Written in the Stars!

Funny the hold a great song about achieving your ambition can have over you. Tinie Tempah's, 'Written in the Stars' was playing on the radio recently and as I was miming the lyrics to it in my head I heard the line, "I'm just a writer from the ghetto like Malorie Blackman." The way this lyric is quoted doesn't do the song justice, because Tinie emphasises the end of the line as he raps it, cleverly singing 'black,' slight pause, then 'man', which works perfectly in the context of the song.

Apparently Tinie got his inspiration for that line from:

1. hearing that Malorie Blackman was also from Peckham like him and
   
2. from his sister who'd read and subsequently wowed about the concept in 'Noughts and Crosses,' a great book I read a few years ago, featuring the two main characters, Sephy and Callum who really hook you into the story.
   

Malorie said on Twitter she thought it was a great song and was thrilled to get a name check! Having read 'Hacker' as well and then hearing that song reminded me how good a writer Malorie Blackman is, so I had to check to see if she'd brought out any new books and I wasn't disappointed.

Her new book for older readers, 'Boys Don't Cry,' published at the end of last month is a powerful, intense and emotionally charged story that left me with a large lump in my throat at the end of the book. Malorie gets the voices and the intensity spot on so much so that I couldn't put it down. Even now I'm reeling from the story as it was so engaging and tangible I felt like I was in the house with Dante, Adam and their Dad, witnessing the events from a secret room as they unfolded. I second Tinie Tempah's sister's response. Wow!!