My earliest reading\u00a0memory
I have a distinct memory\u00a0of sitting by the bookshelves in the first house we lived in and suddenly realising I\u00a0could understand the\u00a0words in lots of the\u00a0books. It was like discovering I could perform magic \u2013 pulling out one book after the other and disappearing into other worlds. I bumped into a childhood friend the other day who told me she remembers being annoyed when I\u00a0came for a play date at her house and the first thing I wanted to do was see if she had any books I hadn\u2019t read. <\/p>\n
My favourite book\u00a0growing up The book that changed me as a teenager The writer who changed\u00a0my mind The book that made me want to be a writer The book I reread The book I discovered later in life
I loved Jill Barklem\u2019s Brambly Hedge series as\u00a0a girl. The exquisite intricacy of the pictures, their evocation of a hidden world \u2026 I\u2019m enjoying rediscovering them with my four\u2011year\u2011old. The High Hills<\/a> has a wonderful, Tolkien-esque quest element to it.<\/p>\n
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging<\/a> by Louise Rennison. I\u00a0found this and the rest of the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series absolutely addictive, hilarious and so good in their understanding of teenage girls, their friendships, their humour. I felt like these books really \u201csaw\u201d me and my friends and did so compassionately, without talking down to us. <\/p>\n
Patricia Highsmith. Before I read her books, and specifically The Talented Mr Ripley<\/a> and The Two Faces of January<\/a>, I thought I had to like a character in order to want them to succeed. But Highsmith, in her brilliantly twisted way, puts us inside the mind of a sociopath in Ripley \u2013 we\u2019re taken to that really uncomfortable place of rooting for a\u00a0character we know we\u00a0should hate. We\u2019re desperate for him to get away with it. Or is that just me? <\/p>\n
I Capture the Castle<\/a> by Dodie Smith. In a way it\u2019s a book about writing: the protagonist\u2019s father is a (failing) writer; the protagonist-narrator keeps reminding us that we\u2019re being told a story. I\u00a0loved it for its intimacy, and for its rich evocation of a family and the main character\u2019s coming of age. <\/p>\n
I could pick pretty much any Agatha Christie. I\u00a0enjoyed them when I first read them (far too young!) for their puzzle element. Coming back to\u00a0them as an adult, I\u00a0realised how much darker some of them are: Endless Night<\/a>, And Then There Were None<\/a>, Crooked House<\/a> and The\u00a0Pale Horse<\/a> are all examples. Now I come back to them as a writer to try to work out how she did it.<\/p>\n
Edith Wharton\u2019s Glimpses of the Moon<\/a>. I\u00a0read The House of Mirth<\/a> and The Age of Innocence<\/a> years ago, but hadn\u2019t come across this. When I read it recently, I\u00a0remembered just how much I love her writing. <\/p>\n