Interview Time

Gareth challenged me- and in the interests of keeping this thing going , I have agreed to be interviewed... so here are my answers to Gaz's tricky questions!

1. What is your favourite cake/tea time treat, and why?
Battenburg Cake is still my all time favourite kind of cake. It's the mix of the vibrant colours, the ultra-sweetness and the marzipan that make it a winner. I haven't had any for ages though, and you know what I didn't even get a birthday cake this year either... hint, hint!

2. Trapped in a lift at a convention with Colin Baker or Nicholas Courtney? Why?
It would be easy to say Nick Courtney because there would be more room, but that would mean. I'm going to go for Colin, because he's a really lovely person, and a great raconteur. he could tell me some stories while we wait to be rescued and I'd be happy to chat away to him.


3. Rank in order of preference The Face of Boe, Vervoids, Sontarans & the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe; and explain.

Sontarans, Boe, Vervoids, Max.
Sontarans win because although the idea of a race living for war is quite a cliche, the idea of them being cloned was quite novel at the time. They looked good (well the first couple of stories anyway) too- a nice design.
Boe second because he's just so cool- especially when he teleports away at the end of New Earth.
The Vervoids third because although they looked rubbish, they had a pretty good motivation.
Max comes last because he was just a blob on the ceiling and they should have just let Simon Pegg be the villain in The Long Game.


4. What's the 2nd worst job you've had, and more importantly - why wasn't it the worst!
The second worst job I ever had was my holiday job at Tawny Transport. I was the boss's son and no-one really wanted to work with me. The only person who did was a guy called Kevin, who was ever so nice to me (and one of my Dad's few friends) and he sadly died a couple of weeks back.
The worst job I ever had was cleaning up after Ascot Races. It was hot, smelly, and poorly paid. I worked hard, got patronised by all the toffs at the racecourse and had a thoroughly miserable time of it for 5 days. On the last night I went and the decided it wasn't worth being there so cycled home again.

5. Top three favourite writers (screen/book/play whatever) - rank and explain!

1. Iain Banks: he's just awesome. As people might know I read The Crow Road one summer, and I was hooked. It made a huge impression on me at the time and remains my favourite ever novel. I've thoroughly enjoyed all his work (well I haven't actually read much of his SF stuff, but I keep meaning too) and it;'s incredibly exciting whenever he has a new novel out.

2. Terrance Dicks: I'll nominate Uncle Terrance because it was his books that made me want to learn to read in the firt place. I wanted to read his Target books on my own and indeed I quite quickly got up to the stage where I was able to. He was major influence on my childhood, not even just his Doctor Who books, I'd read anything he wrote! He also wrote some crackiong Doctor Who stories of course too!

3. Thomas Hardy: My favourite classic novelist. I just love the way his books are so doomy. There's more misfortune in the lives of his characters than most novelists would even attempt, and yet they're not really depressing. They're quite captivating tragedies. He was the first author I sought out when my English Lit teachers at school encouraged me to read more widely and I suppose I have a fondness for him for that reason.

So who wants to be interviewed?
01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
03. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.