NONFICTION

Paul McCartney

Think it's all about the music for Sir Paul? Au contraire. His latest creation is a children's adventure story entitled High in the Clouds (written with Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Geoff Dunbar).

WHY A KIDS' BOOK? The short answer: I've got children. That kind of thing is part of my world.

AND THE LONG ANSWER? I've always loved Disney. I retained that sense of wonder into my non-kidhood. This was going to be a mock-up for a film until an editor at Faber & Faber said it should be a book.

AND SINCE OTHER CELEBS ARE DOING KIDS' BOOKS... That's the last thing in the world that occurs to me! I don't kind of think of myself as a celebrity—not foremost. I'm just someone putting a project together.

SO YOU'RE NOT TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH MADONNA? Someone said, "Is your book better than Madonna's?" I said, "Yeah." Then I thought, Uh-oh, I haven't read hers.

YOU DON'T LIKE TO SPEAK PUBLICLY ABOUT YOUR DAUGHTER BEATRICE (WHO'S ALMOST 2)—BUT CAN YOU SAY WHAT BOOKS SHE LIKE? High in the Clouds. It's all I let her read. But, seriously, she does like the characters. She also likes Winnie the Pooh.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS READ TO YOUR KIDS? Yeah. Things like the Narnia books. One lesson I learned: bite-size chapters. The worst is, you're in the middle of a chapter and you say, "Time for bed." Then you hear, "Noooo!"