Patricia Forde

And I think it's a great way to think about it, to make books part of the house, have them there.

Now, that's easy to say, I suppose, for people who can afford to buy them.

But the library is there as a catch all for everybody.

Is that right?

Collaborator and friend.

Although people don't realise with picture books, there's very little collaboration.

Paddy and I didn't speak to each other during the making of that book.

I've never spoken to any of the people who illustrated my books while we were doing them.

You know, you have this picture that we're in a room going, and then we'll do this.

It's not like that at all.

That's exactly how I imagine it.

I write the text.

I sell it to the publisher.

Then the publisher finds an illustrator.

And then the art editor in that house will deal with Paddy.

And the text editor will deal with me.

And it's actually a good idea because they're kind of like the referee.

Otherwise, it could come down to personality.

You know, when the publisher rings me and says, Trish, Paddy wants to do a bigger picture there.

Could you lose a couple of sentences?