Interview: Forrest Wilson, 81, author of Super Gran

IT is almost 40 years since the first Super Gran book was published in 1978. I went on to write 11 more over the next decade. The books were popular during the 1980s and I remember the publisher telling me fairly early on that they had sold a million copies. It is exciting that Super Gran is being reissued for a new generation.

Super Gran was inspired by three characters: Pansy Potter (The Strongman's Daughter) from The Beano, my former girlfriend Cathy, who could bodily lift me off my feet, and my late mother-in-law Marion who always had an air of invincibility about her.

My mother-in-law lived one floor up in a tenement in Maryhill in Glasgow. One day when her next door neighbour was locked out, she opened the window, walked fearlessly along the narrow ledge to the neighbour's window, climbed inside and unlocked the door.

She inspired me to write about a granny. There was Superman, Wonder Woman and all these other superheroes but they had never had a Super Gran before.

Before I created Super Gran I started out writing scripts for children's comics. There was an advert in the Sunday Post in 1966 and my wife Jean applied. They sent her a leaflet explaining how to write scripts for picture stories, but she didn't want to do that so I decided to have a go.

I was in the Royal Air Force for my national service nine years prior to that. My sister had three boys and when they were finished with The Dandy and The Beano, she used to post them to me. At first I would open up the brown paper envelope surreptitiously to not let anyone see I was reading comics. But when some of the other men discovered it, they would queue up to read them when I was finished.

That kept me in touch with children's comics for when I came to write them myself. I started working at the Scottish Milk Marketing Board in Glasgow in 1968 and was writing in my spare time. Each morning the other men in the office spent the first half hour doing The Herald crossword. I hadn't the foggiest what a cryptic crossword was, but didn't want to let on to that.

I went to the library, got a book that explained it all including how to compile them. I ended up compiling crosswords for 30 years. They were mostly for farmers or about pop music for girls' magazines. Although over the years I did them for trades including licensing, equestrian, building and architecture.

Super Gran was made into a television series that first aired in 1985. It was based on my books but another writer created the scripts. Basically they just wanted the name Super Gran. That was a bit disappointing but not unexpected. When they take a book and adapt it for television or film it can often change beyond recognition. You have simply got to live with that.

Someone once told me I should write a bestseller. I replied: "I have written a bestseller. In fact, I've written a dozen …" There is a bit of a snobbery because a lot of people think writing children's books is easy. Years ago I met a chap who had written 53 but no one had ever heard of him.

The one thing I never wanted Super Gran to do was be able to fly. When I was younger and read the Superman books I thought he was too perfect – he could do everything. I don't think anyone should be able to do everything.

Super Gran was struck by rays from a super machine and it made her extra fast, strong and with X-ray eyesight. Basically she does things that an ordinary person can do, but exaggerated and taken to the next degree. I tried to make her as near human as possible.

Super Gran by Forrest Wilson is published by Andersen Press, priced £6.99