None of the heroes in these books are conventional ones; in fact, they are all quite flawed. Is a hero more compelling when he or she isn’t too perfect?

I think people who don’t have faults are very boring. Your faults are a large part of what you are like as a person. And my aim is always to make what I write interesting. If I can’t be interested in people with no faults, then neither can you. Charmain interested me because she is both very fierce and a bookworm — and you must admit that this is an odd combination. Peter interested me too because he is so madly sure of himself. And of course Howl is interesting because you never know what he’s going to do next.