My early reading life

On Friday afternoons at Middle Street School, our headmaster would smoke his pipe and do a general knowledge quiz with us.

I liked the sweet smell of his pipe smoke (this was the 1970s) and of success: I was good at quizzes.

“It’s not fair, Miss. Alex has got books!” complained a classmate to our teacher.

When I reported this to my mother, she was sad for my classmate but a little proud too. We may have been poor in many people’s eyes but we were rich in books as my mother was a second-hand book dealer.

My mother took me to story sessions at Brighton children’s library on Saturday mornings when I was 2. I remember Sam Pig by Alison Uttley and the Beatrix Potter books.

At home, my mum read me The Isle of Cats illustrated by Gerard Hoffnung, the Dr Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming. But my favourites were:

Winnie the Pooh (with decorations by EH Shepherd)

Winnie the Pooh was one of the first films I saw in 1966.

Wind in the Willows (illustrated by Arthur Rackham)

My favourite line from Wind in the Willows was Toad’s “I’ll bash ’em and bash ’em and bash ’em!” but the line is actually “I’ll whack ’em and whack ’em and whack ’em.”

So is this a false memory on my behalf or did my mother edit Kenneth Grahame because she didn’t approve of corporal punishment?

Professor Branestawm (illustrated by Heath Robinson)

Professor Branestawm was my favourite. I loved these stories so much that I wrote one myself at school. My teacher with her know-it-all red pen corrected my spelling of Professor Branestawm. She probably thought Norman Hunter played for Leeds! When I won a English Composition prize at school, I chose The Peculiar Triumph of Professor Branestawm.

Books are for reading

These books, I now realise, were highly collectable, but lacking dust jackets, so I can only assume that they were not in good enough condition to sell! They are very battered copies now but I was always told to treat books with respect. They could be stock after all! I was always encouraged to use a bookmark and not to crease the pages. It would never have occurred to me to write in my books. Even at university I found it sacrilege to deface a text.

Reading age

I had a good reading age by the time I went to school. This led to some frustration too, as the books were boring. We were asked to read Janet and John books in silent reading. I would approach the teacher’s desk saying I’d finished. I was told to go and read it again. And again. And again. I made this dreary trudge several times.

The teacher read us Enid Blyton and Little Black Sambo. I was caught mimicking the teacher behind her back and I was sent out of class. I still stand by my early literary judgement!

Football crazy

Later I was able to borrow any books that I liked. I’m not sure my mother entirely approved of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Spurs by Jimmy Greaves and Shooting To The Top, the autobiography of Rodney Marsh. I read Brian Glanville’s History of Association Football and remember the story of Bill Foulkes, the 36-stone goalkeeper of Sheffield United. I also read On the Ball City, Ted Bell’s 1972 history of Norwich City.

Apart from football books I didn’t read a lot as a child. This didn’t change until I decided at the age of 14 I wanted to be a writer.

Give a book to a young child

Each month, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (UK) posts a high-quality, age-appropriate book to children from birth to age 5. The books are specially wrapped and addressed to the child, and are delivered at no cost to the family.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (UK)

Next week: my reading life as a student