I had a wonderful morning at Camberwell South talking to the grade fives and sixes. Some pieces of great writing came out of the talks and wonderful drawings of Peng too.

This is the cover for my next book, A Ghost in My Suitcase. It’s a story about a girl called Celeste who inherits a very powerful gift – the gift of ghost-hunting. If you’ve read The Pearl of Tiger Bay, Por Por, the ghost-hunting grandma also stars in this new book.

The girl on the cover is my cousin Belinda. She is a very smiley person, so during the photo shoot, it was hard to capture her not smiling. I love her expression in this photo – so sad and wistful.

The story takes place in an ancient water town  in China which is a perfect setting for a ghost story.

Every now and then articles appear in the newspaper that are out of the ordinary. I like these little stories. They break us out of our traditional ways of thinking. Strange things do happen in the world. Stories like these can also be used as inspiration for a novel and they can change the way we think and see.

Nottingham England

Bob Smythe’s white terrier jumped into a bucket of green vegetable dye last week then vanished.

Smythe said police refused to believe him when he reported the missing green dog until the terrier turned up at the police station covered with the dye.