00:00I'm Grace Olson and I live in Leeds and this is my wonderful flock of therapy sheep.
00:06Their behaviour and how they work helped me to write a series of books about them.
00:11And this year the government has launched a wonderful initiative called the National Year of Reading.
00:18Reading actual physical books is so wonderful and it's really immersive because you've got the touch of it,
00:25you've got the smell of the paper and it's static.
00:28So that engages different parts of your brain that deal with all sorts of different things like spatial awareness,
00:37things to calm you down and it also affects different hormones so that you are in fact happier.
00:46And also because there isn't anything else flashing up like if you're reading online,
00:50you'd get reminders or you'd get texts or you'd get this and that, they're all flashing up.
00:54A book doesn't do that so you're completely immersed in it and it's just complete therapy because there's just you
01:02and the book.
01:04When I was young, I suffered quite a lot from anxiety and a lot of people just do, just because.
01:10And I found that reading was my escape from my mind and I loved reading like the James Herriot books.
01:19Even as a young child, I loved the James Herriot books and I loved reading pony books and anything about
01:24farms, really.
01:25I love animals because I think animals, they're just so lovely and they do make you feel joyous.
01:33It's been a really exciting experience to become an author.
01:36So the children's book series, that's a series of four books.
01:40I've got Merlin finds his magic, Galhad finds his voice, Beryl finds his wings and Rhubarb finds his family.
01:49And they're all about my lovely sheep. As you can see, they're all over there.
01:53And each one has a little message weaved into the story to help empower young minds and help people to
02:01realise they can be positive, they can think good thoughts about themselves, they can enjoy being with others and they
02:09can embrace their unique identity.
02:11And in the final book, Rhubarb finds his family, that helps the reader to realise, actually, despite any religious differences
02:20or race differences, we're all one family on planet Earth because we share one mother, Mother Nature.
02:27I've also written two books, which are for adults, but no adult content, and it's all about my horses and
02:35how they have helped me in various different ways.
02:38But they're written very similar to like The Old Creatures, Great and Small, lots of dialogue and conversation.
02:44And so for reading and this national year of reading, I honestly think that reading books about our beautiful Yorkshire
02:52countryside and about our wonderful animals and farms and everything,
02:56you couldn't get better for your mental health.
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