AN AWARD winning author was grilled by pupils during a Skype interview.

Sarah Todd Taylor, whose first book Arthur and Me won the Firefly Children’s Book Competition 2014, was quizzed by pupils from Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan during the live session.

She was asked about the way she wrote, where she wrote and the challenges of writing. Pupils learned that it can take about a year to write a book.

Sarah also told pupils that she enjoys receiving her work back from the editors because she can see it at its best after the editing.

Kirsten Lorey, head of English at the school and organiser of the event, said: "This is just the beginning of something really exciting for our learners.

The year seven learners and sixth formers enjoyed the interview which is the latest initiative before the introduction of the school’s new Writing Squad launching on March 19. The school will be working with Fireflies press, script writers and a range of universities from Cambridge to Cardiff and Bangor to create a centre of excellence for writing."

Sarah, who also penned Max the Detective Cat series, started writing when she was young. As a lover of cats and guinea pigs, animals feature heavily in her books.