Books have been my lodestone since, despairing of my mother’s one-chapter-read-out-loud-a-night rule, I brazenly asserted independence and read ahead, finishing The Little House on the Prairie in one glorious gulp. After that liberating moment, I have been a person whose nose is always in a book. Books have been my window into other people’s worlds. I love seeing life from different perspectives, seeing how others make choices. I read not only for comfort but also because I relish being pushed to think differently, feel differently. Siobhan McKenna is chairman or director of several companies including Foxtel, Nova Entertainment and Woolworths. During her career she has worked in telecommunications, oil and gas, healthcare and government. She was a commissioner of the Australian Productivity Commission, a chairman of NBNCo and a partner of McKinsey & Company. She was born in Canberra and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and three teenage sons. Man in Armour is her first novel.