Today I get to chat to children’s author Gary Panton!
Before we settle down in The Reading Realm for a chat, what’s your drink and snack of
choice?
I’d like tea (preferably served in a mug from a Christmas market) and a milk chocolate Hob-
Nob please!
Tell us about your book in three sentences and then three words!
Three sentences: Melanda Notwitch has a horrible, horrible life living with her three rotten
aunts. But that all changes when she meets a young witch called Mitch, and Mitch’s sort-of-
talking cat, Rolo. Together, Melanda, Mitch and Rolo head off on an adventure to find the
one magical ingredient they need to cast a very special spell and change Melanda’s life
forever.
Three words: Join the witches.
If one of your characters could come to dinner, who would you invite and what would you
cook them? What do you think you’d talk about?
I’d invite Aunt Claggy to dinner, and I’d serve her up a steaming hot bowl of protractors,
topped with a sauce made from printer ink. We’d talk about how unfair the world is, and how
hard it is to find someone to clean the toe gunk out of your socks these days.
What’s the funniest word you know that always makes you laugh?
Dollop. I always use it too much when I’m writing, and then I have to go back and edit it out. I
just love the way it sounds. In an ideal world I’d use it in every sentence.
What’s the silliest or strangest thing you’ve ever researched for a story?
Silly bits usually come to me quite easily, so I don’t usually research those. It’s the boring
bits I usually have to research. For The Notwitches, I had to research the names of parts of a
ship. For the new thing I’m writing at the moment, I had to research factory production line
equipment.
Do your characters ever surprise you?
Yes, all the time. Mainly because I hardly ever plan anything I write. They also make me
laugh, and sometimes cry. I’m generally of the view that whatever I’m writing has to make
me laugh or cry, otherwise the reader probably won’t laugh or cry either.
If your writing desk could speak, what would it say to you?
It would say I leave behind way too many Hob-Nob crumbs and it’s getting annoying. Also it
would ask why I’m still insisting on using a lava lamp in 2026.
Did you like reading when you were a child? If so, what?
I loved reading as a child, and spent a lot of time in my local library. I would borrow huge
piles of books and just devour them. I read way more books during my childhood than I have
at any other point of my life. I particularly loved anything that was silly, or a little spooky, or
preferably both. Roald Dahl was a big favourite or mine, as was Dr Seuss. I was (and still
am) a big fan of comics, too, and loved reading Asterix. Illustrations were also really
important to me, as I loved to draw, so I enjoyed trying to copy the illustrations from the
books I read.
What’s your favourite book that isn’t yours?
A book called The Wicked One by Mollie Hunter. It’s the story of a family living in the
Scottish Highlands, who are terrorised by an invisible monster. It terrified me, in the best
possible way. I borrowed it from my local library several times, and later found the same
copy in a library book sale, so I still have it to this day. Mollie Hunter was also the only author
who ever visited my school when I was a kid. I remember her visit really well to this day. Her
books aren’t very well known, but are usually based around Scottish folklore and are
incredibly atmospheric and magical. They’re just wonderful.
What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?
The Witches by Roald Dahl. I think it had a huge influence on my love of scary stories. As an
adult I’ve gone on to read a lot of horror, but I still maintain that the scene in The Witches
with the little girl trapped in the painting is the scariest thing I’ve ever read. That feeling of
shock and fear when you read something genuinely scary is something you can only
experience once. It’s never quite the same upon a re-read, but it’s always stuck with me. I’d
absolutely love to be able to write something like that.
What’s the funniest thing a child has said to you?
Once, during a school visit, completely out of nowhere, a child put their hand up and asked
me what colour of eyes Dotty Sutton (the brilliant illustrator of The Notwitches) has.
If you weren’t an author, what would you be?
I always loved playing football, but I was pretty bad at it, so perhaps I’d be a rubbish
footballer. In more recent years I’ve discovered I quite like gardening, but I’m also pretty bad
at that, so maybe I could be a rubbish gardener.
What BAD advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
Don’t write anything until you find the perfect idea. (I believe this is bad advice because you
just have to go for it and start writing, whether you’ve found the perfect idea or not. You
probably won’t know if your idea is good or bad until you actually get into it and start writing
it. And once you do start writing, your idea will probably morph and change into something
else anyway. So just go for it and see what happens.)
SPEED ROUND:
Cake or biscuits?
Biscuits.
Dinosaurs or unicorns?
Dinosaurs.
Pirates or astronauts?
Pirates.
Museums or theme parks?
Museums (although I’d quite like a theme park museum).
Cats or dogs?
Dogs (unless the cat is Rolo).
Summer or winter?
Winter.
Aliens or robots?
Aliens.
THANK YOU to Gary Panton for joining me in The Reading Realm today!
