It is Book Week 2021, a time for passionate bookish people to unite and celebrate the power, magic and simple joy of reading. While I write and read a lot of fiction, which can be dismissed as escapism or mere fantasy, diving into stories from authors and characters whose lives are so far from my own, has been one of the most significant mind-opening, heart-opening and compassion-igniting gifts to me over my life. Books spark connection, wonder, curiosity, ideas about the wor