And of course there is always joy in witnessing the joy of others

Just kidding' was exactly what people wrote when they meant every word.

The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her.

I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,’ she siad. ‘You know, actually change something.’ ‘What, like “change the world”, you mean?’ ‘Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.

Do you miss her?' 'Who? Emma? Of course. Every day. She was my best friend.

For the best part of my childhood I visited the local library three or four times a week, hunching in the stacks on a foam rubber stool and devouring children's fiction, classics, salacious thrillers, horror and sci-fi, books about cinema and origami and natural history, to the point where my parents encouraged me to read a little less.

Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you