Michael Morpurgo has praised her work as "terrific" (Just For One Day) "enthralling" (Spirit and Fire) and "Beautifully written... insightful [and] poignant" regarding The Waterhouse Girl. Traces made the top three in The People's Book Prize 2012 and Frank won Bronze in The Wishing Shelf Awards 2013. Sue lost her hair in 1981 but it was creating Daisy Waterhouse that began to change the way she lived with Alopecia. Now, she's delighted to be an ambassador for Alopecia UK.

1. You’ve published seventeen books with us. Where do you continue to get all of your ideas from?

From real life: places I visit and people I meet, ideas I come across. I’m also inspired by my reading although of course I don’t steal a plot or character from anyone else’s book any more than I write a real person into a novel – very dangerous. THE JUDAS DEER came from seeing a white deer in the forest near where I live, so sometimes it’s that simple. Something happens to me and I have to develop and reshape it into a story.

2. What motivates you to continue writing?

I love writing so I want readers to feel as passionate about my work as I do. I don’t feel quite complete or happy unless I’m progressing with a book. And of course I believe in the power of stories because I’ve felt it myself, as a reader, teacher and writer. Stories can change lives!

3. Your latest book, Crazy Daise, is a sequel to The Waterhouse Girl, published in 2009. What made you decide that now was the time for a sequel?

Daisy is eleven in the first book and in real time I realised she’d be sixteen. Her life would be rather different and she’d be nearly a woman. I wanted to find out what had changed for her, catch up with the people in her life (including the exotic Flame) and explore the activism she’d already begun at primary school, knowing that it would have become more committed and potentially dangerous.

4. Crazy Daise and The Waterhouse Girl both deal with young girls suffering from alopecia. In what other ways are the main characters similar? How are they different?

 Of course Daisy in the first book IS Crazy Daise in the second, but the narrator in the sequel is her total opposite. Daisy was always unconventional, an independent thinker and young eccentric with a soft heart and a passion for justice. Rowan wants to fit in; her focus is on her appearance and the credibility she thinks it gives her. Her interests and attitudes are those of her peers and she doesn’t concern herself with the state of the world. She’s also as quick to judge as Daisy is to empathise – until she meets Daisy and her perspective begins to change. What they have in common, apart from Alopecia and split parents, is humour, although it has to be said that Daisy’s is mad and for a long time Rowan’s is dark.

5. As you are yourself an ambassador for Alopecia UK, how much of the books is drawn from your own experience?

I’ve lived with Alopecia almost all my adult life – 34 years now – but apart from a bald patch which quickly regrew in my teens, I never had to face life without hair at all as a schoolgirl. When I wrote the first book I used my imagination as a teacher who knew children well and transposed my feelings into that context. Since, in my role as ambassador, I’ve met lots of teenagers with hair loss and it’s tough. They have to be strong but I’ve also discovered that they tend to be compassionate. I’ve learned a lot from them and consider them braver than me because I have the benefit of many years’ life experience; it’s easier for me to hold my head high.

6. What advice would you give to a teenager going through similar experiences to Daisy and Rowan?

 I tell them Alopecia will make them stronger, braver and more understanding of others because when we overcome difficulties in life we’re bigger people as a result. I recommend joining a support group, online and actual, so that they don’t feel isolated and can talk to someone who understands. This is what rescues Rowan in CRAZY DAISE. I know it sometimes seems as if our society judges females by appearance but I tell them our true identity comes from character, attitudes and beliefs, and the way we interact with others. To put it another way, like C.S. Lewis: “We have bodies. We are souls.”

7. Do you think you’ll ever write a third book about these characters?

At the moment I can’t imagine it, no. Daisy is already my heroine; how much further could she go? I’d hate her to be disillusioned or lose that passion. She changed my life because when I created her she was braver than I was. In fact, she was who I wanted to be. And Rowan’s story is finished because she gains so much strength and wisdom that she’s no longer at risk. We can leave her confident that she’ll be O.K. from now on.

8. What ideas are you working on for your future stories?

 I have several other unpublished stories, some funny and some very serious, some for young readers and some for Young Adults. Every now and then I go back and edit them again. Now I’m working on an adult novel…

9. What were some of your favourite books as a child and a teenager?

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I was a softie but I also loved historical adventures by Henry Treece and at once time couldn’t get enough of Malcolm Savile. As a teenager I quickly immersed myself in classics like Thomas Hardy – not very compatible with a hormone surge!