The first thing Sue ever wrote was the letter S, and it’s still her favourite. As a toddler she wrote on walls, but at school she was given exercise books and filled them with stories of children who lived alone on islands and had adventures with boats and dogs. Though a tomboy, Sue was also a coward and deeply scared of boats, dogs, islands and adventures, but she discovered that writing was a way of experiencing other lives whilst keeping your feet dry.
As a teenager she realised that, if you could make people laugh, they didn’t notice how nerdy you were. Sue found that comedy was a way of dealing with the bad stuff that happens in life such as embarrassment and anxiety. Despite her love of comedy and writing, she ignored these hints from the universe and briefly attempted to be a teacher. Sue hates imposing her will on other people (even her dog had to teach himself to sit and fetch) so Sue’s days in the schoolroom were numbered.
Immediately after escaping from the Ministry of Education, Sue wrote ‘Up the Garden Path’ – the story of a teacher whose private life is an absolute disgrace. It was adapted for radio and became a TV series starring Imelda Staunton. Later Sue wrote a column for The Guardian newspaper called ‘Dulcie Domum’s Bad Housekeeping’ about a writer whose private life was an absolute disgrace. Just to prove she could tackle other kinds of story, she co-authored a biography of the Antarctic hero Captain Oates.
Writing for young people has always been a big part of Sue’s working life, mainly because she still doesn’t feel grown up. In recent years she’s produced the Jess Jordan books and re-visited her early childhood in the Ruby Rogers series. Occasionally Sue draws inspiration from classic literature, producing affectionate parodies of great writers she admires (such as The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere, a radio series celebrating the eccentricity of the Romantic poets).