Newcastle University

How much contact did you have with books when you were younger?

Lots, I think really. I think we always had books to read at night. I think we went to bed to read, you know, we didn’t have to go to bed to go to sleep – we were supposed to put our lights out at a particular time, but we just went under the covers with a torch! [laughs] So I think, that was … we didn’t have a TV until I was about twelve, when my dad came home from working in Africa, so we went to bed to read, that’s what we did. I think we’re all readers in my family, so I think that’s probably where it came from. I don’t remember learning to read. My mum became a teacher when she was in her forties, and I think she probably taught me to read before I went to school, but I don’t remember learning to read, I just remember always being able to, so I must have done somewhere! We always went to the library every week and had library books, but we had a lot of books in the house as well, and we always got books for presents – like, you get an apple and an orange and a stocking or whatever, and you got the book. That wasn’t the main present, but you always got one! So yeah, always surrounded by them – very fortunate. I know a lot of the kids I taught never had any books in the house at all.