My Writing Journey

I have always read books. I read story books to my cousins when I was small and as I couldn’t really read when I was three or four years old I made up the stories to fit the pictures. As a child I loved comic books and read all I could buy or borrow. My mother always told me ‘if you read you are never lonely’. Mum was a reader. She loved history and the English language. She would disappear to her bedroom each afternoon to read. I always seemed to have a heaps of books to choose from in our home and I was allowed to read any book I wanted to. A treasured cache of books was found at my paternal grandmother’s house in an old trunk. Children’s books from the early years of the twentieth century; a lot from the twenties and thirties. Girls and Boys Own Annuals – the covers of which today are often seen on birthday cards. I read ‘Shirley Flight-Air Hostess.’ I saved my pocket money (given each week-no chores needed to be done to receive it!) and bought the series (all brand new books-what a treat!).A great source of reading when I was around twelve years old was the school library. A favourite book being ‘King Solomon’s Mines’. Once I discovered this book I read the other Rider Haggard books. I read all the books by the Brontes and lots of the classics. I read ‘The Woman in White’ by Wilkie Collins in one day. Heavens knows why my parents didn’t object when I read through breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the dining table, book propped up in front of me. As I ran away from home now and again when I was younger they probably thought at least they knew where I was now! Secondhand bookshops in Sydney and Kings Cross were visited regularly and I found many a still treasured book hidden on high up dusty shelves.
Next week I will write more about my love affair with books and my writer’s journey.