Alice Broadway, author of debut novel Ink.
Alice Broadway drinks more tea than is really necessary and loves writing in her yellow camper van. She hates being too cold or too hot, and really likes wearing lipstick and watching terrible Christmas movies. Alice has a Theology degree and lives in the North with her family. Her debut novel Ink publishes in February. 
Name three things on your Christmas list this year! A fountain pen – because I’m obsessed with them. A fancy handmade mug. I drink so much tea. Any and ALL books. I’ve asked for 642 Things To Write because I’d like to use it as a daily writing warm-up, journally thing.
Christmas is a time of family traditions – what are your best (or worst!) family traditions? I LOVE Christmas traditions! I like the little things like bacon sandwiches for breakfast and I always hated that we weren’t allowed to open any presents until after lunch. It felt like torture. Now, we do family Christmas discos, but I’m not sure how much longer my kids are going to put up with it.
What is your favourite story to read at Christmas? I love reading The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. It’s like an advent calendar with a new chapter every day and it’s magical and spiritual and ace.
If you could have Christmas dinner with anyone (alive today or person from history) who would it be? Oh gosh, well if Barack and Michelle are in need of company they are very welcome at my house. I’d also really love to chat to any of the kings who ended up mummified in ancient Egypt, but I think we’d end up putting everyone else off their food when we talked about brains being scooped from noses.
Ink is your debut novel, the first of a series. It must be like the best Christmas present in the world to be on the brink of your book birthday. How will you celebrate? It is the nicest feeling. I feel so lucky I can hardly believe it. I think celebration is definitely going to include lots of cake. I don’t have any tattoos and, because of all the tattoos in the book, I sometimes I think I should get one to mark the moment.
Speaking of tattoos, Ink features tattoos as a central part of the narrative. If you had to choose a festive themed tattoo to have on your own skin, what would be and why? Ooh, maybe some sparkly fairy lights or a really bleak wintery scene. Or maybe I’d just be covered in candy canes.
Reader’s question from students at Warden Park Academy; did you get to choose the cover of your book? It was really nice actually. The designers at my publishers, Scholastic, came up with the design and sent it to me, saying ‘tell us what you think’. I was really nervous that I was going to have to say ‘urgh I hate it’ but if you’ve seen it, I think you’ll understand that I just gasped and said ‘I LOVE IT’. It’s a cover that expresses the feel of the book and gives glimpses of the story without giving anything away and I adore it.
Turkey or goose? Turkey. I’ve never had goose.
Real or fake tree? Real (but we have a fake one)
Mince pies or Christmas pudding? Mince pies
Stockings – end of the bed or over the fireplace? Ooh hard one. Fireplace.
Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve? Christmas eve, no question.
Thank you for participating! Merry Christmas!
Find out more about Alice at www.alice-broadway.com and follow her on Twitter @alicecrumbs.
e story to read at Christmas? Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs is great.
Reader’s question from Adam aged 10, Great Walstead School; why did you choose to have animal pirates instead of human pirates in the Mabel Jones stories? It’s a tricky question. I didn’t really think about why I did it. I just like writing about talking animals. Having said that though I can do worse things to talking animal characters than I would be allowed to do to human characters. For some reason, it’s fine to kill a talking animal pirate in a sea battle. My editor probably wouldn’t allow me to write a scene where this happened to a child. I’m not sure why this is. Technically, talking animals are much rarer than children! Another lucky thing is that readers can assume a personality for a certain animal. For example an owl is considered to be wise and a bit haughty. You can use this as a short cut to making a character, or you can turn it into a joke by making an owl stupid. 
dman Fir (they hold onto their needles best) from our friend’s woodland. I remember the excitement my siblings and I shared as we picked our tree and the effort of chopping it down but, most of all, I remember the thrill of using ropes to hoist it up into the stairwell of our house and then, afterwards, decorating it with chocolate ornaments, glittering baubles and colourful fairy-lights. I had troubles getting to sleep as a child but on the nights that our Christmas tree was in the house I used to sleep better. Something about the way the Nordman Fir’s fairy-lights shone through the night was hugely comforting.
filled with longing. She wants to be believed by her brothers and sister and treated as their equal and it takes a world locked in the depths of winter and hidden behind a wardrobe to make her siblings understand. But Lucy not only dares to hope that Edmund, Susan and Peter will believe her stories of Narnia; she dares to hope that together with them she can save an entire land from the grips of the White Witch. And I think it is Lucy’s ability to hope against the odds and against the cynicism of her siblings that makes this story so powerful. Without it, the way through to Aslan’s values – forgiveness, friendship, courage and compassion – might never have been found.
Horatio Clare’s first book for children, Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot, won the 
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