I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. If your child has read any of the books in this series before they will recognise the familiar refrain of the sounds that each of the characters make. The fun rhyming story paired with the wonderfully bright illustrations combine to deliver another fantastic title from the powerhouse team that is writer Julia Donaldson and illustrator Lydia Monks. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers. My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

We’ve followed this little ladybird’s adventure on the farm, on holiday and even to the seaside, but now it’s finally time to find out What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).

Your children will love searching the detailed spreads, spotting the ladybird on each one and even discovering other little secrets like a Gruffalo snowman. They will giggle as the ladybird shares her idea to thwart Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len, and then be mesmerized to see how the plan plays out with the animal friends. The What the Ladybird Heard books have been one of our favourite picture book series to read together, always delightful to read aloud at storytime and often recited when we see a ladybird out and about! I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.