turkish delight and treasure hunts

When I was little I spent a lot of time with my nose buried in books, mostly borrowed from the library. I don't know quite how I did it as I was quite an independent soul and I didn't have much of a plan, but I somehow managed to read a huge number of British and American classics. This may partly have been because of the way I moved crabwise with my head to one side looking along the shelves until I came across likely looking titles. But it was also because I listened to my Mum when she talked about the books she'd loved as a child, which is how I came to read some very un-60s and -70s books such as Little Lord Fauntleroy, What Katy Did and Milly-Molly-Mandy. I loved anything with a good story, strong characters, plenty of pace and plot, but nothing remotely fantasy or sci-fi.

All this reading provided the starting point for my two books based on children's classics: Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer (2008) and Ripping Things to Do (2009). Although I covered titles by British and American authors (and a few from Australia), both of my books included references to a number of British books that aren't particularly well known in the US. But Meg at Perigee Books wasn't worried about this, and had the wonderful idea of putting together a US edition with a collection of pieces from Cherry Cake and Ripping Things that concentrate on the books that are well known in America and are as well loved and popular as ever.

So this is what she did, and Turkish Delight and Treasure Hunts is the result (also my first Kindle book). It contains a selection of delicious food moments and recipes based on the lovely things that children in books eat, and lots of practical stuff about the wonderful things they do. It has reproductions of orginal illustrations and a new introduction, but apart from that nothing has changed. It's still a celebration of great stories that continue to transport, entertain, educate and delight children all over the world.

There's a video of me talking about the book here, filmed when I went to New York, finding it hard to believe I was in the offices of Penguin, publisher of so many of my favourite childhood authors, with my editor.