WHY I WRITE STORIES ABOUT ANIMALS 

 My mother shared her love and respect of animals with my sister and myself. She brought us up to believe that we should help an animal in trouble if we possibly could. We grew up with lots of pets – a dog, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, hamsters, gerbils - and we learnt to look after them. We were also fed a diet of animal stories! 

When I first arrived in the UAE in 1975 there were many more wild animals than there are today, for instance there were still Arabian leopards in the mountains of Ras Al Khamimah back then. 

 When I write stories based in the Arabian Gulf I like to include local animals – foxes, gazelle, falcons, a lizard perhaps or a hedgehog, insects such as scorpions and dung beetles etc. 

I’ve written about wild animals such as the Arabian leopard, the Hawksbill turtle, the oryx and the dugong, because they are all endangered so I think they need my help to tell their stories. 

 Then there are the domesticated animals such as goats and donkeys, and of course camels! 

When I write about endangered animals I’m quite serious, though that doesn’t mean there can’t be lots of amusing bits! But sometimes I like to write really funny stories, and that’s where camels and goats take over, like The Goat Who Wanted to Fly or The Camel That Got Away.