Sunday 14 October 2012

The Books That Shaped My Youth

A (non-exhaustive) list of the books that influenced me as I was growing up:

The Usborne Book Of Words To Read by Carol Watson, illustrated by Colin King.



A picture book with words dotted all over it, so you learn, surprisingly enough, words.  This follows the daily activities of a family, in the home, at the shop and in the town.

This was one of many learn-to-read books we had around when I was a kid. Most, if not all, belonged to my brothers and were hand-me-downs by the time I got hold of them (or possibly I just stole them for myself). For some reason, this particular book resonated with me and (despite the fact that one page had been completely shredded by The Brother and meticulously stuck back together by The Mother) I continued to read this book many year after I had outgrown it, which almost certainly looked really odd to anyone else. But a supply of drawings without narrative was something I eagerly lapped up, from baby books to catalogues, because it gave me the chance to use The Imagination.  When playmates or toys were absent, I was still able to make up stories.  Without these many (lonely? pathetic?) hours of The Childhood, I may never have become a writer.

As an adult, I do still own this book for sentimental reasons, though obviously I have no reason to read it.

The Tale Of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter.

A frog does a spot of fishing and nearly gets eaten.

One of the first things I ever saw as an infant was the Tales Of Beatrix Potter ballet. I guess we had it recorded off the TV and I used to watch it repeatedly. We also had a small selection of Beatrix Potter's books, some new, some second-hand, plus I used to watch that TV show of Beatrix Potter, so I was pretty heavily immersed in the universe from the get-go. I was mesmerised by the Tales Of Beatrix Potter ballet, and particularly fascinated by the Jeremy Fisher section. I'm not sure why Jeremy Fisher was my favourite as such, but I'm pretty sure it was based on the ballet more than the book, because the book has an extra bit at the end not featured in the ballet, and I'm much less familiar with this part of the narrative. All these years later, it is actually the Two Bad Mice that is most fixed in my mind from the ballet. I can't handle a piece of cutlery without getting a sense memory to Tom Thumb sharpening his knives together. I think one of the things that I liked about Jeremy Fisher was there was water on the floor of his house which is a level of detail you don't really expect in a ballet (plus he was a cool dancer).  The ballet and the books became one in The Mind.  Potter’s anthropomorphism of animals was exactly the kind of detail that hooked me.  Fisher’s boat is a lily pad, his fishing rod is a ‘tough stalk of grass’ and the line ‘a fine long white horse-hair’.  It’s pretty dramatic too which impressed The Young Mind.  Beatrix Potter was my first taste of drama, action and horror.


Jeremy Fisher was The Favourite Literary Character when I was seven.
As an adult, I still have about three Beatrix Potter books that I think are the best ones, Jeremy Fisher, Two Bad Mice and... um... I can't remember. Peter Rabbit maybe.

The Church Mice Books by Graham Oakley.

Large picture books with incredibly intricately detailed drawings.  They follow the adventures of Arthur and Humphrey, leaders of the church mice, and the long suffering cat Sampson who has vowed not to eat them.

We had three of these, The Church Mouse, The Church Mice At Bay and The Church Mice At Christmas. I believe they were probably library-sell-offs and belonged to The Brothers. But they were the greatest picture books I ever saw in my entire life. Pretty much after reading these, I despised all other picture books for being so bland. The drawings are so detailed that I often spent hours lost in them, each tiny character having their own individual thoughts and experiences.  This showed me that every character, every person has a life and plot, even if we’re not focused on it, and changed my perception of story telling forever because it eradicates the idea of a black and white universe.  Every character does things for a reason.  Added to this, the humour is delicious, with a dryness that I incorporated into myself. I later got The Church Mice And The Ring to add to our collection.

As an adult, I have managed to hunt down all of Graham Oakley's books and most of them are works of genius.

Kingfisher Field Guide To The Mammals Of Britain & Europe by John A. Burton, illustrated by William Oliver and Guy Troughton. 

A book with drawings of mammals and little fact lists about them.

I don't know why or how I got this, but it began The Obsessive Need To Know Stuff Other People Don’t Necessarily Know.  I never actually read the paragraphs of writing, just looked at the pictures and handy fact file on each page.  The relations between animals fascinated me, such as the otter and badger are of the weasel family.  I would carry this book around with me so I would always know more about European mammals than anyone else in the room. Despite not actually reading the damn book, I used to take it to school with me so I could prove various animal facts to other children. Bet that really endeared me to them.

I also once thought it would be funny to put an egg between the pages of the book. I have no idea why I thought this was funny, but I was wrong, the egg cracked, gluing the pages together and now I can’t read about wolves or feral dogs.  Stupid egg.

As an adult, I still own this because I intend to actually read it one day.

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White.

Wilbur the pig finds out what happens to pigs on farms.  Only Charlotte, the intelligent spider in his sty, can come up with a plan to save her friend’s life.

Don't recall when or where I got this book - it was one of four children's novels (along with Tom's Midnight Garden, Ozma Of Oz and Freaky Friday) that I simply seem to have always owned. I don't recall them being hand-me-downs, or bought second-hand from the library, or books that I asked for on a birthday. They just have always been on my bookshelf. Anyway, I chose to become a vegetarian by the time I was six years old, and generally the parents reacted to this by wearing HAZMAT suits and charging admission to the freak show (that may have just been The Father, The Mother at least allowed me the freedom to make this choice), so it was exhilarating to find a story against pig murder. Finally I wasn't alone! It also introduced me to the concept that fiction can be more affecting than reality.  It made me cry.

As an adult, I still like this book. I was surprised when I tried to read Stuart Little which could not be more different in style. Unsure which book represents what White's usual writing style is like.

Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.

Part ghost story, part time travel adventure, this is a beautifully compelling tale.  When the clock strikes thirteen, the bin yard outside is transformed into an enormous Victorian garden where lonely Tom can play, but he can’t touch anything and only one little girl can see or hear him.

Like nothing else I had read, this was evocative and atmospheric.  Reading this book really was like travelling to another world, and it completely absorbed me when I opened it.  Meanwhile, it is about loneliness and freedom, which was very relatable for me as a child. We later had to 'study' this in Junior School, but I was long since familiar with the book because as mentioned above it was one of those ones that I simply seem to have always owned.

As an adult, I still love this book. One of my favourites. Have read a few of Pearce's other books, which are okay, but not like this.

The Animals Of Farthing Wood Novels by Colin Dann.

Developers are building over Farthing Wood and the animals must escape or die.  The unlikely band form a truce and travel across country to the fabled Nature Reserve.

I first knew about The Animals Of Farthing Wood like most other children of the 90s, through the CBBC cartoon show, which would have appealed to The Vegetarian Nature (like Charlotte’s Web). There was also an accompanying magazine series that I continued to get long after I had stopped watching the cartoon. For one of my birthdays, 9th or 10th I think, one of my best friends (The Butler) gave me a completely random book in the series, The Siege Of White Deer Park. I quickly got all the other books in the series. At this time, The Mother read to me every night, so she read these books to me and I made her change the genders of the characters to fit those in the TV show, which must have been a nightmare for her. But at some point my allegiance switched, and I began to loathe the cartoon for being inaccurate to the books. This may have coincided with the show killing off Badger (badgers were my favourite animal) when he clearly survives in the books, but I feel like I had actually stopped watching before that. This was my first experience of ‘the book is better than the adaptation’, this opened The Eyes to a world of literature that I felt I must defend, to the irritation of everyone. I became a crusader for 'the book is better', constantly correcting other children in the playground and getting pretty hot-headed about certain Disney cartoons as well. (The Mother was unable to read The Fox Cub Bold without sobbing, so I think this is what set me off on just reading to myself!)

As an adult, I still like The Animals of Farthing Wood, though the writing is a little clumsy at times. The sequels however are not worth going back to.

The Garfield Super Selection by Jim Davis

A big hardback book containing a selection of Garfield strips and illustrations that roughly follow a year from beginning to end.

Again, no idea why I had this book. Pretty sure it was the first Garfield thing I owned, although I got quite a few more books afterwards, as well as a calendar, toys and video. Where The Church Mice had helped me develop a dry sense of humour, Garfield developed The Sarcasm.  The Admiration of Garfield led me to watch Garfield’s Nine Lives, which heavily influenced The Writing in Junior School, particularly the dark one about the cat that’s in a laboratory.  Meanwhile this book gave me a life philosophy: ‘I’m not materialistic, I just love owning things!’ and it was the first place I ever heard the phrase ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life’ which totally blew The Mind.

As an adult, I moved on from Garfield a long time ago, though I still has a slight soft spot for him.

Word Box by Gyles Brandreth.

A book about words. 

Another 'hand-me-down' ie this belonged to The Brother and I liked it so much that I stole it for myself. Eventually it disintegrated because I read it so often. Through this book I became a fan of the English language.  I also used it to make up my own stories (like Words To Read) and to appear clever in front of other children (like The Mammals Of Britain & Europe).

As an adult, not sure whether I still have this or not, as I said, it fell into pieces. It's very much aimed at children so not really one to enjoy as an adult but not sure whether I could face putting it in the bin.

The Story Of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson, illustrated by Nick Sharratt.

Written from the perspective of Tracy, a ‘problem’ child living in care.

I originally got this from the library, renting it out repeatedly. Eventually I bought it second-hand from the library, although it was a different edition which was missing one illustration. I think at first I mostly just liked it due to the questionnaire section at the start, which I used to make up my own stories yet again. But when I did actually bother reading the novel, this book introduced me to the concept of an unreliable narrator, a mind-bending, story-redefining discovery. When my parents split up, and since Wilson writes a lot of stories about children from broken homes, I was encouraged to read many of her other books, but I never really liked any of the others.

As an adult, I probably appreciate this book more than I did as a kid.

Red Dwarf Novels by Grant Naylor.

The adventures of the last survivor of the human race three million years in deep space, trying to get back home.

The Mother was a fan of Red Dwarf from when it started in the 80s and introduced the rest of the family to the show. I was very young, so mostly only aware of it through the one video we had of three season 3 episodes, but I can clearly remember loving the show despite not understanding it way back in Junior School. The Brother later got the books. The first two novels came out around season 3 I think and are pretty much peak Red Dwarf. The seasons that followed recycled ideas from the novels. I was absolutely obsessed with the TV show for a while, particularly season 5. Grant Naylor split some time between 93 and 97, writing a third Red Dwarf book each, one of which was the most horrifying thing I ever read, and then when the show came back in 1997, it wasn't any good any more, so while I still claimed to be a huge fan, it was mostly retrospectively. I read the novels about the time I was starting to write a lot at Senior School, and unfortunately, these really, really influenced my own style (particularly the darker, creepy two third novels).  I basically spent a couple of years rewriting Red Dwarf.

As an adult, I think that the first two Red Dwarf novels are genuinely excellent SF novels. I wouldn't touch the other two books with a barge pole and I have mostly gone off the TV show over the years, apart from season 1.

Horrible Histories Series by Terry Deary.

Y’know, very basic history books for kids, full of cartoons, jokes and stories about all the gross or horrific stuff designed to make history fun.

Don't know when I started reading these, but I soon had a huge collection. Gave me my fascination with history and I would carry them around to help me say smart things. Was still reading them in college when I was way too old for them.

As an adult, I heard Terry Deary reading his books and realised that I had totally misconstrued the tone. I thought they were completely deadpan but they are actually supposed to be super wacky. As such, it completely killed my liking of them and I suddenly saw how little educational value there was under all the frosting.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Jane Eyre is an orphan who becomes the governess at a creepy mansion.

This story fascinated me the first time I saw a TV film, and read the abridged children’s version that The Mother owned until it fell apart from overuse (I had no idea this was the abridged version at the time). Finally in college I actually read the proper version. That scene when Mr Rochester is in bed and it’s on fire and Jane saves him…   This was the first time I was interested in the romantic angle of a story and I’ve never escaped this idea of romance ever since, while the characters heavily influenced the ones I write about.

As an adult, this is my favourite novel.

The Original Illustrated Strand Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

All the stories and novellas about Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson solving cases.

At the end of Senior School, we put on a Sherlock Holmes play. I was cast as Colonel Sebastian Moran, so I decided to read some of the books as research (stealing from The Brothers once again), I immediately fell in love and ended up despising the play because it was such an inaccurate, populist adaptation. I think I bought this particular book at the Portsmouth Museum, which has a Conan Doyle exhibition because he wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story in Portsmouth. I read every single story bar the last one because I didn't want to live in a world where there would be no more Sherlock Holmes stories to look forward to! These were my first real interest in books that weren’t either aimed at children, factual or adaptations/originals of something I had seen on TV.  It helped define who I was in The Late Teens.

As an adult, I have never actually reread the Sherlock Holmes stories. I have read a lot of Doyle's writing and it isn't really my thing so much these days so I can never be bothered to read Sherlock Holmes again.

So that is how I grew up and why I write how I write.

(Apologies to the hundreds of books I have forgotten to mention.)

What books influenced you when you were growing up?


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