My earliest reading memory
I loved a picture book called Story Number 1 by Eugène Ionesco. It showed a louche 1960s household where the mother and father have a great deal of high life and are always hungover. Their maid, Jacqueline, brings them in an enormous tray each morning on which, sandwiched between the ham, eggs, coffee and postcards, crouches their little girl.
My favourite book growing up
Insane for dancing as a child, I got hooked on Ballet Shoes. There was something about show business being the remedy for genteel poverty that greatly appealed. One evening I found Noel Streatfeild in the phone directory and rang her up!
