This is me hard at work in my outdoor office!

Name
Julie Sykes

Date of Birth
My birthday is in August.

Place of Birth
Kingston upon Thames.

Places I Have Lived
I moved to Australia with my parents and my little sister when I was a baby. We lived there for three years but came back to England just in time for me to start school. I was educated in Surrey and lived there until I got married when I moved to Hampshire.
My husband and our three children once lived on a fish farm where we shared our home with 300,000 rainbow trout. Now we live in a 200 year old cottage and we share that with woodworm!

Jobs I Have Had
While I was at college I worked in shops, pubs and on a mushroom farm. My first full-time job was as a laboratory technician and after that a teacher. I left teaching to become a Mum and an Author.

Becoming An Author
When I was a child I was always ‘telling tales’. Not the, ‘she put soap on my toothbrush,’ sort of tale but tales where I made everyday happenings into something bigger than they really were. I loved to watch people’s reactions to my stories. I also loved to read. I always had my nose in a book and NEVER left the house without one - I still don’t!

Putting these two things together, a love of telling tales and a love of reading them, it seemed natural that at I should start writing my own stories.

It was one of the most exciting days of my life when a publisher, Magi Publications, rang me to say that they were going to publish my first book, An Acorn For Tea.

Favourite Things
My family, Cornwall, Spring, Danish pastries, the colour purple, books, dogs, and chocolate.

Worst Things
Litter bugs, vandals, cleaning the house and having NOTHING to read.

Hobbies
Hobbies need spare time and that’s something that hardly exists in my life! When I do get a spare moment I like reading, walking, cooking and going to a café with friends for a cappuccino and Danish pastry.

Indy and me. Indy’s the hairy one with the big ears.
She loves taking me for walks.