Me and A Game of Thrones...

... or, clutching at the coat-tails of fame!

A few days ago, I was rootling about on Google, checking whether their new algorithm has made my website impossibly difficult to find (it hasn't - phew.) By accident, I got onto Images, rather than Web, and I was intrigued to see that alongside a few pictures of me and of people I know, there were lots of people I didn't recognise at all. I scrolled down, and then I noticed this picture of me with two school children. It looks as if we're all having fun, doesn't it? I'd never seen it before, so I visited the page it came from.

It was featured in a newspaper article. And the reason for that is the girl on the left. The lovely smile may put you off track, but are the large dark eyes familiar? Well, if you're a Game of Thrones fan they should be - because this is Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark!

Apparently, this is one of a number of photos of a younger Maisie which were released to celebrate her 18th birthday. I get a name-check in the article:

One picture also reveals that Game of Thrones is not the first time she has been involved with fantasy novels.

In 2009, Maisie and fellow student Joe Knight met the author of Warrior King and Daughters of Time, Sue Purkiss, at Norton Hill School.

Warrior King is not exactly a fantasy novel - it's about Alfred the Great, and his daughter, Aethelflaed - but it does have an element of fantasy (probably my favourite character in the book, Cerys) - and the Dark Age world would be easily recognisable to GOT fans. And actually, Aethelflaed, who is also the subject of the story I wrote for Daughters of Time, has a fair bit in common with Arya - both the daughters of kings, both tomboys and good fighters, both loyal and brave. (Though Daughters of Time wasn't out when I visited Maisie's school.)

Such fun! It's sent me back to the books - I'd read the first two some time ago, but given up when all my favourite characters kept getting killed off in ever more gruesome ways. Am reading Book 3 at the moment - and guess who's my favourite character now? Fingers crossed she survives...