My earliest reading memory
The Brambly Hedge books by Jill Barklem were my first real loves; I was five. They left me with a lifelong yearning for punch made from crab apples.
My favourite book growing up
Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones. She is, I think, one of the finest writers for children; her books are oxygenated by her refusal to talk down to them. You could recognise her voice at 50 paces. There’s a story that her publisher asked her to make significant changes to the book – she agreed, cut up the typed manuscript and taped it back together again, unchanged: they thanked her and said it was perfect. It always had been.
