Hazel Edwards
Hazel Edwards is the best-selling author of many popular and award-winning children's books, including There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake series.
Which character from a book would you most like to meet or to be?
A sleuth in a well plotted mystery.
Where is the best place to read a book?
In the bath. I’m an aqua readaholic. Adding more hot water if it’s a good story. Audio books in the car or on iPod while walking.
What do you love about reading?
I can travel places I haven’t been, as well as some I have, like Antarctica. It's not possible to ‘do’ everything in a lifetime, so secondhand experience via reading is the next best. I also like getting inside a writer’s mind for the world of that book.
What were you like at school?
Sporty. Liked maths and reading.
What are your hobbies?
Belly dancing. Orienteering. Trying to think of answers when people ask me for hobbies. Mainly I try unusual things so I can write about them afterwards. It’s called participant-observation. So I have ‘researched’ hot air ballooning, trekked in Nepal and got lost, despite my GPS called Brunhilda.
Do you have any pets or kids?
A cake-eating, rooftop hippo. I also dog-sit ‘Hagrid’ who walks me.
I have two adult children: My son, Trevelyan Quest, co-wrote Cycling Solo Ireland to Istanbul’ (and we’re still talking); and my daughter Kim who is VERY patient at teaching me website formatting.
What is your most treasured possession?
Imagination Couldn’t live without asking ‘What if?’
What book would you take to a deserted island?
A blank one. To write about being there.
What is one interesting fact about yourself that nobody else would know?
The secret I’m keeping.
Your words of wisdom to students completing the Premiers' Reading Challenge?
Be a professional book-taster. Read-taste different genres. You might develop a new taste in reading. It’s not how many books you read, but whether a book gives you mind- food and fun.
For more information see Hazel's website (www.hazeledwards.com)
Have you read this?
Whipper Snapper