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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Interview: Bookbag Talks To Stephanie Pain (view source)
Revision as of 08:25, 24 May 2011
, 08:25, 24 May 2011no edit summary
* '''BB: What were your three favourite books as a child?'''
SP: That's impossible to answer. I read just about everything I could lay my hands on – mostly books from the library. I was enchanted by ''The Borrowers'' and loved ''The Family From One End Street''. But animals were definitely a theme. I related to Ratty and Mole ([[Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame|The Wind in the Willows]]), liked the idea of talking to the animals (''Doctor Doolittle'') and wanted to be Gerald Durrell ([[My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell|My Family and Other Animals]]). As you can tell, I wasn't much good at arithmetic.
The only childhood books I still have are the ''Observer's Books of Birds, Wildflowers and Weather'' and my most treasured volume, the still exceedingly beautiful ''Concise British Flora in Colour''. The Rev. William Keble Martin spent 60 years working on it – which impressed the 9-year-old me as much as the wonderful paintings. My parents clearly thought it was an odd thing to ask for as a Christmas present – but they hunted it down and bought it anyway.
