I remember the first time I picked up a Mary Stewart book. It was a grey, rainy lunchtime in the school library and I was about fifteen. I’d been looking for a Rosemary Sutcliff book, but I’d read all of hers that were on the shelf. Suddenly, my eye was caught by a title along the “S” row: Madam, Will You Talk? What an intriguing title, I thought, and picked up the book. I opened it at the first page, and was immediately hooked: The whole affair began so very quietly. When I wrote, that summer, and asked my friend…