Madame Pamplemousse and Her Incredible Edibles, published by Bloomsbury in September 2008, is Rupert Kingfisher's first book. His favourite authors as a child were Roald Dahl, Susan Cooper and Ursula le Guin. He also loved American horror comics and French cartoon books such as Asterix and Tintin. It was on a family holiday to Paris that he visited a bookshop dedicated to books such as Tintin -- and also ate anchovies for the first time, on a pizza from a street vendor. He says that both experiences were equally life-changing.