Introduction. I have loved reading and writing since I was a child. I hated school and one of the ways they bribed me to go was that I was allowed to sit and read in the reading room for the morning - just me and books. This was in primary school - I wrote the odd poem and at secondary school I joined the poetry club - not for very long as it wasn't a very popular club in our school. At home I never had books - we were a single parent family and books just were not a priority. My mum was busy bringing us up and working in a bar, so we never went to libraries or was encouraged with literature - I think our lives had already been mapped out. I was terrible for going to school, I came out of without any qualifications and if got on to the YTS to do secretarial work, then I was a success. And that is what happened. It's not a criticism, it's just a fact. At 18 I had a breakdown and joined a religious sect - that's a story for another day which didn't end...