…can be a dangerous thing. I remember as a child and young(er) adult that sense of disappointment and betrayal when you meet someone you idolise, either in person or through a biography, only to discover your hero has feet of clay. Is rude, arrogant, or otherwise obnoxious. How can this be!? you ask yourself. How…
Month: October 2013
Jane Austen, fantasy fiction and the morals of our children
A slightly edited version of this article first appeared in The Independent. The children of Britain are sliding into a terrifying quagmire of moral abandon. Or so certain commentators would have us believe. Joanna Trollope’s remarks that fantasy stories give children little moral guidance (Sunday Times, 6.10.13) echo those of Michael Gove back in May,…
Read for RNIB
Less than 1% of books are published in Braille. No more than 7% of books are published in some format which makes them accessible to blind or visually impaired readers; formats such as audiobooks, Daisy readers, large or giant print, and even if a book appears in one of these formats; it may be months…
Patron of Reading: aka, I must have grown up somewhere along the way
I just made the first visit to a brand new school, Cambourne Village College, just outside Cambridge. I accepted their offer to become ‘Patron of Reading’ for this academic year, a title which makes me think I must have become a grown-up somewhere along my journey. Not that I noticed. I was delighted to receive…
Co-inky-dinks
Or, to give them their proper name, coincidences… Co-inky-dinks is what they get re-christened by 7-year-old Benjamin, brother to Laureth, the heroine of my new book, She Is Not Invisible. Laureth and Benjamin’s dad is a writer, a writer who’s obssessed by two things: coincidences, and the number 354. He’s been trying, and failing, to…
Undiagnosis 