Transcription - Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is one of those writers whose works I seek on blind faith alone. I don’t need to pick up the book and read the blurb and wrinkle my nose in perturbation as to whether I do actually want to read it. I know I do. And for those followers of this blog, I thank you humbly, for this is a library book, you know my intention with regard to the library. I snuck it in between the many proofs and arcs piling up. 

Atkinson has a distinct style which has developed across her oeuvre. Transcription occupies a similar historic setting to Life after Life and A God in Ruins but enjoys a more or less conventional structure with a prologue and conclusion in 1981 and the meat of the novel in 1940 and 1950. Summarily it’s a WWII spy yarn and a damned good one. Female protagonist, Juliette Armstrong, spy name Iris Carter Jenkins, spies her way though the war and ends up at the BBC where she comes to understand that the past never quite goes away. 

The research is impeccable and Atkinson conveys so perfectly the quintessential Britishness of a WWII drawing room of a privileged member of society. Poor Mrs. Scaife! Did she truly believe or was she just playing the role she thought she should play? You can hear the chink of the delicate Sevres china and taste the tea almost. You can hear the impassioned voices of a cliqued society caught up in their notions of the injustice of war and their ideas to solve and resolve a conflict so far from their own realities. The utilitarian coldness of MI5 is aptly realised  and the reader can almost smell the paper clipped offices and the stuffiness of civil servants required to fulfil daring roles that their outward demeanour defies.

Atkinson creates a palpable atmosphere of a covert MI5 operation where the assorted characters remain one side of cliche or caricature. It’s very cleverly done. You can picture them all so easily, hear their voices even and there is something so stalwartly English about them all apart from those who aren’t English of course And there’s a humour running through the narrative which is quite delightful. 

And if, as a reader, you start to sit back and just ride the crest of the fictional wave, sit up, for there are some pithy observations made that resonate quite pertinently.

‘Do not equate nationalism with patriotism…Nationalism is the first step on the road to Fascism.’

Is the entire novel a satire on our failure to understand prejudice and the qualities war evokes in the humblest of breasts? No matter. It’s a rollicking good yarn that demonstrates Atkinson as a competent purveyor of espionage. Should Le Carre be worried? No, I don’t think so. Ms. Atkinson has so many strings to her bow that she has progressed to the entire string section of the orchestra, I think. 

If you’re wondering about the flamingo on the cover, I’m not going to tell you. Go read the book. 

My thanks to my local library, manned entirely by volunteers because of local authority cuts , for keeping a copy of this book on their shelves. 

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The Dollmaker - Nina Allan SOCIAL BLAST

So pleased to be involved in the Social Blast for this amazing book. Please do check out the other amazing bloggers participating in the blast on Twitter and Instagram.

It seems a simple enough premise, two unique people with a common interest communicate and eventually meet. But that’s where the simplicity ends. The Dollmaker is as rich as the fabric the dolls within it are dressed in . Stylistically diverse; part epistolary, part short stories, as in stories within a story, and part straightforward first person narrative. The Dollmaker is an ingenious, genre defiant almost, love story for our times. The links between the various styles is a pleasure to read. Because of the short stories it feels like it has a cast of thousands but it hasn’t, it’s really two people, two damaged people - Andrew and Bramber and how they’ve spent the best part of their lives finding comfort in dolls but ultimately hope to find comfort in each other. For a reviewer, then, it could be seen as part nightmare, part challenge to do justice to this quirky, endearing tale without offering any spoilers but desperate to convey the subtle breadth of what is contained between its covers.

The sustained metaphor of the dolls and the dollmaker offers the reader that indefinable exhilaration some writers seem able to achieve when they deal with an issue from an almost sideways stance. For is this a novel about disability, physical or mental ? Being different? Looking at how perception can be distorted by misinterpretation of the physical being? The exploration of a relationship where two people can fall in love without actually meeting is not essentially new but here it seems to highlight how physical appearance can distort the inner beauty of an individual in this shallow world of ours. And ever present  - the dolls.

Bubbling subconsciously almost, especially in the short stories and Andrew’s story was the relationship between dolls and dwarfs, the identification of something close in size? Especially for Andrew. I found Andrew’s ‘troll dolls’ immensely moving for it was as if he was restoring all he could but acknowledging the remaining flaws as intrinsic to the doll, intrinsic to the person. I often felt there were points where the line between human and doll blurs “flawless lips in deep magenta, navy eyeliner, and almost-nude luminescent powder that made her spotless complexion gleam like pearls.”

Doll or person?

Andrew’s heartfelt musings upon the nature of his relationship with Bramber is so beautifully expressed in the following passage “And yet I did still have faith, in spite of everything. If ‘Artist was a chastening reminder of my limitations so was she also a -  talisman a symbol of all Bramber and  I had in common and my desire not only to be with her but to set her free.” Freeing ‘Artist’* seemed to me to be a metaphor for freeing Bramber. It is not unusual for somebody facing a burden, in Andrew’s case the burden of his size or lack of it, to become obsessed with something and then to become almost a savant as Andrew does with his devotion to dolls. But here the dolls seems to represent something deep, a recognition of his own self within the dolls he lovingly creates and mends. Is he trying to make himself more perfect, more acceptable? His conversations with “Artist’ give us clues as to his self perception and his fears, “Imagination comes with a burden as well as privileges. Solitude is one of those burdens. But is that so bad?”

Notions of the surrogate nature of dolls are subtly explored alongside almost fairy tale scenarios of the dashing prince freeing the damsel in distress but defying the stereotypical conventions of such roles. At times I thought of Pinnochio, not the Disney one, but Collodi’s marionette ‘doll’ desperate to become a real boy. And for Andrew I was reminded fleetingly of Oskar in Gunter Grass’s ’Tin Drum and for Bramber I thought of Thomas Mann’s ‘Magic Mountain’. The spirit of the fairy tale is never far. Ewa Chaplin, the link that is the catalyst for Andrew and Bramber’s association, is the author of Nine Modern Fairy Tales and we are treated to five as Andrew reads them on his journey. They are a delight and would hold up as short stories in their own right outside of this novel, yet they are crucial to the story as a whole, part allegory, with links in them from the fairy tale, doll, world, to the Andrew and Bramber, human world. 

There were some metaphysical points to ponder, especially concerning time, Two lines from the book which prepare us for the curious timelessness and almost dreamlike passages of time passing that is indefinable and provoke the reader into wondering whether time matters? It IS intangible.

“I have always been in love with the idea of time”

“A clock is the only instrument specifically constructed for measuring a quantity that is intangible.”

And Bramber’s poignant and elegant musing on the passing of time.

“There is always a day when summer fades into autumn, sometimes in the space of a single hour. The light changes colour and the leaves soften, become fragile. Everything goes to seed. I was trying to ignore that moment, to pretend it isn’t happening, but I’m always aware of it. Every time it makes me wonder how many summers there are left.”

Also considerations of sanity and insanity? The concept of an institution ? Bramber is in a concrete institution but is Andrew in an abstract one from which his journey to Bramber is his escape? Bramber’s unfolding of the events that have brought her to be institutionalised  are told with such purity and honesty.

“The truth is, I’ve been over that night in my mind so many times I can no longer probably remember what really happened, if those details are details I can remember, or bits and pieces I picked up from what I found out afterwards.”

‘Ewa Chaplin wasn’t afraid to make dolls that weren’t comforting. She seemed to know that dolls are people just like us.” says the back cover, which pretty much sums it up.

And how many of us are broken dolls waiting for our Brambers and our Andrews?

*to define 'Artist' would be a spoiler. For now another character in the book.

My thanks to Quercus books for both a proof copy of this unforgettable novel and the finished book. Also my thanks to Nina Allan, herself, for signing the proof for me. I’ll treasure it forever and our Dollmaker Breakfast where I got to talk with Nina about books and writing and Nina’s reading aloud from the book in the The Museum of Childhood. 

Finding Dorothy - Elizabeth Letts SOCIAL MEDIA BLAST

So delighted to be part of the Quercus Books Social Media Blast for this engaging tale.

I never realised that the photo I’d seen several times in books, magazines and online depicting Judy Garland reading The Wizard of Oz with an older lady was showing me the widow of the story’s creator. Somehow it always seemed to me that the Wizard of Oz had always been and always would be, the thought that someone had created it seldom entered my head!

Last month Quercus Books sent me a teaser of Finding Dorothy, a two chapter pamphlet that whetted my appetite for this real thing. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2019/02/finding-dorothy-taster.html 

A novel, although it often read like a biography, so much so that I googled Maud Gage and L. Frank Baum and Maud’s mother!! (They’re all real and have their own Wikipedia pages!)

The book is a delight. In the Afterword the author states ‘Finding Dorothy streamlines Maud and Frank’s life stories, skipping over some events in their long life together.” But when you read it you get the impression of a seamless whole heading towards the cinematic masterpiece that is the Wizard of Oz.

The novel is structured with Maud’s life story unfolding chronologically interspersed with the widowed Maud’s determined intervention in the production of the film. It details her concern for the young Judy Garland. It shows the ways that she dealt with and interacted with various studio personnel in her untiring efforts to ensure that the finished film should match and stay true to her late husband’s story and vision.

To understand that determination and to wholeheartedly approve it clarifies indelibly as you read Maud’s story. From her girlhood in Syracuse through her mother’s desire for her to attain a diploma at Cornell University at a time when few women were achieving academic qualifications, to falling in love with Frank Baum in defiance of her mother’s dreams and raising a family Finding Dorothy paints a picture of a shrewd, yet determined woman, with a heart. 

But inasmuch as this book tell Maud’s story it also tells of the struggle of women in the twilight years of the nineteenth century.

‘Too much control can stunt a girl, sap her of courage, and render her weak.’ was Mathilda Gage’s opinion early in the book. ‘You’re old enough to learn that crying gets you nowhere. If you pinch yourself, it will remind you that it’s better to be strong. When you’re strong, then you can fight.’

And fight Maud does, for everything she has, including children after one difficult pregnancy seems likely to prevent her having any more. Supportive and despairing alternately for her mercurial husband and his various enthusiastic ventures you cannot help but admire this feisty lady. Even when the chips are down she doesn’t give in either for her own family or her sister’s. She seems one of those rare people who can summon optimism when they most need it, ‘Was it possible? Was there really somewhere else -  somewhere at the far end of the rainbow that was better than this place? She certainly hoped so.’

She’s wise too and offers her sagacity to the young Judy Garland, ‘Magic isn’t materializing out of nowhere. Magic is when a lot of people all believe in the same thing at the same time, and somehow we all escape ourselves little bit and we meet up somewhere, and just for a moment, we taste the sublime.’

Frank’s idealism  grated a little at times and I felt Maud’s frustration but I also loved his unwavering love for his wife and family and the enthusiasm for all of his schemes. 

The insights into Judy Garland and her motivations are fascinating and illuminating. Fans of the star will enjoy these sections immensely.

The book also allows us a glimpse into the cultural and sociological climate of nineteenth century USA. How challenging life could be and how things could turn on a sixpence - or maybe a dime. Interesting too are the chapters which deal with the film, surely of interest to those who love that film and the history of filming in general. 

I am prompted to wonder how people who might not be familiar with the film will respond to the book? I imagine that is a minority and it’s certainly not an age thing. My friend’s two year old granddaughter accompanied by a three year old cousin regularly clamour to watch the film. They love it. But is a love of the film crucial to an appreciation of this book? I don't believe so. Part historical, part biographical it may be of interest to students of the womens’ moment, very topical currently. Certainly it’s an engrossing read. Elizabeth Letts has a fluent style and what also shines through is her love of the film and her admiration for the lady she is writing about,

My thanks to Ella Patel and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read this crock of gold. 

Please check out what these other amazing bloggers have to say about the book.

Ten Books I Haven't Read............Yet

Okay, so I was supposed to be somewhere else and doing something else today but I've just been blown out so I'll console myself with a blog post! This is a revamp of another '10' list I did for Nudge/NewBooks about TBRs and books you'd acquired but not read. I've edited the original list because I have subsequently read several of the books on there. So I've added others to make it the full 10. No short measures on this blog!!!

Ten Books and Why I Acquired Them

This list is compiled In the spirit of Paul and Jade’s* lists of ten books but with a slightly different slant. As a reviewer I prioritise review copies to the extent that I find my personal TBR shelves fuller and fuller with books I want to read but can’t find the time to do so!  I thought it might be fun to pluck ten books from those shelves that I want to read and detail the provenance and motivation for that desire. 

*Reference to other Nudge compilers.

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 Paris - Edward Rutherfurd

My Mum loved Rutherfurd’s books. She read them all. She was a silver surfer who was signed up to his mailing list and for a while truly believed that he was emailing her personally to tell her when publication was imminent. She had received an email advising of New York’s publication and was excited about reading it. Sadly she died before that happened. So I bought a copy and read it for her and in her memory. it is my intention to continue to read his books for her. Paris is the next one on my list. My Mum read to me every single night the moment I was old enough to listen and I’ll never forget the books we shared together. 

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 Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

I received a hardback copy of The Mountain Shadow to review and I had to sign an affidavit that I would not disclose anything prior to publication! I enjoyed the book in all its glorious and wordy paradoxes. The person from the review body who facilitated my copy was an enthusiastic Roberts fan and cited Shantaram as one of her favourite books. I promised to read it and duly acquired a copy. I will keep that promise but I cannot say when. 

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we were liars - e. lockhart

I recently reviewed a copy of genuine fraud and loved the irony of the title. For if the writer had not acknowledged the immense debt to Patricia Highsmith at the end of the book I might have written a scathing review implying plagiarism of the Talented Mr. Ripley! I am so curious to read this earlier books of hers - just to see! So when I saw this in a charity shop I snaffled it up.

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The Spencer Family - Charles Spencer

 A good friend persuaded me to accompany her on a recent trip to Althorp. I knew nothing about the place except as the home and supposed last resting place of Princess Diana. I was pleasantly surprised at the rich and long history of the house. I was also surprised at how prolific a writer Charles Spencer is. So, as I exited through the gift shop, I bought myself a copy of this book together with one of those leather bookmarks you used to get in all the gift shops but are quite rare nowadays. I have loads of them, it’s where books and history fuse for me!

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The Farrers of Budge Row - Harriet Martineau 

Budge Row was a street in London. It ran almost parallel with Cannon Street and was a kind of extension of Watling Street. I’ve studied the history of it as much as I can. Richard III traveled down the street one time!  Why the interest? My Mum lived there as a child at number 26 until it took a direct hit in the Blitz. The street no longer exists in name but the recent Bloomberg Development has acknowledged its existence with Watling Street and created a walkway through the complex that follows the original path. The completed development has recently opened and I can’t wait to visit. My cousin found out about this book and I managed to track down a copy. It’s a reproduction of an original copy which was located in the library at Harvard. It’s fictional but as you might expect from Martineau there’s much social theory and some politics. 

Ed. note: The development is complete but the site of Budge row, although not named, is honoured by the walkway. I've been there a couple of times with family to revisit parents' childhoods. The experience was palpable.

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens

I think Dickens was my first taste of the ‘classics’. I was a kid and I watched David Lean’s Great Expectations on TV. Abel Magwitch scared the crap out of me and I found the only way to deal with that was to read the book. I must have been ten or eleven and my teacher at the time made some kind of comment which made me feel both praised and chastised at the same time! But it began a life long love affair with Dickens. However I’ve yet to read this final novel.

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Melmoth - Sarah Perry

Desperate to read this after reading The Essex Serpent. I read an amazing review of it which made me want to read it all the more. In fact I think I may even sweep aside current review proofs, throw cautions to the wind with all the deadlines  and just immerse myself in this gothic tome.

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The Poison Bed - Elizabeth Fremantle

I love Elizabeth Fremantle's books. I remember receiving her first book as a proof and I was bowled over by the quality of the writing and her approach to the subject. She's one of those writers who I have blind faith in and I'll read all her books unconditionally. 

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My Life in France - Julia Childs

I watched the film Julie and Julia. I loved it. Meryl Streep is one of my favourite actresses. So this book is a mystery because I’m not sure if I'm gong to enjoy it. Irrationally I’m expecting Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci and I know I’m not going to get them! I’m going to get Julia Childs. So I’m intrigued to start reading it.

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The Queen’s Necklace - Frances Mossiker

I'm a history nerd. Not just English history either.  Marie Antoinette is one of my heroines. A political pawn and a victim of bad PR. It wasn’t called trolling in her day but that’s what she suffered. And so much of what was said about her was believed. ‘Let them eat cake (brioche)’ was attributed to her but the phrase first appeared in print when she was but six years old. This book is about an incident during her reign that suggested she was involved in a crime to defraud the crown jewellers of a diamond necklace. However it seems likely the the queen was innocent of the convoluted plot and the victim of ‘offline’ fraud and identity theft!  I’ll be interested to see what this writer’s take on the affair is. 

Again I think it'll be  interesting to revisit this post in another year's time and see how many I've managed to read!!

10 Books I'd Like to Reread

Another 'ten' list that looked at books I have and would like to reread. This list would change slightly now as it's a while since I compiled it and I've read a helluva lot more books since!! Not drastically though - I'd include Elizabeth Lowry's Dark Water instead of Cloud Atlas and it would be nearer the top. I might also include her first novel The Bellini Madonna but my heart won't let me remove any of the others. The 'following on' refers to the original 'ten' list I did for Nudge was 'Ten Books and Why I Acquired Them'. That's changed now as I've read several titles on the list. So I may revisit it and revise.

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Following on from selecting the books from my TBR shelves I looked around at all my other shelves and the books there. When I was younger I had this fluffy little picture of myself retired and rereading all the books I’d grown to love over the years. That was before the internet, book blogging and reviewing became part of my daily life!! So this is a kind of Desert Island Books - ten books I’d love to reread before I die.

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 On the Road - Jack Kerouac

At one point during my misspent youth this book was recommended to me as part of a hippy, hip reading list trilogy from someone I had romantic inclinations towards. (The other two books were Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). Nothing came of the romance! But much came of my reading of this book. It remains the most read book in my library. I revel in its exuberance and zest for life. And the almost pulsating, syncopated beat that carries it along like some of the jazz and be-bop it describes. I celebrate the writing method, spontaneous prose, often emulated but nothing comes close. I think it’s the best example of a roman de clef novel I know. A few years back I even traveled to Lowell, Massachusetts where Jack was born. I stood at his grave, like Dylan and Ginsberg in the film Renaldo and Clara mourning the passing of such a unique talent. Jack’s original typescript was on display at the British Library a few years ago and it brought tears to my eyes to see IT! To behold the actual manuscript that Jack worked on. I learned to love Jack’s America, very different from today’s America, but the book conjures such a sense of freedom and liberty. I have requested some of the last paragraph of the book to be read at my funeral because it seems to contain all of life, from childhood, ‘don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear’ to ‘ nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old’. And as I have grown old along with the book its insights and contradictions seem to grow too. But it’s about friendships and love and hope and disappointment, about living life to the full, about personal freedom. And of course it defined the Beat Generation. I would like to read it at least one more time before I die. 

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The Trial - Franz Kafka

 Prior to ‘discovering’ Kerouac I was obsessed with Franz Kafka. Something to do with being a student starving in a garrett I think!  But I became absorbed in the dream narrative and the almost absurdity of the situations described. I also soaked up letters and diaries and biographies. I even bought a volume in German because it hadn't been translated for the English market. I’d love to reread all his novels and short stories but I think it would be The Trial I begin with because it seems to have some contemporary relevance that was not so apparent when I read it all those years ago. But having said that maybe Metamorphosis, or perhaps The Castle, I love that book..... or even...............eeek.

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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

I was a teenager staying with two maiden aunts. It was a rainy day and we were staying indoors. I had read all the books I’d brought with me and whilst there was no shortage of books in the house to a teenager they were old-fashioned turgid tomes. (Actually they weren’t really! But, hey I was just a kid!) Standing out on the shelf was the distinctive orange spine of a Penguin novel. I pounced on it and became mesmerised by the story of John Singer the deaf mute and all the people he collected around him who believed he had everything they lacked whereas he believed he had nothing to live for without love. I later found out that this was not my aunts’ book but  my cousin’s copy and she left it there after her stay with my aunts. Generously she let me keep the book. I’ve read it many times but I’d like to read it again. I’ve read all of McCullers work subsequently but this remains the most potent, and my favourite.

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 City of Circles - Jess Richards

Unusually this is the only contemporary book in my list. In this context contemporary means a book I’ve read this year! I still don’t know what it is about this book that so captivated me but it had me in its thrall from the first few pages and I’m dying to read it again. I enjoyed it on more than one level. The story of Danu leaving the circus was an absorbing one. I found the writing exceptional, I just loved the flow of the words and the descriptions. I also enjoyed the ideas encapsulated in  the novel. I found it a very sensory experience and I am still not sure whether it is actually a good or a bad book!! I just know that I loved it, every word, every comma, every full stop!!

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 Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier

I’m not even sure if this is my favourite DuMaurier book. But my parents had the hardback when I was a child so my awareness of it was a subconscious one.  It was a hard choice to make because ideally I’d like to re-read the lot but I guess Rebecca is representative of her entire oeuvre. I think it was the first book, for me, where the titular main character never appeared which at the time of reading I found unique. The characterisations were great. Mrs. Danvers is surely a classic literary character now? Some books are defined by their opening sentences….. ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’.

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Great Expectations- Charles Dickens

Briefly,  saw the David Lean film, l loved it, Magwitch scared me to death so I read the book. There's a logic there somewhere but damned if I can find it, That started a love affair with Dickens but this one will always be my favourite. Typical Dickens in so many respects. A rags to riches story with some iconic characters. I was still at Junior School when I read it, I remember and the teacher made some comment which was both complimentary and critical at the same time! This is an irrelevant aside but many years after the film I met the actor who played Joe Gargery! He was a client of my father’s, Sir Bernard Miles, lovely man. He was playing Falstafff in Henry IV part 1 and I met him in full padded costume!! Wot larks.

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 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

I have read this more than once and in different ways!! I read it conventionally from page 1. I read all six stories individually, first in the chronological order of the book i.e. starting with the Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing and a further time beginning with An Orison of Somni and going backwards!  Why? Because I could!! So I’d like to read it again just to see…….. Interestingly, and this is an added bit, I was reminded of the sections about Adam Ewing when I read the sections abroad the SS Orbis in Dark Water.

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 The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins

Okay so this is technically three books but I’m letting myself off as it is also technically a trilogy which is singular! And as trilogy’s go it is a singular one! I love Katniss Everdene and I wish I could be her!! I love the feist and the compassion and the spontaneity. A  paradox heroine if ever there was one. Another dystopian world where good fights evil. Lots of action, lots to think about.

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Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

I love Ishiguro. I love his diversity. I love his intellect. I love the intelligence he brings to his writing. But this is the one that gets me, haunts me. Maybe its because of the dystopian theme, maybe it’s because of the complexity within the simplicity, or maybe its the innocence and naiveté  of those children at the beginning but it’s a book I can’t ever let go.

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I went though an intense science fiction phase when I was but a mere slip of a girl!! I devoured Asimov amongst others but it was the apocalyptic, futuristic, dystopian world of Philip K Dick that I especially loved. Hard to select a favourite to re read but I’ve settled on this one probably because of Blade Runner and the recent sequel film being in my consciousness. But I love it that the book is set in’ 1992 A.D.’ !There’s some kind of parallel in my head of Orwell’s 1984.

I'm curious to see if, in a years time, I will have reread any or wanted to change the list at all. 

Childhood Books

I've been rummaging round my hard drive again and I came across some of these old ’Ten’ lists I did for Nudge/New Books. They were fun. I enjoyed doing them. So I think I’d like to blog them. This one is ten books from my childhood. Just ten? There were probably ten times that!! 

1. The Teddy Robinson books by Joan G. Robinson.

I must have been about 4 but I couldn’t yet read for myself because I remember choosing these from the library and my mother reading them to me but only at bedtime. I loved the stories and felt extreme frustration that I couldn’t read them for myself any time I wanted. At that age I simply didn’t understand the demands of motherhood and thought my mum rather selfish for not dropping everything to read them to me on demand!!

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2. The Adventures of Fudge - Ken Reid

My mum bought this at a bring and buy sale and it became bedtime reading for some weeks. It was another before-I-could-read-for-myself-book and I loved it. It was of its time and contained black and white line drawings of Fudge and his companions interspersed amongst the text. It was worth going to bed for.

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3. The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton

I know it’s not PC to revere Blyton these days but oh, how I loved this book. It was another that my Mum read to me at night and I think I felt sick with excitement sometimes at the thought of what was going to happen next. I wanted pop biscuits and google buns like other kids wanted new bicycles. I blame my tendency towards insomnia on this book. After my mum stopped reading at another cliff hanger I just couldn’t get to sleep for wondering what happened next. It was the first book that really made me want to read for myself and I think it was the first book I read completely through for myself once I had mastered the tangled and confused lives of Janet and John. I suppose at this point I should thank my infant school teacher, Miss Pearson, for teaching me to read.

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4. Pinnochio - Carlo Collodi

 My very first cinema experience was Disney’s  Robin Hood and Lady and the Tramp  but I had to be taken out before the programme finished as I was wailing at the top pf my voice. I was too young. But the animations stayed with me. Old enough now to behave quietly when my Mum took us to see the Disney version of Pinnochio which captivated me. What I was seeing was breathtakingly wonderful. And in a desire to sustain that wonderment I was bought a copy of the book which I read again and again and again. As soon as I finished it I just went back to the beginning. And while I read I saw the film in my head.

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5. Twilight and Fireside - Elizabeth Clark

I was about six or seven and I caught scarlet fever from I know not where. But I was confined to my bedroom for about six weeks. It was a lonely, miserable time. But relatives sent me gifts to help me occupy those hours in bed. My great aunt sent me this book and I loved it. It contained stories for all seasons, magical tales, folk tales, ordinary people tales. I lost myself in it and it did help the time to pass.

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6. What Katy Did - Susan Coolidge

A school friend gifted this to me one birthday. It was primary school so I was under eleven. I read it and loved it. It’s significant to me because I believe it to be the first book where I become aware that someone had written it. I think previously I had believed that books just were and that was that. But with this book I became aware primarily of descriptions and details not just physical but of characters too. 

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7. The Game That Really Happened - Norman Dale

There was an imprint of Hamish Hamilton called Antelope Books who published purely for children. Raymond Briggs had an early title published by them.  I borrowed this from the library one Saturday morning and by bedtime my plan was complete. It was about a group of children who have meeting places in the park that they gave special names too - Rainbow, Nowhere Special, Dragon’s Lair and so on. The game grew and more places were given names. The game turned real when a gang called the Rowdies entered the frame. On Monday at school I walked around all the places I had assigned names to from the book. And my delight was replete when another kid asked me what I was doing and understood right away because they had read the book too!! So there were many playtimes when we played The Game that Really Happened!!

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8. Heidi - Joanna Spyri

In time Switzerland would be the first foreign country I ever visited and I was taken there by the givers of this book! My father was one of six children so my siblings and I had plenty of doting aunts and uncles. Two of my aunts were infatuated with Switzerland and visited at east once a year. They gave me this book as an expression of the love they held for the place. And I guess a book given with love is received and read with love and I adored this story. My poor, balding, less than robust grandfather was unfairly compared to Heidi’s. Sorry grandpa.

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9. Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner

This was read to me at school by my teacher. I knew there was something ‘weird’ about it but I had no idea what. I enjoyed it and I eventually bought a paperback copy for myself to try and find out what I found strange. I think it was the first book that I discovered was a translation and I concluded that it was the translation that rendered the book different from anything I had read before. There were several films made and my mum took me to see the 1964 Disney interpretation. My first 'it's not as good as the book' experience I think. 

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10. The Young Warrenders - Ivy L Wallace

By this time I was at secondary school and a bookish friend lent this to me. I loved it and subsequently sought the other in the series. I think there were only three or four ever written. They seemed at the time to be a natural progression from the Famous Five (oops Blyton again) . Basically the series featured another group of unusually astute children who solved mysteries that eluded the capabilities of the local constabulary. The Warrenders were two sets of identical twins which I think was part of the appeal. My poor parents - I blamed them for not allowing me to have a twin. So books with twins in were appealing. It’s probably because I’m Gemini.

I feel quite moved when I think about these books. They mean so much to me (and all of those that aren't included!). They shaped me into the reader that I am now and because of them I love books.