I was the first boy in Britain to meet a Dalek in the flesh (so to speak) when my Dad took me to the BBC workshops one dark January night in 1964. That early experience probably explains quite a lot. After a childhood spent daydreaming about aliens and vampires, I discovered Marvel Comics and happily gave up all connection with reality to immerse myself in the marvellous worlds of Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, John Romita, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams. Every Saturday I used to head doggedly from newsagent to newsagent, searching out the latest Iron Man or Spider-man comics, which I would buy for 10d each (that’s about 4p in your fancy modern digital money). Since those halcyon days I've written a lot of books. Really, a lot. If you put a copy of every one of my books in a suitcase then you’d need to get a friend to help you lift it. My favorites among my own books are Heart of Ice, a sci-fi interactive adventure story where the Côte d’Azur is a jungle and the Sahara is covered in snow, and my current project, Mirabilis, a comic book epic in the making. I'd say that my fantasy writing has been most influenced by Lord Dunsany, Jack Vance, Mike Mignola and Neil Gaiman, but I should stress that none of those gentlemen is personally to blame.