The problem with all these fiercely individualistic girls was that they were all exactly the same.

As a novelist, I'm incredibly lucky to make a living, but that doesn't mean that I don't lie awake at four o'clock in the morning, worrying.

…and you smile back and try not to think about the fact that you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say to each other.

Sometimes I wish that I hadn't learned how to crochet," I say, and Alice laughs. Obviously she thinks I'm joking, which is maybe for the best.

I'm trying to be inspiring! I'm trying to lift your grubby soul for the great adventure that lies ahead of you!

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