Books in my life

It was an illustrated Alphabet Book, given to my by my cousin who was much the same age – about two years old.  Which means, of course, that the book was actually chosen and given to me by my aunt. 
Aged three, I became a member of the town library. Which means, of course, my mother enrolled me and helped me choose the books I borrowed.
When I graduated from picture books to all-text, the books I remember include ‘Swallows and Amazons’, given to me when I was in bed with tonsillitis,  ‘Huckleberry Finn’– a Christmas present. (My younger brother got ‘Tom Sawyer’ and I remember thinking it was a better book and wishing I had got it instead.) And ‘The Wind in the Willows’ read and re-read several times. I can still recite from memory the opening words: “The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs….”
I was about eight years old when I read, and was entralled by, Agatha Christie’s ‘Then There Were None" (which had a different, later rightly deemed unacceptable, title in the 1950s). It was the very definition of a ‘page turner’. I still think Agatha Christie a champion story-teller.  I loved reading in bed. When the bedroom light was turned off, I manoevred the mirror on the wardrobe door so that reflected light from the landing could shine on whatever I was currently reading. I read the Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton, and the Chalet School series by Elinor Brent Dyer. I also read boys’ boarding school books about Jennings, and Billy Bunter, and wartime adventures by Captain W. E. Johns about pilot Biggles and commando Gimlet. When, aged ten,I went to boarding school, I read by torchlight under the bedclothes after lights-out. I was a fan of the ‘Worrals’ books (about a female ‘Biggles’).
In my early teens I discovered the incomparable Georgette Heyer. With the exception of P. G. Wodehouse (another favourite) I can’t think of another author who created a whole world with its own codes and slang. Her Regency world was, still is for me, captivating and believable. She was an excellent plotter and her books were full of humour.
I liked crime books. Agatha Christie, of course, the 87th Precinct crime series by Ed McBain, books by Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Wentworth and Marjorie Allingham. I remember being gripped by Ira Levin’s ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ and ‘This Perfect Day’. The latter not a detective story but a dystopian future Uptopia. "Jesus, Marx, Wood and Wei lead us to this perfect day.” Chilling.
Other books I recall discovering and loving through my late teens and early twenties include the Mary Renault novels set in ancient Greece, and all the novels by the trend-setting mistress of romantic suspense, Mary Stewart. The latter definitely influenced my own writing. She herself confessed to being strongly influenced by Mary Renault. 
The unforgettable, unputdownable book that I read first in my twenties is ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne’ by Brian Moore. I became and remained a huge admirer of his work. I have read all his novels. He could write convincingly and movingly from a female perspective like no other male writer, except perhaps, Flaubert. I was fortunate to meet Brian Moore and interview him for the BBC N.I. TV series ‘The Interview’.(He told me it was the best interview he had ever done.) Writers I discovered around the same time: Muriel Spark. ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ is, for me, her best novel, but I’ve enjoyed all her books I’ve read; Graham Greene is a superb novelist. The first book of his I read is one I still re-read from time to time - "The Quiet American", set in 1960s Vietnam. Still relevant today. 
Another book I re-read is 'The Good Soldier" by Ford Madox Ford. A dazzling marvel of construction. 
My favourite classics? I love Jane Austen, especially ‘Persuasion’,‘”Pride and Prejudice” and ‘Emma”. George Eliot’s “Middlemarch’’ is magnificent. “David Copperfield” is the Dickens novel I like and remember best. I love Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”. And Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”. 
Above my desk, I have three shelves of poetry books, a shelf of stage plays, and a shelf containing books about writing – advice and insights from novelists and critics – and the complete works of Shakespeare.