Gillian Cross Official Website

What I do all Day

Ever wondered what writers really do? Well, here's my answer - or part of it.

I spend a lot of time writing, of course. Sometimes I do it on the computer, and sometimes I use pens and paper. I visit schools, too, and talk at conferences and book festivals. But that's not the whole story. Being a writer has led me into much odder experiences. Among other things, I've

  • opened libraries
  • quizzed someone at the Ministry of Defence about making bombs
  • been taken into the wolf cage at London Zoo. (There were about seven wolves in there at the time. If you want to know what it was like, you'll find a description in Wolf.)
  • been involved with a musical
  • had my face stroked by an elephant's trunk. (She stroked my coat as well, all over. It was nice, but very embarrassing - because I had to travel home on the train, and I reeked of elephant!)
  • been on location with a television crew
  • put on a virtual reality helmet and walked into a room full of fish swimming all round me.
  • had the Blue Peter team in my kitchen
  • interviewed a goat
  • slid feet first up the stairs

That's just a handful of my experiences. Other people will have completely different ones - but I expect they're just as odd and varied. (Maybe we ought to run a competition for the most peculiar one . . . ?) When you're a writer, you never know where the next book will lead.