michael williams author now is the time for running

Barry Hutchison – ‘I’ve never been funny’.Anthony McGowan – ‘I have more cricket in me’.Andy Mulligan – ‘Paradise is a little bit boring’.Andy McNab – ‘I’ve met myself, you know’.Andreas Norman – ‘Clean and good looking’.Adrian McKinty – ‘I was getting chills down my spine’.Adèle Geras – ‘I suppose if you sit here long enough, you’ll hear it all…’.Terry Pratchett – ‘I will always be the fellow who writes funny books’.Lauren Child – The Scottish Friendly Tour.Christoffer Carlsson – neither pink nor fluffy.

Being Phil Earle – ‘I didn’t grow up wanting to be a writer’.(When you know what the title stands for, you will love it.)Īdele Geras Authors Autism/Asperger Syndrome Awards Blogs Books Bookshops Caroline Lawrence Christmas Crime Ebook Education Fairy tales Film Harry Potter History Horror Humour Interview Jacqueline Wilson Languages Meg Rosoff Michael Morpurgo Philip Pullman Picture book Poetry Reading Reference Review Romance Science Fiction Short story Siobhan Dowd Television Theatre Thriller Translation Travel War Writing Journey books have evolved, and don’t always provide completely happy endings for their protagonists. This is such a compelling read, so necessary, and so scary. There are more horrific happenings, and although the book doesn’t end outwardly badly, Michael Williams mentions things in his Author’s Note to make you wonder what really will happen to the displaced in South Africa, and everywhere else.įootball helps Deo, to some extent, but will it be of lasting benefit? More than once Deo wonders why they’d gone through all they did, if this is what it was going to be like. Afterwards he and his brother Innocent have to escape to stay alive, and they slowly make their way to South Africa, the promised land.Įxcept as with so many stories like theirs, they discover it’s not so promised after all. Starting in Zimbabwe, the book describes the horrific slaughter of almost a whole village, where only moments earlier the most interesting thing for Deo was to play football. Maybe it’s impossible to completely stamp out prejudice towards ‘the different’ outsider, but we must try. Surely everyone who reads Michael Williams’ Now Is the Time for Running, will understand why people have to move, and can sympathise? This journey book is as important as many others before it, and it would be good to use this type of story in schools. It would seem that no matter how many wonderful books are written on the subject of (legal or illegal) immigrants and asylum seekers or anyone else who happens to end up wandering from one place to another, people still don’t understand, and they still persecute those forced to go somewhere they don’t ‘properly belong.’

Michael williams author now is the time for running