My earliest reading memory
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes terrified me as a child. It’s the macabre story of how a young girl, Karen, is condemned to dance for ever as a punishment for wearing red shoes to church. She ends up having her feet chopped off to make the dancing stop. As someone who loves to dance, this made me desperately sad. I’ve been very wary of “fairy stories” ever since.
My favourite book growing up
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre – it’s a wonderful love story and it was my grandmother’s favourite book when she was a child. She told stories of secretly climbing up into the hayloft to read it, her hems full of apples she’d scrumped from the orchard next door. I think I was especially drawn to the subtext that wit, warmth and courage can be more attractive than beauty.
