Alison Weatherby answers some questions about her Middle Grade murder mystery, discover more about the importance of the title, setting and crimes involved in the first story of a promised series... First, the title. Did you intend it to be alliterative & do titles come easily to you? Titles are so hard! My editor and I went back and forth on titles for ages. I think I suggested maybe 20 different ones! We wanted the title to have something to do with death and murder, of co

Manners, they are very important to us all. Why did you feel young people needed a reminder about using their manners? Interestingly, I didn't! If anything, The Ministry of Manners began with the opposite idea. Manners are generally a good thing. Saying please and thank you, holding doors open, treating people with kindness and respect... most of us would agree those are positive values. What interested me was what happens when a good idea is taken too far. History is full of

With thanks to Anna Read at Macmillan Children's Books for suggesting I do a Q&A with Hazel Gardner about her very unusual and very funny Boots & Cats and to for giving us such wonderful answers to read & of course a fabulous book to share! On which note you can find the book in all those wonderful places you might usually visit to buy them! Where did the idea of Boots and Cats come from, I wonder if you were inspired by the old tale of Puss in Boots? I wasn’t inspired by any