A life in books

 

I recently read a post on Facebook about someone’s much-loved childhood book, and I couldn’t help but wonder – how many of us bookish people, both writers and readers began their love affair with the written word at an early age, and how many of us still have those cherished books on their shelves? I know I do!

 

I don’t remember how I learned to read – in fact I don’t remember ‘learning’ at all – one day it seemed I could do it as if by magic. I think my mum had something to do with it, because I was a fluent reader way before I went to school, and I don’t recall spending that much time in school when I was very young – I missed loads of days off sick – measles, mumps, rubella struck me at least twice each and I seem to remember lying on my ‘bed on the sofa’ drinking Lucozade a lot. Mum used to set up school style ‘lessons’ for me if I was able to do them – I never missed a thing at home. I’d also watch the schools tv Crown Court, Pebble Mill and Sons and Daughters! I was always ahead of the class though, so it didn’t do me any harm. 

 

I was also someone who never seemed to need much sleep, and I do recall sneaking Brer Rabbit, The St Claire’s books, Sam Pig and just about anything I could get my hands on down to the bottom of my bed ready to read under the covers by torch light after I should have been asleep. My mum and dad always read me stories, even when I could read them myself, and many a night they would crawl out of the bedroom and I’d crack my eye open and say ‘I’m not asleep!’ 

 

My favourite last story of the night was Mr Kit Kat goes to Town. It’s a mad tale of a cat who ‘goes to town’ and causes chaos. He even sees an elephant squeezed into a telephone box! And I think there was a foxy choc-ice thief involved somewhere. I enjoyed seeing his shopping list and encountering a literal ‘Road-HOG’ when a pig roars down the street in a racing car. I read it to my son, and the book still sits on my shelf today.

Other books I really loved were the ‘Little Grey Rabbit’ books and I used to trace the drawings with my fingers and imagine myself in the scene. I also loved ‘Topsy and Tim’ because they usually narrowly escaped being locked in a fridge or drinking poison. (Oh the 70s!) I loved factual books- usually about disasters and ghosts, although I do remember one called ‘Nine true Dolphin stories’ ordered from a school book club because my friend bought that too. I scared myself silly reading about ‘Spontaneous Human Combustion’ in ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’, imagining myself bursting into flames if I felt a bit hot, and I liked the Usborne book of space – although I did worry a bit about being abducted by aliens.

As I grew older, I still enjoyed re-reading some of my Mrs Pepperpot and Sam Pig books. I recall a story about a boggart, which was a bit spooky, and also one set on Midsummer’s Eve, which took the animals on the farm on a very mystical adventure and ended up with the horse wearing a garland round his neck – although I cannot solve the mystery of which particular book that was in. Olga da Polga, about the guinea-pig, was also a great series – maybe the midsummer story was in one of those books? I never really paid any attention to age-appropriate books – I was hiring Stephen King from the library from the age of 7 and it annoyed me that the librarian would ask my mum if it was ok for me to read, because I would always self-censor if I didn’t like it. But I think reading such material set me up to write some of the ghostly tales I write now. My first ‘book’ was written when I was around 3 or 4 and I wrote ‘The Bog-man’ when I was 11 following an obsession with a book about the Tollund man by the aptly named P.V. Glob. My version was about the peat bog man coming to life to eat people and it was re-written by me as an adult in 2022, and became one of the stories in my first published book, although it has evolved in to a Tim Burton-esque love story.

 

Other books I have obsessed over: 

Ballet Shoes – I spent ages learning ballet and gained several awards. I still like dancing, but ballet was never going to be my eventual career.

The Swish of the Curtain – it made me want to be an actress and I studied and trained from age 11. And yes, I do it now, dear reader! 

The Sherlock Holmes stories – I related to Holmes and liked the Basil Rathbone movies too. 

I discovered Harry Potter when it first came out, but I was in my late 20s. I used to queue up in Waterstones with my dad at midnight on release day and then read it all before dawn.

Dracula – my love of gothic will never end.

Oh dear, there are so many, but I have kept them all. 

The season of ‘you-know-what’ beginning with ‘C’, where you go a bit mad and surprise people with gifts, is upon us soon, and so it’s time to take out the best book of all: Santa Mouse. Because of this book, I still  to this day, leave a small glass of brandy, a mince pie, a carrot for Rudolph and a PIECE OF CHEESE out before we go to bed on Christmas Eve.

Such is the power of books.

 

If you have a favourite book from childhood or a memorable story, drop me a comment!