Chris Riddell

It went down very well.

I'm not sure my drawing of a wallaby was terribly sort of distinguished or anatomically correct, but it was wonderful fun, and I think that's part of what I love about drawing live.

No, we don't.

And that actually is what I love about working with Neil.

Um, he is a wonderful writer and, and has got a range that, that, that is, is sort of amazing.

So he will, he will write spectacularly about Norse mythology, but he will also write the most wonderful sort of Gothic fairy tale set in the London underground.

Um, he is a great creator of worlds, but, um, he is also, I think, um,

One of the most immensely readable writers that I know he knows how to hook you With almost the first line and then take you through in a story.

So he's got a wonderful storytelling voice What he does which which I enjoy so much with my collaboration is that once he's written something he presents it to you in its entirety and then allows the illustrator to interpret his his words and

in as broad a way as we would want to, with no sort of editorial interference.

And in fact, I've never had an editorial note from Neil of, you know, he's never told me not to draw something or change something I've done.

He's only ever sort of made helpful comments.

But

The only time he ever asked me to change something was in the Graveyard book, which is a wonderful children's novel that he wrote.

And I had given, for reasons I can't fully explain, I decided to give the central character, who's a vampire, I decided to give him some bleached white hair.

And Neil said, no, no, no, Silas has got to have black hair.

And so I changed that.

I didn't argue, even though his hair's not described in the text.

But that's the only note Neil has ever given me.

And I love his permissiveness when he comes to work with visual people.