I love Murdoch Mysteries , a television detective series set in early 1900s Toronto. Recently I enjoyed an episode ( Victor, Victorian ) which featured a group of women who regularly dressed up as men in order to experience the freedom of movement that men have. In their (not very convincing) disguises they went into clubs, they smoked and drank, they flagged down taxis. One character exclaimed excitedly about the attention and respect she received dressed as a man, which was clearly so very different from her usual experience. It’s interesting to realise that in the UK women wearing trousers has been regarded as something controversial until very recently. It was not until 1995 that women barristers were allowed to wear trousers in court. Only four years later school girls were still being told that they could not wear trousers as part of their school uniforms. Forget that trousers are comfortable, practical, and allow freedom of movement, they were – and in some minds still are ...

Today’s guests were Bristol crime thriller writer Helen Abbott (who writes as A A Abbott) and Alistair Sims, owner of the independent book shop, Books on the Hill in Clevedon, who talked about dyslexia-friendly books for adults.     Helen has recently published two of her crime thrillers in dyslexia-friendly formats – The Bride’s Trail and The Vodka Trail . Helen explained that 10% of us have dyslexia and yet up until now no one has published dyslexia-friendly books for adults.     Helen was inspired to produce her novels in a dyslexia-friendly format by Alistair Sims, who is himself dyslexic. People travel from miles around to buy dyslexia-friendly books for children and young adults from Books on the Hill, and Alistair is keen to see them printed for adults too. He’s also able to advise adult dyslexic readers and parents of dyslexic children on finding suitable reading material. In fact, whether you’re dyslexic or not, Alistair is happy to provide...