Can a Guardian reader really be prejudiced? It's October 2012. Gunmen stop a bus in Pakistan and shoot three girls. For wanting to go to school. How can the writer respond? Knowing nothing about the situation, able to offer little more than outrage he's forced to come out from behind his desk and go into the community searching for answers to help him tell the story of a brave young woman's fight for girls' education. When his research uncovers attitudes at odds with his liberal convictions he also has to deal with what he learns about himself. A Girl With A Book, written and first performed by Nick Wood is a searing examination of modern society.
"Nick Wood was an actor, a freelance journalist, and a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. Commissions include: Radio 4, Derby Theatre, Eastern Angles, Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Action Transport, The Drum, Plymouth, Theatr Iolo, Hans Otto Theater Potsdam, Jumper Up Theatre, and Nottingham Playhouse. Plays include: Warrior Square, Mia, A Dream of White Horses, My Name is Stephen Luckwell, The Children of the Crown, and About A Band. His plays have been translated into several languages and performed in France, Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Denmark, Montenegro, Russia, Switzerland, and South Korea. With Andrew Breakwell, he started New Theatre Nottingham and recently returned to acting touring his new one-man play A Girl With A Book. Currently, there are twelve productions of A Girl With A Book by companies in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In June 2016 Eastern Angles revived their production of his adaptation of We Didn't Mean to Go To Sea and in September his adaptation of Mick Jackson's The Underground Man opens at Nottingham Playhouse before a UK tour, and also in the autumn Getting Better Slowly, a play involving dance and verbatim theatre about Guillaine Barre Syndrome will open its tour at the Lincoln Drill Hall."