Name: Penelope Todd
Date of birth: 1958
Place of birth: Christchurch
Now living in: Dunedin
What is your favourite food?
Coriander. Pineapple lumps.
Do you have a nickname and if so what is it?
No, but I often get called Mum.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
I remember flushing the loo on my uncle’s boat the wrong way (carelessly…) and breaking it. Trouble was we were sailing off Fiji and the boat had to be docked until a new and expensive part could be flown out from Auckland…
How do you relax?
I’m relaxed most of the time. If I need more I read or go to sleep.
Who inspired you when you were little?
My four strong horse-riding girl cousins from Makarora.
What were you like at school?
Quiet.
, opens a new windowWhat was your favourite/most hated subject at school?
Favourite: Year Eight cooking
Most hated: Year Eight sewing
What was the book you most loved as a child?
My friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara - the only book/s I read twice.
Which person from the past would you most like to meet?
Jesus, to clarify a few, no alot of, things.
Who is your favourite author/children’s author?
Adult: Margaret Atwood’s hard to beat. And Maurice Gee, opens a new window.
Children's: a few NZ writers, David Almond, Philip Pullman.
Why did you want to be a writer?
To say all the things that'd been composting/unsaid for forty years.
Do you have a special place where you write your books?
The sunroom’s the place. It’s everybody’s space but when they go to school it’s mine.
What’s the best thing and worst thing about being a writer?
Best: finding things out as I write, feeling solider and realer because of it.
Worst: getting stuck or distracted or discouraged.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be?
A postie or tramping track guide or sweet shop attendant or puppy exerciser.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Just do it.
Penelope Todd’s web site
Read some books by Penelope Todd
More information about Penelope Todd
This interview is from 2005.
