Aliens Invaded My Talent Show is a story about two ordinary kids who have to prepare for their school’s talent show and save the world from an alien attack. It’s a tough week!

After I had finished writing the book, I realised that a lot of my characters were named after punchlines from my favourite jokes. For example, when I was about thirteen I heard the following two-part joke.

Part 1

Q - Why does Edward Woodward have so many Ws in his name?

A - Because otherwise he’d be Edard Oodard.

Part 2

Q - Why does Edward Woodward have so many Ds in his name?

A - Because otherwise he’d be Ewar Woowar.

So, when I came to write my two alien characters I wanted to call them E-Dard Oo-Dard and E-War Woo-War. My editor advised me to change one of their names because they were so similar that she reasoned, quite rightly, that it would cause confusion. So, one remained E-Dard Oo-Dard, while the other became Trevor.

There was another instance of me shoe-horning a punchline into a name. Here’s a bit of me reading a passage where I introduce the dog, Minton.