For the Dancing Shoes series I had help from my daughter Gemma, who did ballet lessons from the age of three until she was fifteen.Ĭan you give your top three tips to becoming a successful author?ġ. The Ghosts was inspired by a visit to an old house The Ring in the Rough Stuff by going sailing with friends on an old Thames Barge and The Mousehole Cat by a song I found in Cornwall. Often from my own life or other peoples'. Most recently I wrote Tales from the Ballet and then, for Puffin, the Dancing Shoes series about Lucy Lambert who wants to be a ballerina. My picture books for younger children include The Mousehole Cat about a fisherman and a cat who live in my Cornish cottage (see Favourite Place). Now a new film version is planned, as well as a stage musical version.

My second, The Ghosts, written two years later, was a best-seller and was filmed as The Amazing Mr Blunden in 1972. I wrote my first children's novel in 1966. The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart 'Every Time You Say Goodbye' by Ella Fitzgerald Her novel, The Amazing Mr Blunden, was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. Antonia is well-known for such best-selling picture books as The Mousehole Cat (with Nicola Bailey) and Catkin (with J P Lynch). My Antonia Barber really knows about ballet - her daughter studied ballet from the age of three and attended the Royal Ballet School junior associate classes at Sadler's Wells. FAVOURITE BOOK: Middlemarch by George Eliot FAVOURITE SONG: 'Every Time You Say Goodbye' by Ella Fitzgerald MOST TREASURED POSSESSION: Family Photographs FAVOURITE FILM: The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart - When did you start writing? I wrote my first children's novel in 1966.

Antonia Barber really knows about ballet - her daughter studied ballet from the age of three and attended the Royal Ballet School junior associate classes at Sadler's Wells.

The ghosts by antonia barber