LUCY BAKER
Children's Author
Hello!
I have been writing stories since I was a little girl and I get ideas from all kinds of places. It could be from a place I visit, or a person I meet. Mostly though, the ideas will come from my favourite hobbies and interests...
NATURE
I have always had lots of pets, from ponies to hamsters, from chickens to goats. In a house full of animals (and sisters!), I got up to all kinds of mischief. At one point we had fifteen guinea pigs and my sisters and I retold the story of Harry Potter using them as actors. We used our bunny to play the part of Hagrid too.
We played lots of games outside. One of our favourites was to play dinosaur hunters running around the woods communicating on our walkie talkies as we pretended to hunt down terrifying T-Rexes. The only things we actually found were poor unsuspecting dog walkers.
Even now, my family home is filled with animals. They're not even where they're supposed to be. It is not at all unusual to find a horse in the kitchen...
My favourite days out are often at the zoo, watching the most amazing creatures and seeing them close up. I love seeing everything from the tiny, exotic insects to the elephants and giraffes. I like watching them and imagining what their voices would be like and what they'd be saying to one another.
Pretending!
Ever since I was very small, I liked pretending to be different characters by putting on voices, playing imaginary games with my sisters and dressing up to become someone else. As I have grown older, this hasn't changed!
As I was the oldest, I was usually in charge of inventing a story and organising my sisters so that we could act it out. We had a wonderful dressing up box and often made the most ridiculous costumes for our characters. Lots of my ideas about Milo: Master of Disguise came from my love of performing!
I still do lots of acting today and enjoy pretending to be somebody else while I'm on the stage or in front of a camera. I've played mean characters, funny characters, posh characters and silly characters.
I also direct local youth theatre groups and we put on fantastic musicals in a big theatre near where I live.
It must be in the blood, because both my mum and dad are actors and all of my sisters and I love to perform.
My dad is most well known for playing the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who, so I have lots of childhood memories of the Tardis and Daleks!
ART
When we were young, my mum would often set up a table of arts and crafts for me and my sisters. We even had decoration-making parties at Christmas to make sparkly stars and painted Santas. I studied Art all the way through school and am still often found in my favourite shop Hobbycraft! I like making things for my flat like painted picture frames and also like making personalised presents for my friends and family. I wish that I had a natural flair for illustration like my book illustrator, Robin Dimond. I love to see how he progresses with my stories and makes my characters come to life for the books.
