I knew there’d be a certain amount of reading and bucket loads of writing along the Laureate trail, but my secret hope was that there’d also be lots of conversations. And there were. Many with young people, many more, just as importantly, with grown-ups. Big people are often too busy to read, and some have other people to do their writing for them. So sitting down for a chat, (or yelling as you chase after their car) is the go. I lent a clean hanky to more than one misty-eyed big person as they relived the emotional impact a small spider called Charlotte had on them and a pig. If just one of these damp conversations helps prevent the scrapping of just one school library, my laureate work and my expensive running shoes will not have been in vain.

"We talked a lot about stories."