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 well but they did encourage me to read.  I was sitting at my desk one Friday morning, bored. I went up to my boss, asked if I could take the afternoon off, I clocked out and headed for the bookshop and bought myself Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'. I'm not sure why I chose this book but I imagine it was the only one I had heard of as I was and still am a Kate Bush fan.  I went home and started reading it.  I sat in a chair in the dining room undisturbed and it left me breathless.  The following weekend my friend graduated from Cambridge and he encouraged me to go to university.  I had no qualifications other than secretarial and my family thought it was a waste of time - in fairness my mum was supportive as long as I could pay my rent but my grandparents, who ruled the family were quite contemptuous (to start with). 

Anyway, I did get to university - just.  It took me a couple more years - we lost our home and moved in with our grandparents 300 miles north and in between cleaning jobs and shelf stacking, I went to college (night school) and crammed a few GCSE's and A-level - taking all three A-levels in a year.  So I went to university a bit behind most of my peers, always playing catch up.  But I loved it.  I went on to study an MA too - in Holocaust Writing.  I did start a Ph.D in Women's War and Holocaust Writing but I never completed it.  I think I was a bit out of my depth to be honest.  In the meantime I have been bringing up my children and photographing and reading a lot.  So this blog is a way for me to write about the books I love - it's not about reviewing them - I am not a reviewer.  It's just putting my voice out there amongst millions of others.  I think it is also a way of filling my days as my children go off to university - and I suppose I am hoping that maybe one day I may return to my studies but in the meantime I shall read, write and enjoy literature all by myself.