Reading is both a pleasure and a distraction

It wasn't that I was prevented from reading anywhere else. On the contrary, I was taken to the public library when I was three years old, there were plenty of books in the house, and inevitably, books in the loo. But bedtime was sleep time. The bedroom light was switched off.  The door to the landing was left open, which is how I discovered reflection and refraction of light, without understanding the physics behind them. 
What did I read? Enid Blyton, of course. The adventures of the Famous Five, The Secret Seven, the girls at Malory Towers. The Chalet School books by Elinor Brent-Dyer. I read books set in boys' boarding schools as well, featuring Billy Bunter and Tom Merry, and the Biggles and Worrals books by Captain W. E Johns.  Aged nine, I read my first Agatha Christie murder mystery, now titled 'And Then There Were None', and was totally gripped. She is a brilliant plotter. 
In my teens, I became addicted to Georgette Heyer, one of those writers - P.G. Wodehouse is another - who created an entire, believable world with its own style and slang. Her Regency novels were diligently researched. But in general, where the past is concerned, I preferred, and still prefer novels written in their own time. I love Jane Austen (who doesn't?), George Eliot, Thackeray, Trollope, and Flaubert.
My favourite contemporary novelists are too many to mention. But they all have one thing in common. They are all, great story-tellers. 
It's what I aim to be as well.