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How to Grow a Library

A couple of years after moving with my family to Nairobi (where we lived between 2013 and 2017), I started thinking about the fact that the school my children attended didn't have a library and I felt unhappy about this. A reading culture in…
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A Year Of Reading Outside My Ethnicity - Results + Reflections

Towards the end of 2020, I decided to spend the following year reading outside my ethnic group. If you'd like to see my original blog post and the intention I set, click here. The vast majority of books published globally are written by authors…
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An Icelandic Flood of Books

It was only a couple of years ago that I first heard about Iceland's Christmas tradition of Jólabókaflóð, roughly translated to 'Christmas Book Flood.' On Christmas Eve each year, Icelanders cosy up in front of the fire, drink…

Books & Memories: How a book is not just about the story but where it's read

I started thinking about the title of this blog recently when I was looking through my bookshelf and pulling books out and I realised something: as I held the book in my hand, not only was I reading the title of the book and the author but…
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The Healing Power of Story

I am nocturnally challenged. Many years ago, upon sharing this information with someone I met, he looked me in the eye and said 'Get your beloved to read to you.' I wasn't sure what my beloved would think of that, but I asked him, and he did.…
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✳︎ 6 Books for a Compassionate Christmas ✳︎

How is everybody coping as Christmas edges ever closer? I don't know about anybody else, but when December hits and Christmas starts carolling towards us, as much as I love this season, I sometimes feel like burying my head under a pillow and…
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Encouraging Reluctant Readers

I recently had an article published on 'How to Encourage Reluctant Readers' on the Advice for Parents section of Simply Learning Tuition (a London based tutor-company). Click here to have a read of it!
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#FeministFebruary - A shout out from India

Virginia Woolf As February draws to a close, I am sneaking in with a quick blog post to celebrate #FeministFebruary as I only discovered its existence the other day. Coincidentally, I am reading Virginia Woolf's book A Room of One's Own (1929) at…
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My favourite 5 books from the second half of 2017

It's been a busy six months: publishing my third novel, packing up our house & leaving Nairobi. But I've read more than ever. Reading is a constant for me, an anchor and refuge and my day is never finished without losing myself within the…
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Stuck for last minute Christmas gifts? How about one of my top 5 reads of 2016?

I am delighted to unwittingly discover that my top 5 reads of 2016 have all been written by women. I have absolutely nothing against fiction by men; I have also read many books written by men this year and have always been fairly gender-blind…