Children's writer Siobhan Parkinson wrote her first book for her son Mathew when he was six years old. Unlike her subsequent books for children, this first book was non-fiction and was not even intended for publication - it was just for Mathew.

"It was a book about a still birth. It was a real event - my second baby died at birth. Mathew was six at the time." Siobhan says that she wrote All Shining in the Spring not exactly to explain the baby's death, as Mathew was at that time able to understand the concept, but to help him to come to terms with what had happened. "It helped to validate it for him. We read it together and that helped him to talk about it. That was the purpose of the book in the first place."

It was another couple of years before Siobhan decided to have the book published and at first, she remembers, Mathew was very uncomfortable with the idea. "Here was this very difficult subject that he found hard to deal with and now it was going to be made public and he found that very hard."

Siobhan reassured her son that she wouldn't have the book published if he found it too difficult, but she says he showed amazing strength of character and maturity in his decision to allow her to go ahead.

"He said he understood that other children might need a book like this and he was prepared to go along with it."

All Shining in the Spring is the only book she has ever written about her own family and everything since that has been fiction. She does admit however that a little of Mathew, now 15, has occasionally crept onto the pages.

"The funny things children say and their misunderstandings about how the world works, the things that go into family folklore; those little incidents sometimes turn up in the books," but, she says, it is never a major part of her work. In fact her first full novel Amelia would generally be considered by boys to be a "girls' book".

Siobhan believes that to write children's books you need to remember your own childhood and what it felt like to be a child. "They're the one minority group that everyone has been a part of at one stage in their lives."

Although Siobhan didn't write her first book until Mathew was six, she had been involved in publishing since he was a baby: "I was an editor so it wasn't a huge move into writing since I was working with words all along."

Siobhan was working freelance when Mathew was a baby and could work from home, this she feels gave her a bit more flexibility than most parents.

However, as Mathew has got older and she has written more books, she finds her flexibility has really been tested.

"There are a lot of demands on your time. You have to be able to drop everything and give school talks. It is important to respond to those requests and to talk to kids. You can't be a recluse with children's books."

Siobhan says that her current biggest work problem is getting access to her computer, because Mathew is always on the Internet.

"Not only can I not get at my computer, I can't even get into my study. I'm trying to persuade him that what he really wants for Christmas is a modem of his own."

She does admit that Mathew is usually very helpful and always proof-reads her books before they go to the publisher: "Sometimes I have to bribe him, but he does usually read then for me. He'll comment on them, he doesn't say an awful lot but what he says is generally useful."

Siobhan says that Mathew is "quite a good writer" himself, but although he has done well in competitions he is modest about his talents.

"I think it is a bit embarrassing to have a mother who's a writer, he likes to maintain a low profile."

Siobhan's latest book, Call of the Whales, is now in shops.