Jubilee Books - What was your favourite subject at school?
Neil Arksey - Art/Drama/English

What do you like best about being writer?
Being allowed to daydream and live in a fantasy world. I do that anyway.

What is your favourite children's book?
There are too many. Here's a few of my favourite writers: Phillip Pullman, Anne Fine, Malorie Blackman and Melvin Burgess.

Books that most inspired you?
Again, too many. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Huckleberry Finn and Treasure Island are three big favourites.

Person that most inspires you?
Hmmm... Tricky one that. It's a toss up between William Shakespeare and Tony Adams.

Do you know any good jokes?
I'm not sure it's a good joke, but I like it.
What should a football team do if the pitch is flooded?
The answer is on the football jokes page of my website http://www.neilarksey.co.uk/. If you've got any better ones, please send them in.

Favourite TV show?
NYPD Blue, The League of Gentlemen, The Sopranos, Ally MacB.

What other jobs have you had?
How long have you got?

What was your first book?
Brooksie was the first novel. Though before that I wrote a couple of short stories which I'm very fond of - Banana in Football Fever (Tony Bradman ed, Transworld) and Tina Football Fever 2.

Which of your own books is your favourite?
I love them all equally of course - once they're finished. I hate the one I'm working on though. I always hate the one I'm working on, because writing is hard and lonely. And it stops me going out and having fun with my friends.

Where do you write?
Wherever I can find quiet. Not at home.

What age group do you write for?
The age group I write for is the age at which my eyes were opened to the ways of the world. For me, this was the most character-forming period of my life.

Do you write only about football?
I don't consider myself to be a football writer (I intend to write a lot more besides). You don't have to be a good at football, you don't even have to play to enjoy stories set in the world of football. My hope is that some people who have, for whatever reason, been alienated from football or maybe never even really encountered it, could be turned on to the game by my stories.

Do you use a computer, and if so what for?
I do the whole process, from beginning to end, on a laptop. However, once I've written a first draft, I make changes in pen then go back and type them in on the computer. This can take quite a long time as my handwriting is wild even on a good day and it can take me hours to work out what I've written.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born somewhere up north. But for the last 20 years I've lived in and around Peckham, SE London. I have a flat in Camberwell, which I haven't been living in since my neighbour went berserk and threatened to hurt me. For the last two months I've been living in the Hesperia Hotel in Helsinki.

Do you have any hobbies?
Or course. Doesn't everybody? Stamp collecting, train spotting - that sort of thing.

Favourite food?
Fish and chocolate. They're delicious together. If you haven't done so already you should try it.

What is your happiest memory?
Don't think I can talk about it in public.

Where is your favourite place?
The sea

What are your good qualities?
Kind, intelligent, forthright, good-looking, talented, witty, noble, honest, perceptive

What are your bad qualities?
Pogonophobic. Compulsive liar.

Jubilee Books © 2000