Newshost:
The first question is from Mike Hudson, Leeds, UK: Why do you think it is that something as natural as poetry has had such a stigma attached to it? Why is it that poetry seems unnecessary and aloof?

Giles Andreae:
I guess that's Mike's view and largely it's true. I think the trouble is that it never used to be seen as unnecessary and aloof. It was a very populist form of expression many years ago. We now live in such a visual, fast age and people are used to imagery more than words, I think, and words as a result seem scary.

Newshost:
Dan, London: Do you have any advice for those who want to break into the greeting card market?

Giles Andreae:
No, I'm keeping it a secret! First of all you have to write something - this is just my view - that's relevant to greetings cards that people are going to want to use greetings cards for. Of course they are a very natural platform for poetry because people want to use to them for emotions as simple as just to say hello but also they're used for grief, they're used to express pleasure, friendship, love - you have to bear in mind that that's really what people want to use greeting cards for. That's my first bit of advice - write about love, write about friendship. It's no coincidence that those are the subjects of most of the best-selling cards.

Beyond that, if you have a personal style that's very accessible, it helps - humour can help - and it's got to be good, that's the nub of it. People have got to be able to relate to it.

Newshost:
Angela Bloomfield, London: Are you anything like Purple Ronnie?

Giles Andreae:
I've got the purple shirt on today. I'm getting less and less hairs - I'm nearly down to four! As far as his personality is concerned, I suppose to a degree, I am or certainly was, when I started writing Purple Ronnie, which was about 15 years ago. I started as a student and lots of the poems then were about hangovers, lager, curry, that sort of thing.

Newshost:
Are the stick figures absolutely essential? Do you start with a stick figure and the do a poem from that or are they added afterwards?

Giles Andreae:
With Purple Ronnie, it always starts with the verse. I write something, but very often I write something where the joke is paid off by an illustration - so it varies. I tend to write with imagery in mind but poetry, of course, it paints pictures in itself. It just so happens that the poetry I write for Purple Ronnie works best with illustrations.

Newshost:
Myra Economides, Newcastle, UK: Ronnie Purple poems are perfectly matched to the stick figure drawings. Do you think people generally respond better with a presented image as well as the words? Does it add or detract from the efforts of personal expression to have all the pictures attached to it?

Giles Andreae:
In my case, I think it adds to it. But our favourite poets, Keats, Auden and the Koran weren't heavily illustrated works - or certainly not in my copies.

Newshost:
Joe Haeidlemann, UK: Are the best poems simple, short, and to the point?

Giles Andreae:
No. Some things you can only get over with a more contemplative style. If you're trying to get something over that is quite complex, then you might need to pace it with a longer poem. But you can express complicated emotions as well - such as love or friendship, for example, in a very concise form. You couldn't dictate that poetry is best short - it's just not a fact - some short poetry works well and long poems work well too.

Newshost:
Rachel, USA (ex UK): My secondary school managed to put me off poetry for life with their mandatory interpretations.

Giles Andreae:
I had a very inspirational English teacher while I was at school. They have to teach you to understand how to read into poetry and then you take it from there. I only had encouragement from my teachers but then I had a natural affection for words anyway.

Newshost:
David Jephcott, High Wycombe, UK: What on earth is the point of a National Poetry Day? Poetry is out there and can be accessed at will, so why bother having a "day" for it?

Giles Andreae:
I would hope so. I think for the very reason that it is marginalised, it's good to bring it forward. I was at a funeral recently and the service sheet largely comprised - apart from hymns and prayers - of poems. People use it to express deep emotion - it crystallizes it for them.

Although adults can dip into poetry as and when they want to or not, I think it's very important to get it in front of children - to get children to look at and to write poetry because any form of creative expression, I think, builds individuality and builds confidence and that's got to be a good thing.

Newshost:
Michelle Mullan, Northern Ireland: My eight year old loves poetry, and reads a variety of books comprising compilations of all types. It seems that children love poetry and then gradually the older we get, we perhaps fall out of love with it?

Giles Andreae:
I think that's probably right. I write a lot of children's books and the ones that I write in verse tend to work best because it gives children confidence with words. One way of looking at poetry is that it makes words dance and children love the fun of that - they love rhythm, they love rhyme. It gives them confidence with a story because they can absorb a story more quickly.

My eldest child is four-and-a-half and he thinks he can read these books in verse because he can anticipate what's coming next because of the meter, because of the rhyme and it is a very important thing to put in front of children and they do have a kind of in-built affection for play and poetry is playing with words.

Newshost:
Hannah, France: My favourite poem is Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, for the sheer brilliance of it: "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves And the mome raths outgrabe."

It's wordplay that people seem to like there. Is that one you would take away with you on a desert island.

Giles Andreae:
I wouldn't need to because I know it already! But I would agree that it is a fun poem and simply playing with words is fun, enjoyable and reading something that you couldn't do but that makes words dance is pleasurable - just as looking at painting is or listening to piece of music is.

Newshost:
What poem would you take away with you?

Giles Andreae:
I have favourite poets and they tend to be classical poets and I'm afraid the answer is probably Shakespeare.

Newshost:
I'm glad to have that answer because Bob asks: I love your poems and have always wondered where do you get your inspiration from? Do you always carry a notepad and pencil around in case a poem comes to you in a flash?

Giles Andreae:
Yes I do. I've been writing for 15 years or so and I know how it arrives and it's either while I'm working in my studio trying to think of poems just because it's my job but also in the bath, in bed and in my car - that's when I really have time to think. I have three small children and there isn't much time elsewhere. So I have a little Dictaphone in my car and I have a notepad by my bath and I have a notepad in the drawer of my bed but that's usually covered with children's scribbles by the time I get to it - that's probably where Purple Ronnie came from!

Newshost:
Georgina Lawrence, England: Do you think that really poetry is personal? I write it for myself and my children; I learned this from my mother who even now writes her own verses in her handmade cards.

Giles Andreae:
I think it can be but often you're trying to console yourself about perhaps a problem that is a very general problem that we all share. If people write poems for consolation they're dealing with grief and grief is a very strong and moving emotion that we all feel. Very often something that one person will feel and be able to express will be something that will touch somebody else in the same position.