Why on earth would I write a story about a dystopia where only girls read and write, where books are a religion and ignorance a cult?

I originally wrote the first couple of chapters fifteen years ago whilst attending a creative writing class. The original idea was to write a short story that challenged preconceptions of gender-roles and this was a starting point for a couple of chapters – but then I lost interest. Apparently one concept isn’t enough to fill a novel! Who knew? Not me.

So, fast forward fifteen years and I finally found the will-power to sit down and write and I thought the original idea had legs. What I didn’t do originally was build a world before I started writing – and this time, when I created the world in which Charlie was to live and the characters she was to meet I found the story almost filled itself in.