10 Quirky Questions with author Margaret Wild

1. What's your hidden talent?

I would like to say levitation or time-travelling, but, alas, I’ll have to settle for an endless capacity
for playing Scrabble.

2. Who is your favourite literary villain and why?

Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by William Thackeray. She is clever, resourceful, selfish, 
remorseless, resilient and fascinating, I reread Vanity Fair every five years or so just for the pleasure of encountering Becky and her shenanigans yet again.

3. You're hosting a literary dinner party, which five authors would you invite? (alive or dead)

Kent Haruf, Maggie O’Farrell, Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy and Alice Munro are my adult picks. But I would also love to spend an evening with children’s creators such as Quentin Blake, Margaret Wise Brown, William Steig, Eric Carle and, Katherine Paterson. (I was lucky once to have dinner with the wonderful Nina Bawden.)

4. Which literary invention do you wish was real?

The ability to fly. The Summer Birds by Penelope Farmer is a lovely story about a mysterious boy who teaches the village children how to fly for one magical summer.

5. What are five words that describe your writing process?

Determination. Rewriting. Excitement. Frustration. Hope.

6. Which are the five words you would like to be remembered by as a writer?

Thoughtful, warm, empathetic, imaginative, emotionally resonant.

7. Picture your favourite writing space. What are five objects you would find there?

Cup of coffee, bed (a nap helps to sort out plot problems), computer, sunlight and a view.

8. Grab the nearest book, open it to page 22 and look for the second word in the first sentence.
Now, write a line that starts with that word. (Please include the name of the book!)

You are my joy and my despair. The word 'you' from The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. 

9. If you could ask one author one question, what would the question be and who would you ask?

I would ask Margaret Atwood – Would you please turn the Oryx and Crake trilogy into a quartet?

10. Which would you rather do: Never write another story or never read another book?
What an awful dilemma. I can’t imagine living without reading or writing. So I’d just opt for kindly euthanasia!

Margaret Wild is one of Australia's most-loved picture book authors. She has written over 20 books, many of which have appeared in foreign editions. All have been highly acclaimed. Jenny Angel (which was inspired by her brother's death at the age of seven), illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, Fox, illustrated by Ron Brooks and The Very Best of Friends, illustrated by Julie Vivas are all winners of the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award. Margaret was born in Eshowe, a small town in South Africa. She now lives in Sydney.