Childhood
Jamila was born in the Himalayas. She enjoyed a happy childhood, which offered her freedom to play amongst the sugar canes and around the canals. Her mother frequently brought her on visits to London and she went to school in Ealing. She remembers life in Britain as cold and wet and she was the only Asian child in her school. But Britain did have its compensations, not least the public libraries that she and her school friend Doreen adored. Their friendship and exploration of each other's cultures were the basis for her book 'Kamla and Kate'.

Jamila inherited her love of stories from her mother and she enjoyed reading and telling stories from an early age. At school she often got told off for daydreaming!

Eastern religions
Although she was brought up as a Christian, Jamila felt that she learned much about other religions from the festivals and stories that she experienced in India. As a result, her books often intertwine Asian and Western culture. In order to give her characters authenticity and for her to know and understand their actions, she feels it is important that she understands something of their religions and traditions. We see Jamila reading 'Monkey in the Stars', which is based on the stories of Rama and Sita. In this book Jamila uses the central character, Monkey-god Hanuman, as a way of introducing a young girl preparing for Diwali, to the hero and heroine Rama and Sita.

Creative writing
Jamila explains how much she enjoys working with children in school and we see her running a creative writing session with some Key Stage 2 pupils. They ask her about her work and reflect on her stories and characters. As she tells them about her books we learn more about the sources of her stories such as the ominous 'Coram man' from 'Coram Boy' and the mourning doll which inspired the ghostly tale, 'Someone's Watching, Someone's Waiting'.

A perfect story
Whilst chatting to a group of children, Jamila explores the notion of what makes a perfect story, using 'Cinderella' as an example. 'Cinderella' contains universal story elements such as grief, jealousy and ambition, which have no cultural bounds and have been central to human existence before the story was first told in China some 2,000 years ago, and ever since.

What's next?
Jamila was spurred to write because she felt that Asian and Black children's lives were not sufficiently reflected in books and she wanted to tell stories that redressed this balance. She feels that as her life has developed over the last twenty years, she has been able to incorporate these experiences into her storytelling.