I Was a Reluctant Reader. My Gran Fixed That in One Afternoon.

an image of several positive book reviews

The story of how one trip to a bookshop changed everything — and why I’ve never forgotten it.

I was not a reader as a child.

I want to be honest about that, because I think it matters. The person writing these books, the person who has spent years trying to get reluctant readers to fall in love with stories, that person was once a boy who couldn’t get through a chapter without his mind drifting somewhere else entirely.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t read. I could read perfectly well. It was that none of the books I was given at school felt like they were meant for me. They felt like homework with a cover. I’d sit with them and wait for something to happen, and nothing ever quite did, nothing that made me forget where I was, nothing that made me desperate to find out what came next.

I was eight, maybe nine, and I had quietly decided that reading simply wasn’t for me.

My Gran Knew Better

My gran was a reader. More than that, she was a writer. She understood books from both sides, the way you only can when stories have shaped your life from the inside out. And one afternoon she took me to our local bookshop and said something that changed everything.

She told me to choose.

Not to choose from a list. Not to pick something educational or improving or suitable. Just to walk around until something called out to me, and choose that.

I found it on the shelf and I knew immediately. It was called War of the Computers, by Granville Wilson. A story set in the future, a world run by computers, with ordinary school boys at the centre of it all. Boys who felt like people I might actually know. Boys who could have been me.

I read it in two days.

Cover of the War of the Computers


Two Days That Changed My Life

I don’t say that lightly. I mean it exactly as it sounds. That book, that one afternoon in a bookshop, that one decision to let a boy choose for himself, turned a reluctant reader into someone who read everything he could get his hands on.

From that day on I read as much as possible. I discovered that I hadn’t been someone who didn’t like reading. I’d been someone who hadn’t found the right book yet. There’s a difference, and it’s enormous.

That reluctant reader became an avid reader. That avid reader became a writer. The boy who couldn’t finish a chapter at school eventually wrote a series of books,  because a gran who understood stories took him to a bookshop and trusted him to know what he needed.

It’s Not That They Don’t Want to Read

When I write about reluctant readers, I write from the inside. I know what it feels like to sit with a book and feel nothing. I know what it feels like when a story finally grabs you and won’t let go. The distance between those two experiences isn’t talent or effort or attitude.

It’s the book.

Children who won’t read haven’t failed. They haven’t decided against stories. They just haven’t found the one that shouts out to them yet. The one with characters who feel like people they know. The one that moves fast enough to hold them. The one where they forget they’re reading at all.

So here’s what I’d say to any parent who is worried about their reluctant reader. Take them to a bookshop. Let them wander. Let them pick something up and put it down and pick up something else. Don’t steer them toward what you think they should read. Don’t judge the cover or the genre or the thickness of the spine.

Just let them choose.

My gran gave me that gift on an ordinary afternoon in a local bookshop. It turned out to be one of the most important things anyone has ever done for me.

Why I Write the Books I Write

War of the Computers worked for me because the heroes were ordinary boys. Relatable. Real. Not chosen ones or ancient warriors,  just kids, navigating something extraordinary.

That’s exactly what I tried to do with The Viking’s Apprentice. Peter, the main character, is an ordinary boy. He isn’t special before the story begins. He’s the kind of boy a reluctant reader might recognise, might see themselves in. And then the adventure finds him, and everything changes.

I didn’t write these books despite being a reluctant reader. I wrote them because of it. I know what that child needs. I was that child. When your child gets pulled into a book they will feel like they are part of the adventure. 

A book coming alive


If your child is still waiting for their War of the Computers moment, their book, the one that changes everything,  I hope Campbell’s Cove might be it.

The Viking’s Apprentice series is available on Amazon:

Find the books here

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if my child picks a book I don’t think is right for them?

Let them. A child who chooses their own book is a child who is invested in it before they’ve read a word. The goal isn’t the perfect book — it’s the first book they actually want to read. That matters more than the title.

Q: My child says they don’t like reading. Is it worth trying?

I said the same thing at their age. What I meant was that I hadn’t found the right book yet. There’s a difference. Keep looking — it’s out there.

Q: Are The Viking’s Apprentice books available as audiobooks?

Yes they are. The Viking’s Apprentice is available on Audible. You can find it here.

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