i believe this

Adam will kill me for saying this (I just realised that this is a red flag or someone going, 'Danger, Jess Perriam, Danger!) but Corinne Grant made him get teary. No, it wasn't because she's such a bad comedian (which is of course open to your own opinion). In the wee hours of Saturday morning, Adam's uncle died. Death is never easy to deal with, especially when you're close to that person. He wanted to carry on as usual, let it hit it when it hit, he was still numb.

So we went to Bookcafé (if you're in Albany, it's the place you get real coffee) just to sit around and get out of the rain. The thing about Bookcafé is that you can look at books while you're eating/drinking and people don't mind. John Marsden was in town for a writing festival so they had a display of his books in the cafe. It was the usual display of the Tomorrow Series and other books that he writes for young people. But I came across a book of his that I'd never seen before. It was called, I Believe This. The point of this book is to ask 100 prominent Australians what they believe. It's the second volume of an Australian version of a British book Marsden had read called This I Believe which asked prominent Britons in 1949 to write a bit about what they believe.

There are so many varied responses. But they all grab you - it's fascinating reading. Corinne Grant wrote about grandparents of hers who had died and what she believes about that. It was touching and I could see why it effected Adam the way it did. I think it's a beautiful thing for a book to touch someone in a tangible way such as that. It doesn't happen often anymore. Later that day when we met Marsden and handed over the book for him to sign and he said, 'Oh, I haven't seen this one in a while' which is such a shame. Marsden certainly has something to be proud of here. If you can grab a hold of it, make sure you do. All royalties from the book go to Save the Children Fund.