Bookworm

This wonderful book was a retirement present from my Best Ever Book Group - amazing students who left school in 2013 but with whom I am still in touch.

Having always been a bookworm this book was a real treat. Although Lucy Mangan is 20 years younger than me, many of the books in her memoir were my childhood books too and it is a real delight to read - nostalgic but also whimsical and often quite funny. I'd heartily recommend it for Bookworms and, having recently finished it, I thought I would pick out a few from my own early years.

Lucy was, as I was, whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland but you will know about those wonderful books. She and I wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy and we both got into trouble for reading - in lessons, in bed with a torch, when there were jobs to be done. How fortunate we were not to have many other distractions and to have so much time to read!

I am sure there were many wonderful picture books when I was a child but I don't remember any. I am a real fan of them now and have a fabulous collection to share with my grandchildren. Books were expensive and very precious when I was a child and I have fond memories of being bought Annuals for Christmas, my first Encyclopedia and Princess Margaret's Wedding Book (both of which I still have!). Here's a few long forgotten treasures which remain in my memory:

Half Magic and The Time Garden by Edward Eager: long before the current crop of dragons, wizards and magic, these books by Edward Eager were quite unusual. The Time Garden in particular has stuck in my memory for awakening a love of history - in the herb garden different species of thyme took the children back into a different period of history - time travel, adventure, magic and history - all in one book!

The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett is a real classic and won the Carnegie Medal in 1937. I wouldn't have known that but loved that book so much it fell apart. The story of an ordinary, large and poor family who managed to have tremendous adventures. I was very jealous and, I am afraid, tried to take my little sisters on adventures and got into awful trouble!

Seven White Gates by Malcolm Saville was real adventure - more believable than

Enid Blyton (which I had loved) and awoke in me a desire to live in the "wilds of England" or the countryside. To a child born and growing up in the suburbs it seemed like paradise - I finally achieved it in 2013 when I moved to Wiltshire though it is not as wild as Saville's Shropshire. Saville's powerful, eerie setting, strong characters and brilliant plot had me hooked. I still have a strong mental image of the disturbing Devil's Chair atop the blasted Stiperstones mountains.

And then, dreams of being on the stage! The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown, awoke in me a real desire to act. I recently heard Dawn French on Radio 4 saying the very same thing and there are many actors who say the same. This wonderful book about a group of children setting up their own theatre in the summer holidays inspired me to get involved in school and church productions. I wish I'd continued but life got in the way.

I remember reading (on the floor of Surbiton Library) Jean Webster's Daddy Long Legs, a coming of age epistolary novel published in 1912 and never out of print. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen. I don't think I was more than 12 when I read this but I loved the heroine and wanted to grow up quickly.

Thinking back, all these books had a tremendous impact on me and formed my character. Reading has made me what I am and I want every child to be a reader. You can be anyone and go anywhere in a book!

Thank you for indulging my nostalgia!