One of the joys of writing the Inside Small Business series is never knowing where the next story might lead. This one began with a message from Rebecca Palmer and took me to Nature’s Window to meet her husband, Tom, a local children’s author. Across the water stood Ferryside, Daphne du Maurier’s former home and a place that helped fire her imagination. It felt like the perfect spot to talk about books, the Cornish landscape and the stories hidden in familiar places.

Tom has built his career on finding the story that can turn a reluctant reader into an eager one. He’s written more than 70 books, following young readers’ interests from football to history and always looking for the subject that will pull them in. As we talked, it became clear how much Cornwall now shapes that work, from its libraries and schools to the landscape itself.

Born in Leeds, Tom knows what it’s like not to see yourself as a reader. He struggled at school and showed little interest in books. His mother realised football might be the way in, so she encouraged him to read match reports in newspapers, magazines and books. Gradually, his confidence grew. Reading changed his life.

At 21, he went to night school to take A levels. Three years later, he began a degree in European literature. After graduating, he worked in a bookshop and a library, managed book festivals and kept writing. His first book, If You’re Proud to Be a Leeds Fan, was published for adults by Mainstream in 2002. Puffin published his first children’s book in 2008. That long route to publication still drives his determination to reach children early and show them that reading can begin with whatever already interests them. In 2019, the National Literacy Trust recognised his work with the Ruth Rendell Award for services to literacy.

His own experience makes him a natural fit as Cornwall Libraries’ National Year of Reading Ambassador for 2026. Led by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust, the campaign aims to reverse a decline in reading enjoyment by linking reading to the things people already love. For Tom, that passion was football. A lifelong Leeds United supporter, he has written If You’re Proud to Be a Leeds Fan, alongside series including Football Academy and Foul Play. Foul Play, his first children’s book for Puffin, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2009. In 2018, he also wrote a new book for the Roy of the Rovers series. His message in schools is simple: reading is for everyone, and becoming an author isn’t beyond anyone’s reach.

Those school visits are central to his work. Tom talks to pupils about reading, writing and life as an author, but he listens too. His latest book, If the Invader Comes, grew out of sessions with Cornish schools. Staff and pupils helped him test the pitch and tone of a story that brings the Second World War close to home.

Published by Barrington Stoke in May 2026, the novel opens in June 1940, in the anxious aftermath of Dunkirk. Fears of invasion are spreading. Three children, whose parents are involved in secret war work, must overcome their distrust of one another when danger reaches the Fal. Set in Falmouth and Mylor Bridge, the story draws on real events from 1940 and 1941.