My earliest reading memory
When I was in junior school I used to read every night in bed before going to sleep. I had a little bookcase in my bedroom that I filled with the Biggles adventures by WE Johns and Agatha Christie novels. My mum was happy to buy me books. She always said that a house without books is a house without a soul. The initial appeal of these books was that they were short, but they took me to some wonderful places and added a splash of excitement to my life.
My favourite book growing up
I was around 10 years old when one day my teacher was ill and a very old man with a walking stick and a huge military moustache took the class. He read to us the Rudyard Kipling story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi about a mongoose that saves a family from snake attacks. I was transfixed. I had never had a book read to me by a proper storyteller. I can still remember the atmosphere he created to this day. I found the story to read for myself in The Jungle Book – I still have my copy somewhere in the attic. I remember it had beautiful colour illustrations that I ruined by drawing Hitler hairstyles on all the animals and characters.
The book that changed me as a teenager
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. It was the first book I had read that had a voice I could identify as having similar thoughts to myself. I reread it a couple of years ago and it didn’t resonate so much at all. It was me that had changed, not the book.
The writer who changed my mind
Probably Spike Milligan. As a teenager his books made me laugh like a drain and revealed to me for the first time that books could actually be funny. I hadn’t considered that to be part of the book-reading deal until then. I feel the same about Monty Python’s Big Red Book and Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat.
The book that made me want to become a writer
I suppose it was writing my autobiography And Away … in 2020 that made me want to have a stab at fiction because I enjoyed the process so much. I wanted to write a Murakami-style book but soon realised I didn’t have the skills, imagination or talent required. In my novel The Satsuma Complex I feature an extract from a fictional novel of the same name. This extract is actually from my first attempt to write a Murakami rip off. It is undoubtedly the worst bit of the book.
The book I reread
I have reread Three Men in a Boat on numerous occasions, mainly just to share some hours with a precious old friend. When I first read it I found Jerome’s hypochondria hilarious, I now find it perfectly reasonable and empathise thoroughly with his upset.
The book I could never read again
JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I just wouldn’t be as in awe of its bulk or so taken in by the magic and the fantasy. Shame really. I enjoy the films because I remain in awe of their length and confidence.
The book I discovered later in life
It’s 30-odd years since publication, but I only discovered The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami quite recently. It’s my favourite ever book and I doubt it will ever be defeated as far as my readings go. It’s all nonsense of course but I believe every single word that is written.
The book I am currently reading
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. I’m only 50 pages in, but already it has a lovely momentum and a gripping sense of foreboding.
My comfort read
Anything by Jonathan Coe, and if pure comfort is the aim, then his novel Mr Wilder & Me would be my pick.
