A Dweller in the Land of Books...

I confess that when I was little I wanted to be one of two characters, Pippi Longstocking or Harriet the Spy. There were many strikes against these ambitions as I didn't own a monkey (though one of our neighbours had one - it wore diapers and had a bad temper) didn't have shocking red hair, my own house, or in Harriet's case a series of mysterious circumstances to investigate - though I did spend a great deal of time wandering through the school playground staring down at gum wrappers and looking for clues. Books, from my earliest memory have been my joy, my escape and my salvation. I have never been a traveller but I could go anywhere and be anyone in my imagination. Even now...there are treasured favourites I return to again and again when I need to find a place of comfort and certain authors who have made me forget - for hours at a time - any petty worries that confounded me. Anything by Kate Atkinson. Gerald Durrell, Sue Townsend, Alice Munro...give me five minutes with any one of the complete series of Adrian Mole and I am rolling on the floor. Human Croquet, a Kate Atkinson masterpiece, has some of the funniest and most poignant moments in any book I have ever read. So here is to books - and the gentle souls who find solace in their pages.