If you’re reading my blog then you know I’m an author. I write romance novels. I grew up reading books and living in imaginary worlds. I often wonder if the books fed my imagination, and helped develop this joy of writing, or if I would always have had the skill for story-telling.

What I do know is that if I’d been born in certain parts of the world, I may, perhaps, never have had the joy of losing myself in any written story. Due to religion, poverty, customs etc I may not have been allowed to read or I may not have been given the opportunity to learn to read.

I have a very active and vivid imagination but I can’t make myself think about what it would be like to be denied the ability and joy of reading. Can you? No Famous Five. No Narnia. No Devil’s Bride. No Lord of Ice. No The Great Gatsby. None of my favourite stories. I’m feeling sick just thinking about it.

I live in New Zealand. A country tucked down, at what most kiwis call the arse of the world, where we are pretty much forgotten about. We are a country of four + million people and I like to think we are, on the whole, a tolerant group of human beings. I guess the tolerance comes from the fact we are so small and we all have the drive to travel and see the world. This desire to travel allows us to experience and understand the many diverse cultures that make up this world.

What it doesn’t mean is that we don't see when some customs and traditions are, in fact, denying peoples basic human rights. Like the right to better oneself, and the right to an education if they want one.

I’m humbled and blown away by the 15 year old Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

She was shot in the head for WANTING to be educated. She wants to be able to read and write. How can that be wrong? She’s denied this because she’s female. Again, how can this be right? What threat could she be if educated? It appears she must be a huge threat because a cowardly gunman had to shoot a defenseless girl!

Malala’s about to have another operation, in England, to have a plate fitted to the hole in her skull caused by the bullet. She’s still a target, yet she refuses to back down. She wants to learn to read and write.

I think about the joy reading gives me, the income I survive on which is derived from my writing, and I question how far I’d be prepared to go to ensure the freedom to education for those I love. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not sure I’d be as brave as Malala, but then I’ve never been denied an education.

The next time you read your favourite story, think about Malala and others like her. I pray she gets to grow up and lead a long life filled with stories. I also hope that one day I get to read her story, written by herself. Wouldn’t that be the writing on the cake!