Perched up in the Rothbury, an Art Deco apartment building in the heart of Brisbane, I am working on Little Paradise, my new young adult novel. I’ve been lucky enough to have gained a month long Creative Time Fellowship with the May Gibbs Trust.

I like Brissie – the weather, the river, the walks, the way the city is laid out. Most of the buildings are modern straight sided, glassy boxes, but every now and then there will be an old church with a dome or spire (they are abundant in this city), or a beautiful villa like the School of Arts, made from a pale sandstone with blushes of pink, or a spreading fig tree with organ pipe roots plunging into the ground like the one at the end of Creek Street.