Of course you want more book suggestions to feed your habit…

You want a courageous heroine – here’s a baker’s dozen of them:

• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – get two for the price of one – Bonnie and Sylvia.
• My Name is Mina – Mina is imaginative, fragile and full of creative courage.
• Jane Eyre – “I am a free human being with an independent will.” Enough said.
• Chantress – Lucy, who finds her own voice in the midst of upheaval. A remarkable story full of the truth of creativity.
• Matilda -“I’m wondering what to read next.” Matilda said. “I’ve finished all the children’s books.” Roald Dahl at his best.
• The Ransom of Dond – Darra shows the courage of love in a beautiful myth.
• Coraline – for goodness’ sake, read the book. She did not need a male sidekick to face the Other Mother.
• A Face like Glass – Neverfell,  with her honesty and her expressions take on Caverna. A marvellous fantasy, with depth – and cheese.
• The Visitors – deafblind Adeliza Golding is no Victorian victim!
• The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland – Once you’ve met September, it’s hard to forget her.
• Charlotte’s Web – I never thought I could love a spider.
• The Book Thief –  ah lovely Liesel, naughty and curious and so alive.

Escape to the country?

Each of these is so evocative of the place you will either want to dash there immediately – or avoid it like a sink-hole.

• Watership Down – Hampshire chalk uplands
• The Stone Book Quartet – Cheshire stone country
• Snow falling on Cedars – Puget Sound, Washington State
• Cold Comfort Farm – Deepest Sussex
• The Whale Rider – Maori New Zealand
• The Summer Book – Finnish Archipelago
• Greenvoe – Orkney
• The  White Darkness – Antarctica
• The Shipping News – Newfoundland
• Sea Glass – New Hampshire coast
• Waterland – the Fen Country
• The Kingdom by the Sea – Northumberland coast