The first book I remember reading
Grimms Fairy Tales – an old copy, printed in about 1959. I’ve still got it. Very scary, not softened for today’s market!
The books which shaped my childhood
Jock’s Island by Elizabeth Costsworth, Hurry Home Candy by Meindert DeJong, Greatheart by Joseph Chipperfield, Storm of Dancerwood by Joseph Chipperfield, Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (cried for ages at the end!).
The books I read as a teenager
Anything by Jim Fogg, he was a brilliant writer. Anything by Stephen King. Pan Book of Horror. And Thomas Hardy (I still don’t know why).
The first book which made me want to be a writer
Murphy’s Law by Jim Fogg
The writers who changed my view of the world
Stephen King or Jim Fogg
The book which will always have a place on my shelves
The Raven and the Eagle by Pauline Gedge. Or Greatheart. Or Murphy’s Law.
The books I tell everyone else to read
The Raven and the Eagle; anything by Jim Fogg; Greatheart.
The books I didn’t finish
There have been a few; if a book doesn’t grab me by the second chapter, I close it. Life is too short and there are millions of other books. Jack Ryan books, I don’t get the attraction, they’re nonsense.
The book I am reading right now
11.22.63 by Stephen King
The book I turn to for comfort
Greatheart by Joseph Chipperfield
