Q. Which other EAFOL 2016 participant are you most excited about? There's an amazing line up of authors this year. I'm really looking forward to Carol Ann Duffy's poetry reading, and Antony Beevor's talk. The children are excited that so many of their favourite authors will be there - I owe Lauren Child, Jacqueline Wilson and Anthony Horowitz a big 'thank you' for the many happy hours they have spent reading. Q. Which book(s) are you reading now? Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women, and Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Q. Which literary character would you invite to dinner? And why? Aslan - the wise and benevolent lion from Narnia, because he embodies strength and goodness in a dark world, and he could shed some light on current events, (and who wouldn't want to have dinner with a lion). Q. There have been some interesting additions to the dictionary over the years. Which word would you remove? Deadline. Q. Who would write/ illustrate the story of your life? I love Posy Simmonds' graphic novels - that would be fun.