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I’m so proud that The Line is finally officially out in the world. This book was written over four years ago when I was the University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence in 2022.

‘I would draw lines that would lasso us to our neighbours and keep us close for all time. I would draw lines that made us feel safe together.’

When a line divides the country of India, a little girl and her family are forced to leave their home. On her journey, the girl thinks about what she would do differently if she was in charge of a line with so much power. She would draw lines that brought people together, despite their differences. Her lines would make people friends. Her lines would make the world a better place.

This book is very close to my heart as the team at Scholastic brought together me, a British-Indian author, with British-Pakistani illustrator, Farah Shah, so the story represented voices from both sides of Partition. Farah’s beautiful illustrations help handle the subject matter with care, making it suitable for a young audience, wherever they are from.

Based around the historic event, but with important themes that are still very relevant today, The Line includes a spread at the back of the book with facts about the Partition of India. I hope it is shared far and wide and the message of togetherness is one that is talked about in homes, schools and libraries everywhere.

That’s right! How to Save your Granny from a Runaway Train won the Non-Fiction 7-11 year old category of the 2026 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards!

I’m so thrilled for all of Team Granny who worked so hard on this book. The shortlist for our category was incredible so it’s extra special to have been chosen by the judges from such an amazing list.

Thank you to everyone who has championed the book and to all The English Association for shortlisting the book and awarding Granny the win. I’m on cloud nine!

Today, I was up bright and early to join ‘Literature Across Borders’ with Bath Spa University and Ashoka University. Alexia and Megha hosted a panel with award-winning author Veera Hiranandani, super star screenwriter Nayanika Mahtani and little old me to talk about our experiences of writing books set during the Partition.

We talked about our writing journeys, experiences within publishing and the inspiration behind our books, including their reception in a global market. We also talked about who should be writing about the Partition and whose views are missing from the bookshelves. A video of the event will be available via Literature for Borders.

It was so inspiring to hear Veera and Nayanika’s thoughts on writing for children and writing about our history and I really appreciated Megha’s warmth and thought-provoking questions in her chairing of the event.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along and to Alexia and Megha who hosted this brilliant event.

It’s British Science week and to celebrate, I joined Mr Dilly for a British Science Week bonanza with Ben Hoare and Isabel Thomas.

I spoke with My Dilly about How to Make Diamonds from your Pencils and whether it is actually possible to make diamonds from your pencils. We also spoke about everything from quicksand to quarks and even made a detour to one of my favourite films, The Princess Bride.

I shared my top six favourite facts from How to Make Diamonds from your Pencils and here they are here in a countdown from six to one:

6. The Statue of Liberty was originally an red-orange colour and only turned blue-green after the metal in the coating of the statue interacted with the air.

5. It is technically possible to make diamonds from your pencils!

4. Red cabbage can be used like litmus paper.

3. Silly Putty was made my mistake! It was created in an experiment gone wrong in trying to make cheap rubber.

2. You can make your own ice cream using a sandwich bag of ice cubes and salt.

1. You can make plastic from milk, using vinegar.

Happy British Science Week, everyone! Have fun discovering awesome new things.