There are few things better than books bringing people together, but when those books can also help raise money for children who need support, that makes being an author feel particularly worthwhile. This year, I’m delighted to be taking part in Children in Read 2026, a wonderful fundraising event supporting BBC Children in Need. Authors from across the country have donated signed books to the Children in Read auction, giving readers the chance to bid for books while helping to raise money for a very worthwhile cause.

If you’re a novelist, you can spend months, sometimes years, living inside the same story, with the same characters occupying your thoughts and the same fictional world waiting for you every time you open your laptop. There’s a great deal to love about that. Watching a novel grow from the first tentative idea into a complete manuscript is one of the most rewarding parts of being a writer.

There comes a point in every journey when you know it’s time to turn the key for the final time. After a lot of thought, we’ve decided to sell our motorhome. Over the past year or so, we’ve found ourselves using it only a couple of times a year and, as much as we’ve loved having it, we simply couldn’t justify keeping it sitting on the drive waiting for another adventure.

Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge Esther’s prompt word this week is service. You can join in here: Service Station Stop (haibun) When I was a girl, my father had some old fashioned ide…

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