Fiction has a way of planting seeds in the mind that can germinate for a long time before they spread into root systems or blossom into conscious ideas. A book can change you dramatically overnight, but it can also take its own sweet time.
When I was about 11 or 12, I was given Hilda Lewis’s medieval novel The Gentle Falcon (1952) as a school prize. We would now describe this as Young Adult fiction. It is also an excellent example of the kind of historical fiction that offers the reader an immersive experience in another world.
