Introduction... Hi. My name is Chris d'Lacey. That's me on the right aged 7. I'm 53 now, married with no children and I live in Leicester. Crikey, I sound like a contestant in a game show, don't I? Can you tell I would grow up to be a writer? Can you make an image of a typewriter by joining up the dots of my freckles? My early aspirations... I haven't always been a writer. In my teenage years I dreamt of being a famous rock star, like David Bowie. I even dyed my hair a funny colour and got told off at school for looking a prat. Stop laughing! I wrote lots of songs before I started writing stories, including my very own Christmas single! Here's a picture of me playing the guitar. Think I'd make it onto Pop Idol or what? How I started... Some writers start scribbling stories as soon as they are old enough to hold a pen. I thought pens were for chewing while you tried to get the perspective right when drawing football nets. Apparently not. Sometimes children say to me, "Were you dead good at stories at school?" The answer is no. I was rubbish! My English teacher once told me that I didn't have a creative thought in my head. I think they must have been hiding in my socks. Incredibly, I was 32 (ancient, eh?) before I wrote my first children's story. And I didn't write another for seven years. Then a friend told me about a competition to write a story for young children. I wasn't going to have a go at first - until I found out the first prize was £2000. So I started scribbling, fast! I didn't win (boo!) but I sent the story off to a publisher and they accepted it. It was called A Hole at the Pole and you can read more about it by clicking on the title. | 
