Candida Baker

‘Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, I’m sick of wearing yellow!’ declares the pomposity of puffed-up Mr Toad, intends staying in bed until he gets what he wants – a new blue suit, like those worn by the Moon. Meanwhile, the roosters haven’t crowed, the cows need milking ... saplings want their dew and it’s bitterly cold, and so Mother Nature, Father Time, King Neptune and the Moon set out to solve the problem, with help from the Celestial Tailor. The results are ridiculous and enjoyably rude.

As interviewer to the literary gentry in the Yacker series, Candida Baker could hardly be deemed a stranger to the agonies and ecstasies of the fiction writer’s craft. Her skill as interviewer and journalist has attracted attention and praise, and now everyone who’s been holding their breath to see how Candy Baker would manage her own first excursion into fiction can relax with a sigh of relief.

Why do we like interviews so much? There must be a reason. Maybe it’s the lure – too often, alas, as in lurid – of confession: the ‘X Reveals All’ syndrome that deceives the mind into thinking it has always wanted to know what it is (finally) about to be told; or the more elevated sense of privilege and honour felt by those in whom such truths are confided.