Name: Gordon Ell
Date of birth: 26 April 1939
Place of birth: Christchurch
Now living in: Takapuna
- What is your favourite food?
- Raspberries.
- What was your most embarrassing moment?
- 12.5 per cent in School Certificate maths.
- How do you relax?
- Walking, reading, photography, small farming.
- Who inspired you when you were little?
- Enid Blyton.
- What were you like at school?
- Quiet
- What was your favourite/most hated subject at school?
- Favourite: Natural History.
Most hated: Maths - What was the book you most loved as a child?
- Five go to Smuggler’s Top, by Enid Blyton.
- Which person from the past would you most like to meet?
- My maternal great-grandfather Frederick John Litchfield
- Who is your favourite author/children’s author?
- Adult authors: John Fowles, Penelope Lively.
Children’s authors: Arthur Ransome, Penelope Lively, Susan Cooper. - Why did you want to be a writer?
- A compulsion to tell stories.
- Do you have a special place where you write your books?
- Garden annexe.
- What’s the best thing and worst thing about being a writer?
- Best thing: readers
Worst thing: making time 
If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be? - Farmer
- What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
- Keep writing regularly.
- Read some books written by Gordon Ell