Sometimes people ask me why it is that women seem to get overlooked for promotions and why we have the gender pay gap in the UK that we have. As well as all those other questions about why women are treated differently at work.

I don’t have all the answers, obviously, but I do have some – and one of them goes back to a very fundamental principle which I think is often overlooked – and it’s this…

It was recently World Book Day and it gave me an opportunity – and an excuse – to run my fingers lovingly over my bookshelves and ponder on some of the books that have been most influential in my life. And some of the books I’ve just loved so much I’ve gone back to over and over again.

I started thinking about the whole issue of stories and why they’re so important to us as human beings…