started as a writer, I knew nothing about publishing-nothing about anything!

I'm writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and I'm very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

Pirates have always fascinated me.