As we prepare for the Lowther Hall Literary Festival which begins on Monday, I have spent some time this week reflecting on significant books. Much of the reading that I do these days is non-fiction, and of late, I have been once again dipping into an all-time favourite, Martin Seligman’s the Optimistic Child. If you haven’t read it, I wholeheartedly recommend it! I have also enjoyed some works of a biographical nature of late, including Christopher Pyne’s The Insider and Malcolm Turnbull’s A Bigger Picture. On the fiction front, I have been re-reading some of the texts being studied by the girls as well as enjoying some more recreational titles, such as Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Maybe the Horse will Talk by Elliot Perlman, The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion and Machines Like Me by one of my favourite authors, Ian McEwan.

In preparation for the Literary Festival I also recorded a reading of the classic children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which I was given by the girls on my commissioning as Principal in 2013. The book is a reminder of the journey every caterpillar takes to become a butterfly: an apt metaphor for the journey through Lowther Hall that each girl undertakes. It has been a delight to celebrate some key milestones in the journeys of our senior girls this week and I look forward to sharing more of these in the days to come.

Ms Elisabeth Rhodes
Principal