When I started reading books to my son he soon became terrified of the stories about dragons, and ogres, and magic, and in particular one about a dream maker who whispered in the ears of sleeping children. He didn't sleep for weeks. So I started writing stories for him about things he was interested in, and had soon written my first novel about the war between red and grey squirrels. I knew then I wanted to write about the natural world, and wrote another children's novel which deals with bullying in the animal kingdom. I later teamed up with an illustrator and together we produced a children'...