One that gave rise to a song was when I was telling a story to a class of five year olds .... I was in the middle of setting the story up, creating atmosphere and all that stuff when a voice came from the back of the room: "How does the story end?" Obviously a child who would grow up to read the last pages of whodunnits, but it gave me a great refrain for my song "How to find true love".

Another story-telling anecdote was when I was telling the story of Sir Gawain's Wedding, and the key question which was posed in the story was "What do women want?".   In this particular school, 7 year old Johnny (considered to be "special needs" and assigned his own minder) put his hand up. "Great sex" he said. The story went around the staff before lunch time. How did he know, they all wondered?

Within the family we have loads of stories, many coming from my nephew James who has a wonderfully quirky way of seeing the world. He's in his early teens now and was going into town with friends last week, so my sister told him to be sure not to talk to strangers (partly as a joke). In all seriousness he said "But what if they're not strange?"

My own favourite came from my sister-in-law's niece (who is now a sophisticated mum herself) when she was about three. Sitting in the back of her (proudly unmarried and independent) mum's car she announced that she was going to get married. "Why?" asked her rather shell-shocked mother. "Well," said Rosie, "I just HAS to have a dress."   That phrase, "I just has to ..." has been a favourite of mine when something desirable but illogical is looming in my life...

Anne