Usually I decide on what it is I'm writing next by the books I'm reading.

Free and fair access to books - to reading - is a right and one we should fight for.

Actually, I can write anywhere - airport lounges, in bed, on a rattling train going north.

History is written by the victors, the strongest, the most determined. Truth is found most often in the silence, in the quiet places.

The message is clear: libraries matter. Their solid presence at the heart of our towns sends the proud signal that everyone - whoever they are, whatever their educational background, whatever their age or their needs - is welcome.

The dead leave their shadows, an echo of the space within which once they lived. They haunt us, never fading or growing older as we do. The loss we grieve is not just their futures but our own.

What we leave behind in this life is the memory of who we were and what we did. An imprint, no more.