Every story begins with an idea, sparked by a place, a person or an impression of something that I want to capture through telling a story. In the case of Princess Olivia, a few years ago I found myself having breakfast on the sweeping rampart of a palace in the Himalayas. Behind me, were sharply jagged grey mountains. Down in the valley, sprawled a large town. In that region, the impacts of climate change were already being felt very acutely, in a way that was changing people’s daily lives.

Sitting there with my breakfast, I imagined a young princess, peering out from the palace across the kingdom, wishing she could go down and join the life of the town and be an ordinary kid. But at the same time, I knew in my mind this young princess was observing changes in the environment around her and asking questions which grown ups couldn’t – or wouldn’t answer.