Chris Riddell

And there are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence.’
‘They kill themselves, you mean?’ said Bod. He was about eight years old, wide-eyed and inquisitive, and he was not stupid.
‘Indeed.’
‘Does it work? Are they happier dead?’
‘Sometimes. Mostly, no. It’s like the

people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

‘Someone killed my mother and my father and my sister.’
‘Yes. Someone did.’
‘A man?’
‘A man.’
‘Which means,’ said Bod, ‘you’re asking the wrong question.’
Silas raised an eyebrow. ‘How so?’
‘Well,’ said Bod. ‘If I go outside in the world, the question isn’t, “Who will keep me safe from him?” ’
‘No?’
‘No. It’s “Who will keep him safe from me?”