Lauren Child was in Australia for the Children's Book Council of Australia/Library Association conference. I interviewed Lauren for Good Reading Magazine — Lauren was extremely generous with her time and she gave me some wonderful insights into how she goes about creating her fantastuic books. I confess; I am an absolute and utter Child fan and meeting her was wonderful; she's a lovely person, and most interesting when she talks about her work.

After the conference, Lauren returned to Sydney where she gave an entertaining and informative hour-long presentation, showing slides of her work at various stages and explaining the various techniques she uses. To create the fur effect of That Pesky Rat, for example, she made photocopies of various plush animals — her relating taking the toys to the copy shop was just one of many funny anecdotes she shared.

My interview will be published in January. A full transcript will be available on Misrule at a later date.

Lauren and members of the Specialist Children's Bookseller group. Lauren won the group's inaugral Golden Mouse award for their favourite book to sell in 2003 for I Am Too Absolutely Small for School. Gleebooks Children's Bookshop manager Lynndy Bennett is on the far right of the group.