![](https://i0.wp.com/baneslibraries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/VL-Book-cover-Template-17.png?resize=642%2C1024&ssl=1)
Anna is an award-winning poet and filmmaker. She has an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University and was one of ‘fifteen leading U.K. poets’ commissioned for Bristol Festival of Ideas 2016.
Her environmental-action short film ‘Never Land’ starred Keeley Hawes, John Nettles, and Marcus Brigstocke and won ‘best narrative’ at the Women in Film and Television’s 2018 showcase. Anna co-founded the website makeaplace.net. She loves travel, adventures and stories.
Where do you get the ideas to create your characters and storylines?
Everywhere. My ideas come from the books I read, the people I meet, and the places I see. They come from events happening in the world today, as well as ancient history. They come in the morning when the birds are singing or else in the deepest, darkest depths of night. Sometimes they come along easily, drifting in through the open window, other times they put up a fight and I have to go outside and drag them in kicking and screaming.
Storylines often surprise me as I write them. I always have a roadmap of places I might like to visit but often, as is always the case in life, things don’t go to plan. Sometimes ideas run out of steam and I am forced to make surprise stops and diversions, often bypassing destinations I’d been sure I’d visit for far better ones I never knew lay ahead. That’s the magic of writing and the thing I love most about it. There are often surprises to discover for the author, as well as for the reader.
![The Mask of Aribella Book Cover](https://i0.wp.com/baneslibraries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/VL-Book-cover-Template-18.png?resize=1410%2C2250&ssl=1)
What are your top 5 writing essentials?
Gumption, Fascination, Moxie, Benevolence Grit
Who or what are the biggest influences in your writing?
All the authors I read as a child and all the authors I continue to read now (please read on for some of their names). Also, my parents, rational, sensible people, who accidentally encouraged their daughter to love stories by reading aloud to her. Never underestimate the power of reading aloud to children. And a particularly fantastic school teacher in year 6, called Mrs. William, who believed in my creativity and encouraged me to write. Good teachers are tremendously important.
Who were your favourite authors as a child, and why?
Growing up, I of course loved the Harry Potter books, and also adored authors like Phillip Pullman and Mallory Blackman for their world-building. I’ll always love stories by Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen. I quite liked Lemony Snickett’s books, although his stories terrified me. To tell the truth, I have even more favourite children’s authors now that I’m an adult.
These include: Katherine Rundell, Sophie Anderson, Patrick Ness and, most of all, Jonathon Stroud – I found the entire series of Lockwood & Co impossible to put down. Other authors whose books I’ve enjoyed in recent years are: Julie Pike, Angie Thomas, David Solomons, Oliver Jeffers, Nicola Penfold, David Baddiel, Tomi Adeyemi, Emma Carroll, Lucy Christopher, Sophie Kirtley, Yaba Badoe, Kirsty Applebaum, Mel Darbon, Helen Lipscombe, Jasbinder Bilan, Jenny Pearson, Chris Vick, Onjali Q. Raúf and Struan Murray.
Through my publisher, Chicken House, I’ve been introduced to the brilliant books of their other authors including: Holly Rivers, Maz Evans, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Emma Read. I could go on and on about children’s books, there are so many amazing stories out there right now and so many more that I’m looking forward to reading.
Your first book The Mask of Aribella was published at the beginning of the year. Do you have any projects coming up that you would like to share with us?
I’m currently working on a second book. It’s not in the same series (but don’t worry Aribella fans, a second Aribella might come one day), instead it’s an idea set in Ireland. It is middle-grade, magical and full of all the most important things: like bravery, kindness and crumpets… That’s all I’m going to say for the moment.
![Orla and the Wild Hunt book cover](https://i0.wp.com/baneslibraries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/VL-Book-cover-Template-19.png?resize=1410%2C2250&ssl=1)
This interview was conducted in 2020.