Some days it’s tricky – even for dedicated bookworms – to find a few minutes to read. I’m not talking about those glorious, all-consuming books that seize you by the collar and drag you through chapters until you reach the end. Those books somehow create their own time and momentum. You sneak them in between…

“Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it.” – The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley Lately, I’ve found myself turning over character names like shells from the ocean –…

In fiction, change doesn’t always enter a story with fanfare. It can arrive as a mild or unpleasant disruption: a knock at the door, an email, even unwelcome invitations or news. Yet when the call to adventure is obvious, like a dragon at the village gate, or a map discovered in a mysterious location, characters…

A child sits in the playground, knees drawn up, face half-hidden behind a book. Perhaps it’s a little girl with a comic hidden inside her Maths book while the other kids shout and swing. To the outside world, she is hiding, but inside something else is happening entirely. The way I see it is that…