Newcastle University

What do you think that books meant to you when you were younger?

I think they were effectively a key to a different world, a bit of escapism from everyday. Especially the facts that I read, wherein you discovered that people actually did these things – they weren’t [just] writing about them, they actually did them, and they’re telling you what they did. Could I do it? I don’t know. Would I like to have done it? Probably. Did I find it exciting? I certainly did. And it’s … there are many things that books provide. They provide inspiration, confirmation, comfort. Thousands of things. When you open a book, it just takes you into a different world, a really different world.