TALK TO TERRY

Terry's publishers get hundreds of letters a year. If he answered them all, he wouldn't have time to write books. So he is not able to answer letters but he can manage to answer all your e-mails. Now, through this website, you have the chance to find out all you ever wanted to know about the author.

Have a look at the questions below. These are the most commonly asked ones, and Terry has already answered them for you. If you have a brilliant NEW question, then e-mail it to the address below, and you should recieve a reply within a week.

Only one question per e-mail please, and no school projects !!! School projects mean you and Terry do the work while the teachers put their fat feet on the desk. Genuine fans only.

And sadly Terry does not make personal appearances or do talks unless directed by a publisher. But above all, no school visits . (Teachers note: Terry will not set foot inside a school for any reason.)

email TALK TO TERRY

Terry Deary - Top 25 questions

1. How old are you?
   Born 1946 - age 62 on 3 January 08.
2. What hobbies do you have?
   I haven't a lot of time for hobbies. I try to support Sunderland Football Club on my Saturdays off. Most Sundays I run in road races tro keep fit and train with Derwentside Athletic Club (Stanley, County Durham) during the week. I enjoy reading in bed and listening to music while I drive my Mini Cooper "S".
3. Why did you start writing?
   Lewis Carroll told a story about a place called Wonderland to a little girl called Alice. The little girl said, "You should write it down or it will disappear!". So he wrote "Alice in Wonderland" which became a classic book. I was an actor in a touring Welsh theatre company, performing very popular plays, especially children's plays in school. I decided to write those plays down as stories "before they disappeared".
4. How long does it take me to write a book?
   A book takes me between six hours and six weeks to write, depending on how long it is and how difficult it is to get the information together. Some authors take ten years or more to write a single book. I plan to write 10 in 2008 - one book every five weeks. Plus I will be writing television scripts, radio and theatre scripts and acting in stage, television and radio productions. I also need to find time to manage three businesses. Of course I work six days a week - Sunday is my only day off.
5. If you were not an author then what would you like to be?
   I'd like to do more acting in touring theatre since I guess I'm too old to play football for Sunderland or Cricket for England now. I was a teacher at one time but I couldn't do that now. Teaching is much too hard nowadays. I'd be exhausted in a week!Hopefully I'll get enough acting work to be able to give up writing one day.
6. Why did you start?
   It's a great feeling to see your name on the cover of a book. I wanted to see that. Even though I have written so many books I still get a thrill from seeing a new book of mine when it's published. Is that being big-headed?
7. Where do you write?
   I work from my home in Burnhope though I started when I lived in Suffolk. Writers should be able to write anywhere and not worry about what is going on around them. I used to be able to do that but now I seem to work better with a bit of peace and quiet. My writing place is now a special place. It is a small room in the roof of the house. The window looks out over a valley and on a clear day I can see the sea 20 miles away. My room is connected to the rest of the world by telephone and computer lines so it never gets lonely though I may spend 12 hours a day there.
8. Do you use a computer?
   I work on a computer and have done for the last twenty years. Publishers will not accept books written by hand. I used to use a typewriter but computers make it so easy to change work, correct mistakes and check for spellings. I can't imagine ever being without a computer now!
9. When did you start writing?
   I started writing when I was about 29 years old. But I have met a girl who wrote a book when she was 7 years old and a lady who had her first book published when she was 82. Age doesn't matter when it comes to writing. I just happened to be 29. I could have been 109.
10. Where do you get your ideas from?
    I can't really say where I get my ideas. That question is practically impossible to answer. Ideas fall out of the sky like raindrops. Everybody has ideas but most people let them slip away just as they may let raindrops fall to the ground and vanish. A writer sees the value of those raindrops of ideas and catches them in a bowl. He stirs them up and pours them out as a story. That's what makes a writer different.
11. Who chooses your illustrators?
    My illustrators are chosen by the publishers. The Horrible Histories series is illustrated by an Australian called Martin Brown. But I write far faster than he can draw and the publishers need to find other illustrators for other books.
12. What is your favourite book that you wrote?
    The favourite book that I wrote is probably a junior novel called "A witch in Time". It's about two girls who live 500 years apart but travel through time and meet. Even though they are very different, they help one another to solve their problems. "A Witch in Time" has been published in three European languages as well as in English.
13. How do you get a boook published?
    After I have written a script I will send it off to a publisher and ask if they would like to turn it into a book. The publisher reads it and says Yes or No. Even when they say "Yes" they still want things changing. I have a script on my computer that I should be working on at this very moment! The publisher wants some things taking out and new things adding. It's the job I hate most. I'd rather answer your questions!
14. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
    I have never wanted to be a writer. I have always wanted to play football for Sunderland! When I was a kid I read a book by Enid Blyton. All her characters were so posh I thought, "I could never be like that! I could never write books about children like that because they are rich and go to private schools!" Hopefully the books I write can be read by anyone, no matter what sort of homes they have or what sort of schools they go to. But, when I can afford to, I will give up writing and become a full-time actor.
15. How long have you been writing?
    I have been writing since I was about 1 year old. My mother had a cookery book with my scribble in it in red crayon. I don't think she was very pleased with me. I have the cookery book now. I think those water stains next to the scribble are probably my tears where she whacked me. It's not easy being a writer sometimes - especially if you are just 1 year old.
16. What was your first book?
    My first book was a cowboy story for 7 to 11 year olds about a cowardly cowboy called "The Custard Kid" - that's the title of the book. He meets an actress called Calamity Kate and accidentally steals her jewels when he picks up her bag . . . because they both have the same initials. What happens next? Read it and find out.
17. What was your longest book?
    My longest book is a murder story called "Shadow Play". It is 220 pages long, has 55,000 words and took me six weeks to write. It is a story about a group of actors who work in Newcastle and come across a very nasty murder. Do NOT read this book if you have nightmares!
18. How many books have you published?
    I have published 180 books in the UK which have been tranbslated into 35 languages and appear in another 500 editions around the world. But I have probably written nearer a 200. Not everything I write gets published. Some writers spend all their lives writing books and never get anything published so In guess I must be very lucky. I also have agreed with several publishers about books I am planning to do with them. When these are published to total will be over 190.
19. When did you start writing Horrible Histories?
    I started writing Horrible Histories in 1992. Over 50 have been published so far and they have sold twenty million copies between them. (That's a lot!) They have been recorded as CDs (with BBC Worldwide) publishers are now looking at how we can turn them i CD-ROMs for computers and a new TV series for 2009.
20. How long have you been a full time writer?
    I have been publishing books for many years but it is only in 1994 that I gave up every other job and began to spend all of my time writing, acting and running my own companies.
21. Do you enjoy being an author?
    Not a lot. I am much happier acting on stage and television. Being an author is very, very hard work. If you are a failure then you worry about making enough money to buy food or clothes or keep yourself warm! If you are a success then you spend so much time writing you don't have time to enjoy life very much. I have only had 2 weeks holiday in the last 30 years. On the other hand I don't have any awful boss telling me what to do!
22. Why do you like writing books?
    I get some great letters from people who say they enjoy my books. That makes it worthwhile. But I don't actually 'enjoy' writing books. I love writing two words . . . "The" and "End". It's a great feeling to complete a book, to have a letter from a publisher accepting it and seeing it finally in print. But the work of writing it is hard. Imagine spending all day, every day, writing essays in school! There must be something I can do that's more fun. One day I'll find it.
23. What is your most boring book?
    The most boring book I have written is a history of toys and games. It was great fun when I started it but the publishers changed it and took out the good parts and insisted that I put in useless facts. They even added bits themselves till the whole thing was a mess. I said I didn't really want my name on the cover since I didn't feel like the writer. They published it under the name Jack Marlowe - a name I made up.
24. How did you start writing books?
    I started with an idea, sat down at a typewriter and wrote. Lots of people tell me they have ideas for books yet they never write them. This is because ideas are easy but writing is hard! Once I'd finished the script I sent it off to publishers and none of them seemed to want it. Eventually the 24th publisher said they liked it and they wanted to turn it into a book.
25. Who'd you like to write a book about?
    I would most like to write a book about my Dad, William (or Bill). He died over 40 years ago but he lived through interesting times - a dreadful school, a poor home - but survived to build up his own business, fight in the war and give me a good childhood. I admire him in many ways and he deserves to be remembered in a book. He appears in "The Hat Trick" published by Barrington Stoke.