Away with Alison Lester: ‘I always ask a flight attendant if I can shift and sometimes they let me’

Australian children's author Alison Lester: ‘I always try to get a room with a view, then I cover any bad art with a scarf or sarong and shift the furniture to my liking.’ Photograph: Andrew Harrison

Alison Lester has published more than 25 children’s books but the most famous among them is Magic Beach. That illustrated tale of the perfect beach has sold more than 150,000 copies since it was published in 1990 and is about to reach a new generation when a movie adaptation hits cinemas.

It’s not just Australia’s sandy strips that have inspired Lester. The author and illustrator’s latest book is visual reflections on Antarctica, somewhere she has travelled to five times by boat, either as an arts fellow or hopping on board as an artist or photographer on expedition voyages. But she has been offered more trips to the icy continent than she has been able to take, having turned others down when they clashed with a certain festive time of year.