George RR Martin wrote his first stories when he was only five, creating worlds on Mars and mythical kingdoms populated by pet turtles.

Broadcast date: Friday 8 November

George sold his stories for pennies to other neighbourhood children and they were very popular, until one of his customers started having nightmares and the child's mother complained.

Now George spends his days in a world he created and which is adored by millions of fans: Westeros. It is a world of blood, sex and magic, dragons, white walkers, and a gigantic wall of ice.

The five books in the series published so far are collected under the title A Song of Ice and Fire. The first book was A Game of Thrones, which gave its name to the phenomenally successful TV series.

George is in Australia as a guest of Supanova.

He's also at the Sydney Opera House on 11 November.

A Dance with Dragons is published by Harper Collins.

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