Which childhood book sparked your love of reading? The Shoe Shop Bears by Margaret J Baker, now sadly out of print. It was the first book I bought with my own money. I was bored by picture books and w

The award-winning SF novelist is very close to Boba Fett...

Which childhood book sparked your love of reading? The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier made me dream of epic childhood adventures while being the first book to make me cry. A few years ago, I read it

Epic yet parochial: the director/writer discusses his first science fiction novel

Dear Simon, Once again, the December 2025 issue had lots of memories to write about. Starting from the front, Gertcha! – I did love Chas and Dave, as did my husband. Of course, the family always watch

“Where are we to begin?”, Virginia Woolf asks in her essay “How to Read a Book”. “How are we to bring order into this multitudinous chaos and so get the deepest and widest pleasures from what we read?