When I reached Fort Binjemma, for example, where my grandfather was stationed for a while, the whole Victorian fort was decaying. Barbed wire surrounded it, spray paint on the ancient walls claimed it as private property, and the moat where my grandfather and his men had grown crops - in desperation as the siege's hunger bit - was completely overgrown with bushes and trees.

Something I am now convinced of, after researching Everyone Brave, is that none of us is born courageous in all respects.

Our own personal brand of courage - in relationships, in conflict, in our principles ­ - is as unique as our fingerprints.

I could not stop talking because now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished. We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.

The ways in which we are able to express courage also depend on the hand life deals us.

Life is extremely short and you cannot dance to current affairs.

Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.