It was fantastic to be part of the Oxford Literary Festival this weekend, alongside the wonderful Yaba Badoe, who told me all about her inspiration for ‘Wolf Light,’ which I am currently reading - it’s an awesome story featuring three very different heroines, all united by their role as custodians of their homelands and their desire to protect our fragile earth.

We spoke about environmentalism and weaving together different narratives, and we had some great questions from the audience. Several of them came to speak to us afterwards, and some had read ‘Girl 38,’ and gave me some great feedback.

I also received a couple of super reviews from young readers, including the two below from Year 5 and 6 pupils, which really made my weekend!

“Girl 38 has the perfect balance of happiness and sadness. I could not put it down. The story inside the story has an amazing effect. Girl 38 is a strong, powerful and kind female hero who elevates female power. Ania's story is full of twists and turns, surprises and the perfect ending. In the story Ewa said everyone was sad that Ania's story had ended and I was sad too. This story has inspired me-as a young writer- to pursue my work as an author, and as a reader, hopefully as it will do for many others.”

“I loved reading this book because I liked how there three stories in it, with part of it at school, part of it in the future, and part of it during the war. I found them all very interesting to read and I liked how they all complemented eachother.”