Gail Clarke

Once upon a time I was a primary school teacher! After 28 years in a wonderful school in Hong Kong, I retired in 2004 and ‘migrated’ with my husband to Italy. This set me thinking about migration and animals that cover huge distances every year. With the help of my good friend Mr Google I discovered lots of interesting facts about migration: which animals go where, how they find their way and which routes they take. Suddenly, BING! an idea popped into my head! What if an animal wanted to send a message to a relative thousands of miles away? Perhaps he could ask for help from the migrating animals.

That was how it all began with my first book: Patrick's Birthday Message. On my writing ‘journey’ since I wrote 'Patrick', I have learned loads of amazing facts about animals, many of which have been the inspiration for my other six books.

As well as writing, illustrating and publishing my books, I love visiting schools, talking to children, and sharing my stories with them. I now live in England, Italy and Phuket, but most years I also travel to Hong Kong and Kenya to see my family of four children and six grandchildren. Everywhere I go my favourite hobby is visiting schools whether they are large international schools with thousands of children in Hong Kong, Phuket, Bangkok and Sri Lanka, or tiny village schools in Kenya and England. Patrick loves to travel and is very excited now that his friends Great-Grandpa Gilbert, Chameleon, Cosmos the whale and Jed the hammerhead go with him.

Questions children often ask me:

Where do your ideas come from? Sometimes they just pop into my head! Sometimes they come from an article or book I’ve read, and sometimes when I’m researching facts for a story I discover a fact that’s so incredible that I think, “I’ll have to write a story about that!”

How long does it take to write a book? Well, once I have an idea I can write the story in a couple of weeks – sometimes even faster but then I have to do the illustrations and that takes a lot longer!

Why do you usually write in rhyme? I love rhyme and I love to make up funny or silly rhymes. My mum did too and so do my grandchildren so I think it runs in the family! Rhyme keeps the story really ‘tight’ and I can’t waffle too much!

Are you famous? No, but when I visit schools the children are so welcoming and I have such a fabulous time that I feel famous!

There are lots more questions from children on my website at gailclarkeauthor.com, some of them very funny.