“Writing became my therapy, my way of processing the world, but more importantly I realised that it became a way of connecting: readers seemed hungry to hear the stories of the people I was meeting and working with in these desperately poor places—people who not just survived, but very often thrived, despite the circumstances. And always, it was this—the story of people—that prompted the strongest responses; this juxtaposition of their often uplifting, inspiring and at times humorous outlooks against such a tragic background. So it became a mutually reinforcing circle: the more challenging the circumstances I found myself in, the more I wrote, and the stronger the feedback from readers became.”