Dennis Hamley

As a child

I was born in 1935 in Kent. I was three when the Second World War started, so my childhood was spent in its shadow and has always been a huge influence on me. I remember lying in bed and hearing the drone of German bombers overhead on their way to London. I was only four and thought it all rather exciting. When I was six we moved to Winslow in Buckinghamshire, and there I grew up. I always loved reading: perhaps one of the most important days for me was Christmas 1944 when I was given my first Arthur Ransome book. I often think that's what started me wanting to one day be a children's writer.

As an adult

After school came two fairly disastrous years of National Service in the RAF. Then I read English at Jesus College, Cambridge, and later became a teacher. After that I was a lecturer and trained teachers, then an English Adviser telling teachers what to do – not that they took much notice. But they took more notice when I started two creative writing courses, one for teachers and one for children. I know of at least two children's authors who first started writing seriously on those courses, though I won’t tell you their names. On the way through all this I picked up an Advanced Diploma in Education and a PhD. In 1992 I was so fed up with driving round the county peddling the then-new National Curriculum that I took early retirement and since then have been a full-time writer. I started writing seriously in 1971 and my first novel, Pageants of Despair, was published in 1974. After the death of my wife I moved to Oxford, where I now live with my Siamese cat Emily. I have two grown-up children, Peter, a scientist, and Mary, a publisher, and four grandchildren, Joe, Ella, Elliot and Rose.

As an artist

I suppose most of my books have their beginnings not in characters but in situations and places, and usually with a very specific background: the Middle Ages, a football club, the first and second World Wars. That's why I love writing historical novels: it's wonderful to try to immerse yourself in another century, trying to understand how people thought and acted, trying to relay the atmosphere of the times. But I've written lots of ghost stories and mystery stories because making a good story is the most important thing whatever it's about. Of all my books, my favourites are Hare's Choice and The War and Freddy, which was shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize. When I'm at home I try to write for at least three hours a day, though never more than six unless there's a crucial deadline to fulfil. My target is one thousand words a day, though I seldom reach it! I have a lovely study in my new flat. Anyone who couldn't work well in there should have his computer destroyed.

Things you didn't know about Dennis Hamley

1. I used to fancy myself as a great sprinter, until I got lazy and discovered girls (not necessarily in that order).
2. When I ran my first (and last) cross-country race at school I lost my way and a search party had to look for me.
3. My high point playing football was scoring direct from a corner for the local youth team.
4. My low point was missing an open goal while actually standing on the goal line.
5. When I was in the RAF I once played for the station rugby team – their first defeat for three years.
6. When I was in the Air Training Corps at school I went on a gliding course and crashed one of the gliders. They slung me off the course.
7. Later on, I actually took the controls of one of the last operational Lancasters. Thank God I didn't crash that.
8. I am a great Portsmouth fan. PLAY UP POMPEY!
9. I once had a university vacation job in a soup factory. Conditions were so bad that the other workers asked me to organise a strike. I often wonder where my life might have gone if I had.
10. My wife and I once cycled 600 miles from Cherbourg to the Dordogne. On the way I collided with a mad Frenchman's car as he shot out of a side road without looking. At least he paid for a new front wheel.

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