My earliest reading memory

My mother always read me a bedtime story, but by around age three, I was not looking at the pictures but reading the text. After that, I read to myself, and would read four books a week from the library.

My favourite book growing up

As a child I read Alison Goudge’s The Little White Horse, and the combination of history and gothic fantasy was very powerful for me. It’s realistic and charming and frightening without being nightmarish. It started my love of historical fiction, and has since become a family favourite for my own children.

The book that changed me as a teenager

They all did, I was a voracious reader. I really enjoyed Rudyard Kipling, and later went on to historical fiction, especially Georgette Heyer. I read all of Jane Austen’s novels early on and learned to love her economy of style and precision.…