If you do only one thing today, please take the time to place your vote.

Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from the polling booths. I get such a thrill from exercising my duty as a British citizen, but I know there are a lot of people out there that are not planning on voting – please reconsider.

Not agreeing with any particular candidate is not an excuse not to vote. In a general election all votes are counted and recorded in constituencies across the UK, and this includes ballot papers where the voter has not voted for a candidate. Protest votes count – so have your say.

Remember that the right to vote is a privilege, and a privilege that was not always enjoyed by all. Don’t abuse it.

I’m aware this post is a little out of the ordinary, and so while I’m here let me introduce my newest literary gift to myself. It’s been a difficult week so far and I wanted a treat to cheer myself up. In the spirit of things I chose a book from The Guardian‘s top 10 books about the Suffragettes. 

Falling Angels – Tracy Chevalier

One cold January morning, in the wake of Queen Victoria’s death, two young sets of eyes meet across the graves at Highgate Cemetery. One pair belongs to smartly dressed Lavinia Waterhouse, whose mother clings to the traditional values she sees slipping away; the other to Maude Coleman,

whose mother longs to escape the stifling grip of Victorian society. Thrust together by the girls’ friendship, these two very different families embark on a new century that promises electricity, emancipation and other changes that will shake the very foundations of their lives.

Happy voting!