When and why did you start writing?

"The year I was forty I enrolled on a Creative Writing evening class in Ysgol Bro Ddyfi, Machynlleth. The tutor, one Anna Lunk, asked us to write about our childhood. I wrote a piece about my mother's button box. Anna liked it. I liked it. Right, I thought. I'm going to be a writer. "

Have you always written for children?

"Until that moment I'd written next to nothing. A soppy love poem or two. Birthday poems. Long letters home to my Dad, back in Ireland. But, writing about the button box, I found I had a clear emotional connection back to childhood. I found I could recreate the thoughts, the voice, the way of seeing the world. I'll write for children, I thought. I'll become a children's author. And, apart from the occasional foray into poetry or short story, that's what I do."

How many books have you written so far?

"I was 44 when my first book was published. The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, just published seven years later, is my 52nd. I'm making up for lost time!"

What kind of themes do your books deal with?

"I write across the age range, from pop-up books, picture books, through early readers, up to teenage novels. Many of my books draw on themes from folk tale. My inspiration is my own childhood, in Ireland,and my children's childhood, here in Wales."

When was your first book published?

"I'd sent Owen and the Mountain, my picture book about a boy and his grandfather climbing Cadair Idris out to every children's publisher in the U.K. The phone rang two days later and an editor wanted to publish it. I put the phone down and screamed. Then I ran up Penrallt, the hill behind my house and danced for joy. I still sing a little song and dance a little dance, somewhere on a beach or hilltop,every time a book is accepted."

How do you feel about being on the Nestlé Children's Book Prize shortlist?

"I wrote The Dancing Tiger as a poem about ten years ago. It was published in a couple of anthologies, but I had always seen it as a book in its own right, and was delighted when Simon and Schuster decided to give it the full picturebook treatment. The illustrations, by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, are extraordinarily beautiful, and I'm over the moon at it being on the Nestle Children's Book Prize shortlist. The fact that it is children who decide on the winners makes this a particularly joyful accolade."

Is it difficult to make a living as an author?

"I've been writing full time for six years now. It's hard work, but deeply rewarding. I feel very proud and privileged to be able to live where I do, doing what I do."

When did you move to Mid Wales?

"I was working in advertising in the Midlands and getting more and more disillusioned.In 1974, at the age of thirty,I knew I had to get out. My wife and I bought a smallholding in Ciliau Aeron with some friends, and we've lived in the area ever since. I spend much of my time wandering the coast and mountains, which I love, and which feed my imagination endlessly."

What advice for a struggling would-be writer?

"Write about things you care about. Create your own voice. Be original. If you've sufficient talent, a whole heap of persistence and a decent dose of luck, you'll get there."