I also wanted to explore the way that the books we read really help us, especially younger readers, decide who we are as people and what we stand for. I had a lot of fun turning the way that we speak about reading and books into a real world with plot holes, books as portals, and the idea of getting lost in a good book. I truly believe that reading is the closest thing we have to magic-it can be transformative. I knew I wanted to write something that celebrated the power of books, bookshops, and libraries, and something that made literal the magic I’ve always felt when I’ve read. My love of books and the worlds they’ve transported me to was absolutely the foundation of Pages & Co. that I seriously started with my own fiction. So, it was only when I had the idea for Pages & Co. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I tried writing fiction, since I had been writing professionally as a journalist for a few years and found that incredibly creatively satisfying. What inspired you to try your hand at fiction at this point in your life? But from university onwards I didn’t really write fiction at all. in terms of imagining myself adventuring alongside my favorite characters. I think that was the early seeds of Pages & Co. I used to insert my sister and me into my favorite stories. I wrote a lot as a child for the pure enjoyment of it, writing what we’d now probably call fan fiction. I was fortunate to have access to wonderful school and public libraries and could read as much as I liked for free. When did it occur to you, as an avid reader, that you wanted to write your own stories?īooks have always been a huge part of my life, and I was an obsessive reader as a child.

Bookwanderers series