As a child, I had always wanted to know what lay at the end of a corridor or behind a door in a picture, so I did a floorplan and elevations of Angelina's house and learned my way around it. The idea was that children should start to feel at home in it.
Mice are very difficult to do front on, but they have nicely human little hands and feet, and whiskers and tails are great for expressing emotion.
My great influence has been Maurice Sendak, who drew 'Where the Wild Things Are.' His characters really interact with each other.
I started drawing a mouse because it was my father's nickname for my mother. And mice are very expressive.
I didn't draw Angelina to be famous; I did it simply because I've always had to earn a living.
It's great to be working. Every morning, I wake up and pinch myself.
When you read 'author Katharine Holabird, creator of Angelina' and you're not even mentioned, you wince.
I grew up during the war years in a tiny cottage with no electricity. Water for washing was pumped from a pond. My brother and I had to fetch drinking water from a tap at the end of the lane, and light was from candles, paraffin lamps, and our nightly log fire.
If an actor only comes alive when he has lines to say, it doesn't work, and the same goes for illustrated characters.
