Newcastle University

How did you learn to read?

I was taught to read by my late mother, and I think she must have started when I was four-ish, maybe before. And it took the form of The Daily Express, where there were three illustrations – Rupert Bear. Under each was a little story, which she didn’t read, she read the rhyming couplet under each one, which was a précis of the longer story, and her finger used to follow along like that, and she used to read it, and I got to recognise words. I mean, you can recognise ‘that’, and you can recognise ‘Rupert’, and your vocabulary starts to increase.

You have a very clear memory of it, then?

Oh, crystal clear, crystal clear. Of my standing at her knee, with the newspaper like that [rustles paper]. Oh yes, yes.