My earliest reading memory
The Ladybird key words series. My parents bought a lot of picture books for me, but I was more interested in their books. I remember thumbing through novels long before I could recognise more than a few words on each page.
My favourite book growing up
Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty and Eddie Iroh’s Without a Silver Spoon moved me to tears. I adored the Sherlock Holmes stories for how they held me in thrall long after I’d closed the books. I remember reading The Hound of the Baskervilles while I was in primary school and thinking it was the best thing I’d ever read. It outdid The Adventure of the Speckled Band, which had been my favourite Arthur Conan Doyle mystery until then.
