Tell me about your latest children’s book, Sprouts
Sprouts is set in the year 4024, when Christmas is everything, it is everywhere and it is every day. Santa rules the world and a herd of Krampus beasts patrol the skies, making sure everyone is being jolly. There are flying sleighs, personal holographic elves to grant your every wish and all food is served as flavoured candy-canes. The story follows Gryla Garland, a witch banished to the snow-swept Mince Pie Isles. Witches were banished long ago for celebrating Christmas only once a year (they think it’s more magical that way). I love all the Christmas witches in legends throughout the world – Italy’s Befana, the Scandinavian Gryla ... I wanted to explore these women of Christmas, often vilified and feared, and twist it.
This is not your first reindeer ride. Is it true that Santa Claus was in fact a girl?
Maybe! In my first Christmas book Tinsel I explored the possibility. The commercial Santa we now know was first “discovered” in Victorian times – when the world didn’t think much of women. I wondered if it’s possible we got the Santa story wrong, that when people looked up in the sky and saw the mysterious figure in the flying sleigh it was at a time when they could only imagine a man doing such things. I wanted to understand who Mrs Claus is too, and if she’s really the background figure we all think she is.
Tell me about yourself. Your roots are in Dublin but you grew up in Scotland and live in London
I was born in Canada as my parents worked there for a few years and was raised mostly in Scotland, but my family are all from Dublin. It’s my favourite place – I’d spend my summers and Christmases in Sandymount and it’s such a magical place to me.
The books we read as children can shape who we are, how we see the world, what we value
What made you a writer?
It’s always so hard to say – I could list so many things: my grandad taking me at weekends to buy notepads from Eason’s and then we’d sit and write silly stories in Bewley’s with apple pie and ice-cream. Or reading wonderful books as a child and realising it’s a real job you can do as an adult. It’s lots of little things, too many to list. I think one big thing was when I was bullied at school – I was about 11 when it started, and I ended up having to move schools. I very much look back on it now as something I would go through again, because it put me on a path to meet wonderful people and have such fun adventures that I know I wouldn’t have had otherwise. But I think it was also pivotal in making me a writer, because it made me observe and analyse people and everything they said in a forensic way. At the time it was just to be alert and protect myself, but what I didn’t realise was I was storing up characteristics, mannerisms, motivations, ways of speaking, in a database that I could mine when older. I think I quietly learned to understand all kinds of different people.
As readers, children are harder to impress, you have said, so make everything bigger. But they are also more vulnerable: adults see books as something they read, children see books as somewhere they go. Tell us more
I think as a children’s author you can never underestimate the responsibility you have when writing for a young audience. They deserve the very best, and the books we read as children can shape who we are, how we see the world, what we value. To children, the worlds and characters in books can feel as true as their real life, so you have to deliver something special. It’s a magical industry to work in, because everyone knows that’s the deal, and everyone takes the work very seriously – even if we’re wearing silly hats, or writing light-hearted jokes. What underpins it is always the fact that we make books for the most important people in the world.
Your debut, Witch Wars, was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize and conjured up a successful series. What inspired it?
I was obsessed with witches when I was very little, and also sink pipes – I’d point at the plug hole and say, “we just don’t know what’s down there ...” I always imagined it might be witches since I’d never seen one in our world. I remembered the idea when I was older and it became Witch Wars. A lot of the characters are inspired by my time in Dublin – there’s a stall owner who is inspired by Mrs Maypother who owned the newspaper shop in Sandymount and used to give me free chocolate, and the character Peggy is inspired by my gran Peggy, who was just the loveliest person and so kind to everyone.
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Eva Ibbotson’s family asked you to write Beyond Platform 13, the sequel to her classic The Secret of Platform 13. That must have been an honour and a great responsibility. How did you approach it?
I grew up reading Eva, and the Secret of Platform 13 was a particular favourite. I wanted to make sure I was crafting a story that she would approve of, that I was taking he characters somewhere she’d want them to go. So I think I used more of the journalist part of my brain for most of the project. I started by doing a deep dive into where she got her inspiration for her characters, so I could better understand how she would see their progression if she were to write a sequel. I read an interview where she talked about her husband and how when they first met he kept a box of insects under his bed. In the Secret of Platform 13, Ben keeps a magical creature in a box under his bed. The way she spoke about her husband, and the way she shaped the character of Ben, made me realise he was inspired by him – so that made it clear that I couldn’t corrupt him in the sequel, for example.
Sony Pictures Animation has optioned your Bad Mermaids series. What’s the latest?
I’m sworn to secrecy on all things film related but they have some really talented names working on it. We’re really hoping it all happens.
You wrote the novelisation of Wonka, based on the screenplay co-written by director Paul King and Simon Farnaby, and the character created by Roald Dahl. Was it hard to put your own stamp on it?
It was such a fun project to work on – I’m a big fan of Paul King and Simon Farnaby’s work so to do the novelisation of Wonka, which is their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel, was a delight. I think it was less about me putting my own stamp on it, and more about making sure I did the screenplay justice in book format. It’s really interesting the differences between what works on screen and what works on the page – films can use epic visual effects and music to hugely influence emotion in a way that falls flat in a book, but books aren’t restricted by budgets and run times in the same way, so we were able to incorporate some great scenes that didn’t make the final cut.
You worked for the Financial Times before becoming a full-time writer and researched the How to Spend It section and wrote the For Goodness’ Sake column. What were the highlights?
I learned a lot at the FT and worked with some brilliant people who have become great friends. I think I was lucky to work on the charity column because everyone I interviewed was so passionate about their work, and even though it was a slither of a slot right at the back of the magazine, it felt like publicising the causes was doing some good, in some very small way.
Which projects are you working on?
I have a new series out next year that I’m really excited about – it’s a bit spookier than my usual. And I’m also working on a fun younger fiction series, which I think will be out in 2026.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I haven’t! The closest would probably be when I visited Vienna before writing Beyond Platform 13. There are scenes in Eva Ibbotson’s adult novels set in Vienna, so it was nice to visit those places with her in mind – the Spanish Riding School in the Star of Kazan, the Landtmann in Madensky Square.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
Robin Stevens recently said on Instagram that you need to make sure someone in your book is having fun. I liked that a lot.
Who do you admire the most?
That’s a difficult question to answer! Now I think about it, I admire so many people – in my personal and professional life. If I had to pick one person in the world, it would be my son – he’s very little but learning to read and he saw some Birdseye Waffles in the supermarket freezer the other day (the picture on the front is a fried egg on a waffle). He turned to me and asked, slightly concerned, ‘are eggs bird’s eyes?’ I admire that logic; it makes my life very fun.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
I’d pass a law to protect public and school libraries, to better fund them, to make sure every school has a dedicated librarian. In the UK the decimation of libraries is a big problem. In Ireland the situation seems much better.
Which current book and podcast would you recommend?
I’d recommend the Bear and Bird series by Jarvis. I’ve been reading them with my three-year-old and they are genius : the perfect bedtime stories. For podcasts, I love Steven Lenton’s Studiomate Steve, it’s a great one if you’re interested in children’s publishing.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
That’s so tricky, because all the illustrations and gorgeous editions (especially the things being produced nowadays) are so beautiful I couldn’t choose between them. But if I had to choose one, it would be my first edition of Dogger by Shirley Hughes, which my mum had in her nursery school and would read to me when I was little.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Eva Ibbotson, Jill Murphy, Janet and Alan Ahlberg, Boris Akunin, RL Stein, Jan Pienkowski ... how big is the table?
The best and worst things about where you live?
I live in Edinburgh, by the beach, in an area called Portobello, and the worst thing is of course the light at this time of year and the weather (though I secretly like the dark nights and freezing weather – it’s atmospheric!). There’s a lovely sense of community in Porty, and one of Edinburgh’s very best independent bookshops (The Portobello Bookshop), plus loads more brilliant bookshops in all directions – from central Edinburgh to East Lothian. There’s a gorgeous pasta shop called Aemilia, which makes fresh pasta every morning and do an out-of-this-world hot chocolate. You can walk along the promenade and get Edinburgh’s best coffee at the Little Green Van and watch the boats going out on the water. There’s a cool beachside pizza place called Civerinos, who give out free pizza slices to kids if they do some litter picking on the beach, and a brilliant art school called the Portobello Art School, which does wildly creative classes for kids (and they put snippets of their lessons on Instagram, which is great for crafting inspiration).
What is your favourite quotation?
“Mom, I am a rich man.” – Cher, when her mum said she needed to settle down and marry a rich man.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Violet Beauregard. I’ve always thought she should’ve won the chocolate factory. She was so passionate about gum!
A book to make me laugh?
Charlie and the Christmas Factory, a story collection, which was recently released featuring short stories based on Roald Dahl’s most beloved characters by authors such as Greg James and Chris Smith, Pamela Butchart and Elle McNicoll, and beautifully illustrated throughout by Rikin Parekh. I contributed a story – Charlie and the Christmas Factory. It was such a magical project to work on.
A book that might move me to tears?
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson. It’s the most beautiful middle grade book I’ve ever read, and it made me cry – a lot. And Don’t Forget to Scream: Essays on Motherhood by Marianne Levy (this one will make you laugh out loud and also sob).
Sprouts by Sibéal Pounder is published by Bloomsbury
