We are thrilled to welcome author, speaker, and teenage brain specialist Nicola Morgan to the blog to discuss with Alison King two books, The Awesome Power of Sleep and Be Resilient. Also known as the Teenage Brain Woman, Nicola is the author of over 100 books including the best-selling Blame My Brain which was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize. In 2018, Nicola was awarded the School Library Association’s prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Information Books and her recent titles demonstrate her continued passion and enthusiasm for the wellbeing of young people.

What prompted you to write The Awesome Power of Sleep?

I'd written about it before in several other books but there's so much to say - and so much new science - that I knew it deserved a whole book. Also, it's such a major part of wellbeing - and the part people often ignore or think they can't affect. Plus, teenagers actually ask for advice on sleep - it's the commonest topic for questions when I do a talk in schools, presumably because at any given moment on a school-day, so many teenagers are feeling dreadful because of sleep deprivation. My book can solve that! 

What’s your favourite piece of advice for young people who struggle to get a good night’s sleep?

Stop worrying about it - worry is the enemy of sleep. So, when worry is threatening to prevent sleep, train your mind to go down a different path. I have various ideas in the book but in a nutshell your mental topics should be any combination of exciting, wonderful, beautiful, relaxing or boring but never worrying, frightening or self-critical. I sometimes make lists in my head when I'm trying to sleep - just make sure it's not a list of worries...

When you were researching the Awesome Power of Sleep, what was the most surprising piece of information you uncovered?

This is a complicated fact so pay attention! First, understand that each night-time sleep has a complex pattern which involves more deep sleep near the start and more dream sleep near the end. You would think, then, that if you have a really late night, perhaps going to bed at 2am, your sleep pattern would be the same but starting later. No: your brain detects that this is not the beginning of the night, even though it's the beginning of your sleep, and it goes straight into the usual pattern for the second half of the night. So, you lose relatively more deep sleep and deep sleep is critical for restoration and how you feel physically next day. 

Which key piece of information would you like readers to take away from this book?

Your evening routine is key to how easily you will fall asleep. It directs your brain towards earlier sleep and earlier sleep is what most of us need, bearing in mind that we can't usually affect our getting up time. And this is really good news because you can have a lot of control over your evening routine. Further details can be found in The Awesome Power of Sleep.

Be Resilient was written at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020. What effect did lockdown have on your productivity as a writer?

At first, good, because all my events disappeared, and I had masses of time for writing (and lots to write - and having lots to write makes me write more.) Then my daughter, son-in-law and six-month-old grandson came to live with us for six months, so I turned into a multi-tasking superwoman trying to be all things to all people and my writing suffered (but I'm not complaining because it was amazing!) 

You introduce the concept of Heartsong in Be Resilient. Can you tell us firstly what it is and secondly, what it means to you?

Heartsong is a moment or state when your heart feels light, and you are getting real pleasure from what you're doing or from a thing that has happened. I guess it's "happiness" but it's a bit purer and more golden than that. It can come from big things or small things. Sometimes it comes from things you can't affect - such as when someone says something unexpectedly nice to you. But the important thing about heartsong is that you need to know ways you can make it happen and notice it when it does, because sometimes you have to take steps to get it. I had heartsong yesterday when I picked the first corn on the cob from my garden and grilled and ate it with olive oil and pepper. I get it when I am fully engaged on a piece of work and I forget the time but the words have flown. I get it when I laugh with a friend or I'm peaceful on my own, when the sun comes out and there's warmth on my shoulders, when I drink a first sip of rosé wine on a Friday evening, when I eat my favourite creamy chocolate or inhale sweet pea scent in my garden.

If you don't have any heartsong in your life, that's a very bad position to be in. Your mental health is very low at that point because you are unable to feel pleasure in anything around you. You might need someone to help you find heartsong and acknowledge it. Even if very bad things are going on, you still deserve and need those moments of joy, but it can be very hard to admit to feeling joy when the bad thing is happening. Not long ago, I lost my sister after a five-month illness. I found it very difficult to allow myself to enjoy any moments during that time, but I knew it was important because you can't actually live without heartsong. So, go and find it and enjoy it - you owe it to yourself. Literally. 

You mention journaling as a useful activity, and I know many people agree. Do you have any advice for people who struggle to know where to start and what to write?

I don't actually do it myself - perhaps because I'm writing all the time anyway so it's not a tool I need? But I think the blank page is a scary thing so buying a journal with prompts could be the answer for many people. I have seen and like the HappySelf journals - they are very good quality (nice paper helps journaling!) and therefore not cheap. On the Be Resilient page of my website there's also a free activity involving a 12-sided dice that you write prompts on, and there's a list of suggested prompts. Or you could just decide to write three things that went well each day. 

When building resilience, what is the single most important thing for the reader to remember?

That no human is completely resilient - everyone bleeds, everyone hurts - but that we can all learn to become more resilient. We all learn from everything that happens to us but sometimes what we learn is negative and makes us weaker - Be Resilient shows you how to learn and grow stronger from everything.

Can you tell us about any upcoming projects?

I'm writing Ten Ways to Build a Brilliant Brain for publication in 2022. 

What are you currently reading?

I'm reading I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (and various other things by her, including the beautiful picture book, Where Snow Angels Go) because I'm interviewing her at the Edinburgh International Book festival. I know!

A big thank you to Nicola Morgan for the interview, to Alison King for conducting this and to Nina Douglas for the opportunity.

We are delighted to welcome Susan Brownrigg to the blog.  Susan is the author of The Gracie Fairshaw Mystery and her latest novel Kintana and the Captain’s Curse is part mystery, part adventure set on the high seas and is a perfect summer read!

Pirates feature heavily in the story, can you tell us about some of the research you did as part of the book?

I love researching, and I always do my best to combine learning from books and other source material with finding ways to inhabit the world I’m creating. I’ve read lots and lots of books on pirates and watched documentaries and films. I found visits to the Merseyside Maritime Museum, in Liverpool, and the Vasa Museum, in Stockholm, and stepping aboard tall ships at various festivals enabled me to get a more immersive sense of what life was like on board ship. I know I would make a hopeless pirate – I’m not good with enclosed spaces or heights and I get seasick! I have also been to fabulous pirate festivals in Hull, Whitehaven and Liverpool, and that is also useful for seeing Living History and getting a feel for the objects pirates used – when I worked at Norton Priory Museum, I also got to spend many a summer performing as a pirate at our family friendly storywalks.

Kintana is obviously a girl, how possible would her involvement have been?

There were female pirates, so it is definitely possible! Anne Bonny and Mary Read. They both had been dressed as boys in their youth and became friends when they joined Calico Jack’s pirate crew.

Before them there was Gráinne Ní Mháille/ Grace O’Malley – the Irish Pirate Queen, who became a seafarer at age 11! There is a legend that Grace was told by her father that she couldn’t go to sea because her long hair would get caught in the ship’s ropes. To embarrass him she cut it all off, earning her the nickname Bald Grace.

Why do you feel pirates have such a popular place in children’s books?

Gosh, the desire to find treasure is definitely part of it! I think children love the idea of being rich. The fact that pirates are bad, yet we root for them, makes them very interesting as characters. The colourful clothing, action-packed battles, and exotic lands add to the appeal.

Since Peter Pan and Treasure Island, children have been enthralled by pirate adventures and it’s fabulous to see a flotilla of new pirate stories being published year after year – each with their own unique story to tell.

You’ve created a really vivid and memorable setting; it opens with that most wonderful thing in books – a map!  Did you create a map to help create the setting?

I didn’t, though I did do some sketches of some of the characters early on. I did however use real maps, both paper ones and Google earth. I adore the map in my book, (it was created by cover illustrator Jenny Czerwonka) it made my imaginary world suddenly very tangible. I was quite giddy when I first saw it.

How much research was involved with Malagasy Culture and what were some of the things you discovered?

Malagasy culture is fascinating and complex. There are over 18 different ethnic groups living on the island, each with different beliefs, styles of dress and dialect.

I read a lot of books, travelogues and travel guide books, as well as National Geographic articles.

I was fascinated by the fact that pirates once had their own island settlement at Nosy Boraha (there really is a pirate cemetery) and that Captain Kidd’s treasure is thought to have been buried somewhere off Madagascar – his ship was scuppered at Nosy Boraha.

I also enjoyed learning about the famadihana ceremony, also known as the turning of the bones, a funerary tradition where families rebury their ancestors.

After I had finished writing and editing my book, I reached out to the Anglo-Malagasy Society and the Ambassador to the Republic of Madagascar as I was anxious to make sure my book was accurate. I asked if they could suggest anyone who might read my book and offer any comments. I was incredibly grateful when the ambassador, Dr Phil Boyle, offered to read Kintana himself, and Daniel Austin of the AMS introduced me to two Malagasy women who kindly also offered their insightful comments and answered specific questions. Their generous feedback was so useful, particularly around fady, beliefs, clothing and language, and was especially specific to Nosy Boraha which was harder to find information about, as well as Madagascar’s varied wildlife.

I gained a deeper appreciation in particular for the impact finding an aye-aye hand would have on Kintana which prompted some rewriting and a better story.

Part of the setting focuses on the extraordinary flora and fauna of the islands, I understand some of this has been informed by your time at Blackpool Zoo, can you tell us a little more about that please?

Yes, I was very fortunate to spend a summer season working at an education assistant at Blackpool Zoo in 2012. One of my many duties was to do animal talks, and that meant telling visitors about lots of different animals – one of my favourites was Darwin, a giant Aldabra tortoise, which definitely had an influence on my book. Darwin is over 100 years old! I also especially enjoyed talking about the lemurs – they were rather cheeky, trying to steal the food I had for them before it was time! One of the keepers kindly also let me see the nocturnal mouse lemurs up close after months of trying to spot them! They are unbearably cute!

Back in 2009 I also spent a day as a zookeeper at Lakeland Oasis where I was able to hold a chameleon and feed the lemurs. They also had a fossa – but you certainly don’t want to get to close to one of those!

I have seen lots of Madagascar wildlife in zoos across Europe including tenrecs, fanaloka, bokiboky, geckos, tomato frogs, all kinds of lemurs including aye-ayes and sifaka as well as giant jumping rats!

Did you have a favourite animal that you wrote about, if so why?

I love Polly, the vasa parrot. I’ve seen them in zoos and they are so active and full of character! Parrots are often thought of as colourful, and vasas are dark grey, though the female loses her head feathers to reveal her yellowish skin underneath when she is ready to mate. In my book the vasas talk, but they don’t in real life! Polly always has a lot to say!

Although set in the 1700s, there are some very shrewd and timely comments around nature and conservation on p52 ‘Sadly finding [him] a mate has proved impossible.  It seems there are no other surviving Madagascar giant tortoises.’  Is this ecosystem under threat?

Very much so. Madagascar has its own unique eco system since it split from Africa 160 million years ago. A very high percentage of its mammals, reptiles and plants are endemic – meaning they are not found anywhere else of earth. Madagascar has over 800 endangered species including frogs, tortoises, lemurs and plants.

There are a lot of riddles woven through the story, were these fun to create?

Yes, I really enjoyed adding in these puzzles for Kintana to solve – I like using play on words and having clues in my stories for my characters to work out.

You have worked both as a living history presenter and as a journalist, do you feel these have fed into your approach to writing and storytelling?

I hope I have developed a good sense of what children enjoy from delivering school sessions at the museum, zoo and various heritage attractions. Working as a living history presenter helps you see that people in the past often had the same basic needs and emotions. My journalism skills have hopefully helped me to tell a story well! In both careers I had to take information and repackage it so it could be easily understood.  I like to keep the plot moving and enjoy sharing what I’ve learned from research.

I understand the book was actually your first children’s book and it has been around twenty years in the writing, can you tell us a bit about this?

Kintana was a very long time in coming to life! I first started writing about pirates and Madagascar back in 2000, when I found out my sister was expecting a baby. Up to then I tried writing for adults. My nephew is now 20!

The original book was quite different – it was called Dr Midas and the pirates. It was a time travel adventure with a time machine powered by smelly socks with an adult main character and a robot dog sidekick! The original story was longlisted in a Writers & Artists Handbook competition and I got very excited! I sent it to lots of agents, and someone at Puffin read it, but it never made it off the slushpile.

I reworked it a few times, because I still thought there was a good idea there. In 2020 I submitted it to Uclan Publishing, and I was thrilled when they said they would like to publish it. I have often joked to my writing friends that my rejected books are my catalogue – and one day after some editing perhaps they will find their time has come too.

You were named as one of the Undiscovered Voices by SCBWI, what kind of support have you had from the organisation?

I really don’t think I would be a published author without SCBWI. I have made so many friends, and the critique meet ups (currently done via Zoom) spur me on to write a new chapter each month. The feedback I receive from the tween group always helps me to see ways to improve my drafts and has encouraged me to keep going. Featuring in the UV anthology was a real boost to my confidence, and I have learned so much from the many workshops etc that SCBWI offer.

You’ve taken us to Blackpool and Madagascar, where do you think you will take us next?

Well, I’ll be taking readers back to Blackpool first! Gracie Fairshaw and Trouble at the Tower is being published in October. I’m not sure, after that. I have an idea for a story set in Russia (so I’m hoping to make a trip there once travel opens up.) I also have a book set in Peru during the Inca Empire that I’m hoping to revisit. It’s another historical adventure with some interesting animals!

Image Bank:

One - Aye Aye with Leaves

Two - Susan cleaning out lemurs at Blackpool Zoo

Three - Kintana's hat and accessories

Four -Jenny Czerwonka's map

Five - Susan and a lemur at Blackpool Zoo

Six - Susan with a telescope

Seven - Susan at vasamuseet in Sweden

Eight - Vasa parrot

A big thank you to Susan Brownrigg for the interview

We are delighted to welcome Joy Court to the blog, our expert Conference Manager.  Joy generously answered our questions on this year’s Youth Libraries Group conference which will take place in Torquay, 17 – 19 September, Representations of Place: New Lands and New Ways of Looking.

Can you tell us about your role with conference

As Conference Manager it is my job to find a venue that is within our budget. We decide as a group, steered by the Chair who will be the host, which area to search in and we also try to move around the country to give our members a chance to try us out as a day delegate if they live locally. 

 I liaise with the Chair over theme - usually something they suggest and then we all jointly seek out speakers. We invite pitches from publishers and proactively seek sponsors and then I try to piece together the  jigsaw to amke an engaging and relevant programme from all those ingredients.

I do all the liaison with the venue over menus and set up of rooms and manage all the bookings. During the conference it is my job to ensure everything runs smoothly and troubleshoot any problems. Luckily there is an Exhibition Manager to specifically look after that complex operation and a Conference Secretary to organise session chairs and look after our speakers. 

The theme this year is around representations of place, can you tell us what delegates can expect?

 We have interpreted place very broadly- feeling at home in your body for example or exploring the past as a different country but also the importance of representation and ensuring that everybody has a place at the table. We have a fantastic range of speakers- authors who are sharing their experience and passion for these themes, academics sharing research, industry partners showing us the way forward and  practitioners sharing their expertise and good practice. Delegates can expect to meet and network with all of these and during the weekend find colleagues who are as passionate about children and young people's reading as they are! The there is the famed Publisher's exhibition - time to make contacts and connections and find out about all the great books coming up and the equally famed Norfolk Children's Book Centre shop where Honorary YLG superstar Marilyn Brocklehurst will have any book you could possibly want and more!

Which sessions do you personally feel most excited by and why?

That is like asking which is your favourite child! From the opening keynote from Michael Morpurgo to the Robert Westall Memorial lecture on Sunday by Anne Fine to amazing panels with Geraldine McCaughrean, Philip Reeve and Frances Hardinge discussing imagined worlds or Hilary McKay and Phil Earle sharing their views on WW2 or Brian Conaghan, Melvin Burgess and Jason Cockcroft discussing masculinity - there is so much to get excited about!

Do you remember your first YLG conference?  When was this and what sticks in your mind?

 This would be a long time ago... early 90's..I remember feeling so much in awe of the giants of our profession who were leading the sessions and starstruck by the authors and  revelling in all the books, but thinking this is my special place- everyone here shares my obsessions! 

In your experience, how do delegates benefit from attending conference?

I think I have already alluded to finding colleagues who share the same passion. This is particularly important for school librarians who are often sole practitioners. You will go away with a headful of inspiring ideas and a suitcase full of exhibition giveaways - proofs/ posters/ competitions etc. You will probably be exhausted but in a very satisfying way!

Do you have any tips for people wanting to make a funding case to their employers to attend

Everyone should recognise their entitlement to CPD - they are worth it! Employers should recognise this and the crucial benefits that attending conference will bring. Nowhere else will provide training directly related to specialist children and young peoples librarianship.   Nowhere else will you find opportunities to develop crucial book knowledge and  keep up to date with current library and educational trends and pick up practical and inspirational ideas to improve your library service to young people

Conference wasn't able to take place physically last year, what steps will be being taken to keep attendees safe?

The conference hotel takes its COVID 19 security very seriously. This page details exactly what steps they take to ensure your safety

https://www.theimperialtorquay.co.uk/coronavirus-update

Even if the 19 July release date is further extended we are confident that the conference can be delivered  successfully under current restrictions.

A big thank you to Joy for the interview and to her and the whole of the conference team for their exceptional work against a really challenging backdrop.

On the fourth day of our fantastic Pop-Up blog takeover to celebrate the publication of 10 Stories to Make a Difference, a collection of stories marking the 10^th anniversary of Pop UpFestivals, it is a real pleasure to introduce readers to Eleanor Cullen.  Eleanor was one of four writers that won the Pop Up writing competition.  Her story A Match for a Mermaid is illustrated by the inimitable David Roberts.

When I began planning my first picture book, I knew I wanted it to have two things. The first was mermaids, since my niece loves them, and the second was LGBTQ representation, since I felt characters belonging to that community were missing from the picture books I had grown up with. It was combining those two elements - an appreciation of a mythical creature and a desire for more diverse picture books - that led to the creation of A Match for a Mermaid.

The story follows Princess Malu the Mermaid, who is about to become queen of the whole ocean, but who is a little scared of ruling entirely on her own. To ease her nervousness, she recruits her best friend Brooke to help her find a merman to be her king. Brooke obliges, willing to do anything to make Malu happy, but Malu can’t imagine herself marrying any of the potential suitors she meets. Some are too loud, others have hair she doesn’t like, and one is perfect in almost every conceivable way, yet she still finds fault with him! It’s only then that Brooke suggests Malu marry her instead, since she possesses none of the qualities Malu disliked in the rejected mermen. Malu loves that idea, and the story ends with the two mermaids being crowned queens together.

With this ending, I hoped to show that a same-sex union is just as valid and easy to accept as any other. Malu chooses to love Brooke because she has every quality she was looking for in a spouse, and that’s all there is to it. She never thinks that the fact they’re both females means their relationship can’t progress past friendship, because that thought never occurs to her. She just wants to marry someone she could love, and she knows that someone is Brooke and definitely none of the men she has met. I hope that children, and even adults, who read this ending can understand Malu’s thought process and realise that coming to terms with your sexuality doesn’t necessarily mean you have to struggle or agonise over your feelings; if it feels right, it probably is.

There are countless stories and books which end differently to mine, with a princess finding her prince, or vice versa, and most of them are amazing. Some of them are even my personal favourite tales. What I’ve noticed, however, is that there are far fewer stories about princesses finding princesses or princes marrying princes, and I can’t help but think that’s a shame. I know that, when I was growing up, I would have benefitted from reading about relationships which differed from the usual boy meets girl trope, even if it would have just made me realise sooner that same-sex relationships were as deserving of celebration as heterosexual ones. With that in mind, I can’t help but think that other children would benefit from the same thing: from reading about diverse characters and relationships just as easily as they could read about the same characters and relationships which most books represent. That is why I hope that my story, which celebrates two gay main characters and a same-sex wedding and royal coronation, is one that will help children appreciate the beauty of being different.

Being a debut author is incredibly exciting, and being a debut author with a book which celebrates diversity is something I am very grateful for. I’m especially thankful since David Roberts’ beautiful illustrations in A Match for a Mermaid give every character, no matter how small the part they play is, a personality and a unique look. I think he made the book into an even bigger, and greater, celebration of humanity than I could have imagined, and I know that many children will be able to look at his pictures and appreciate characters who may look like them (despite their tails or tentacles) or who they can admire for their own reasons. 

As well as David Roberts, I have Pop-Up Projects to thank for bringing my story and characters to life. Because of them, Malu and Brooke have the opportunity to teach children that loving someone is brave, especially when you love someone the world doesn’t expect you to love. They can also preach the fact that being open about who you love can change your life!

Pop-Up once described A Match for a Mermaid as a fairytale with a twist, and I have remembered that description with pride; as someone who has always loved fairy stories and classic romantic narratives, I am honoured to think that I created a story which is worthy of the fairytale label, especially since it revolves around two LGBTQ characters. With the confidence bestowed upon me from Pop-Up believing in me and my story, I hope to release more children’s books which celebrate diversity and differences whilst they inspire and entertain young readers.

A big thank you to Eleanor Cullen for the blog to Pop Up Festival for organising the innovative project and to Nicky Potter for the opportunity with the blog.

It is a huge pleasure to welcome Jamila Gavin to the blog for the second day of our Pop Up takeover.  Jamila’s first book was The Magic Orange Tree, a collection of short stories.  Jamila won the Whitbread prize with her novel Coram Boy and her Grandpa Chatterji books were turn into a television series.  We are delighted to welcome Jamila to the blog.

You could argue that every story you write, every act you make, makes a difference – good or bad. That’s why Dylan Calder’s brief to his ten writers: to write a story about “difference,” was so brilliant, and thought provoking.

Dylan wanted to celebrate ten years of his amazing Pop Up charity, whose sole aim is to bring authors and their books together with children – and going that extra crucial step – to put a book into the hands of every child that attended one of their sessions.

Many of us who have been brought up with books from the cradle, will go to the grave in the company of books, but it is astonishing to know that there are children, in whose households there are no books. For Dylan, every gift of a book was a gift of making a difference.

When Dylan asked me to be one of his ten writers, a book which I had written years ago, The Wormholers leapt into my head. It was about Sophie, a non-verbal quadriplegic who had gone down a wormhole into a parallel universe and found freedom as a whale.

For me, her story wasn’t over. Sophie had continued to live inside me.

In The Wormholers she had been free to explore different time zones and universes; her body had found water, and been in its natural element. Yet, at the end, she chooses to return to her family in her own world, with all its difficulties. I had left in her wheelchair at the top of the stairs, with her bewildered parents asking, “How did you get up there?”

The chance to explore the next stage, albeit in just 3000 words, was something I couldn’t resist, especially when the request from Dylan came with an illustrator, Jacinta Read.

And so, we started work on In Her Element. Jacinta began to send in some wonderfully imaginative depictions of Sophie, and her room- mate, and the sea, and whales and, most gloriously, the colour blue.

 Sophie’s story, isn’t just about finding the place or home where you feel you belong, it’s about the extreme difficulties of disability being an obstacle to acceptance in the mainstream world. I felt it was also a metaphor for a wider range of obstacles to being part of society and belonging.  Issues of race, colour, and “otherness,” were themes which had always been at the heart of most of my writing from the very beginning. I was continually interested in where one felt “at home.” For so many, it will be where they were born and brought up, yet for others, it’s as though they were born into, if not the wrong universe, but another parallel universe.

When writing The Wormholers, I had become fascinated by the theories of Stephen Hawking, and his work on Time, other universes, parallel universes, imaginary numbers, and “wormholes.” As someone who had a phobia for numbers in school, and had soon been separated from the sciences into the arts, it also disguised my imaginative interest in such things, even without the aptitude.

But my initial interest in how people with such disability communicate, began with the story of Helen Keller. Born in America’s deep south in Alabama in 1880, she became both blind and deaf at the age of nineteen months, possibly due to scarlet fever. Her future looked bleak, as her speech too would undoubtedly be affected, even though she had already spoken her first words around the age of one. She seemed destined to be deaf, blind and, consequently, mute.

She was a frustrated and unruly seven- year old, when Anne Sullivan came into her life, sent to be her teacher by the Perkins Institute for the Deaf. This remarkable relationship of teacher and pupil was inspiring and even more so, because it revealed what a highly intelligent young woman Keller was. It was thanks to Anne Sullivan’s extraordinary belief in her that she grew up to go on to Harvard and on to a distinguished career as a writer, lecturer and campaigner. Most importantly, it made me realise that people can have all sorts of apparently debilitating afflictions, but which can cover a totally functioning and intelligent brain. I had noticed how people with disabilities could be treated as infantile:  they were spoken to as rather stupid, with louder voices as if they were deaf, even when they were not deaf. 

Perhaps we should be less judgmental about children being absorbed with screens.  For so many children, and especially those like Sophie, technology makes a massive difference. It can mean an independence almost undreamed of thirty years ago. It means that not only can a present- day Sophie lead an independent life, with access to the written or spoken word, but she can write her own stories too.