My mother encouraged me to read from a very early age and right from the beginning stories that were exciting and had a mystery to them were the ones I leaned towards.  Enid Blyton was my favourite writer as a child.  The Five Fine Outers were top of my list with the Famous Five and Secret Seven coming second and third.  These early readings had a marked influence of my adult type of reading and definitely make a showing when I’m weaving my own tales.

There is a book that I would love all children to read.  It’s about three children who discover a mysterious island.  It’s very gripping.  I used to read it over and over.  Unfortunately, fifty years on the title and the name of the author is lost to me in the mists of time but I live in hope that one day I will discover it again and delight in it’s pages.  Another book that made an impact of me as a child that I’d love other children to read, albeit it would be very old fashioned for them in this modern day an age, is a book called Wind Over the Moon.  It’s about two twins called Diana and Dorinda who have the magical power to change shape which helps them escape the never ending naughty scrapes they get into. Much to my delight, I recently came across this book in a second hand book shop and I am going to give it to my granddaughter when she is older as at 18 months she is already showing signs that she is going to take after her grandmother where reading books is concerned.

Agatha Christie.  The first I ever read of hers was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when I was about sixteen.  The book kept me gripped all the way through and I was just blown away when the actual murderer was revealed in the final pages and I never had a clue.  Her plots are actually very simple but it’s the way she leads you down wrongs paths with her numerous red herrings that are so hooking for me and I also like being transported back into a time that has now past and getting a sense of how it was like to live then.  I have her whole collection of books and although I have read them all several times I still now and again pick one up to read.

Charles Dickens also ticks all my boxes.  To me he was a genius in his ability to create such memorable characters, sense of place and gripping plots.  Unfortunately his books are written in old English and I just cannot read them so I’m so grateful that most, if not all his books, have been made into films so I can enjoy them that way.

Yes, I think it’s paramount to be able to bring alive in my mind the place the book is set in whether it’s a fictional place the writer had made up or a real live and kicking one.  For me the purpose of reading a book is to be living what the main character is going through and that includes my minds eye visualising their surroundings.

As an avid reader I constantly have a pile of books waiting for me to read.  I always read for at least an hour in bed at night.  It helps me to wind down.  My second favourite place to read is in the bath, constantly having to top up the hot water because I just have to read the next bit before I get out.   I read every word, worried I might miss something and never ever cheat and read the end until I reach the end or it spoils the story for me if I know what the outcome is.

Most of the writers I enjoy today have been recommended to me by family and friends so of course I return the favour.

I was incensed once when I settled down to watch a television version of Catherine Cookson’s the Dwelling Place which I had so enjoyed when I had read it only to discover that for me it was nothing like the book.  The main character was nothing like depicted in the book and neither was the setting.  

I happened to be in the company of a film producer when on a writers jaunt a few years back and we got onto this subject and he explained to me that it is very difficult to transfer the written word to the screen and most times the screen writer has to tweak it to get the story line across and of course modernisation has removed many places where the books are set and it’s very costly to recreate exactly the places by building sets so they improvise when they can get away with it.  The only film I have seen of I book I have read that was true to the book in every sense of how I pictured the characters and the settings was Gone with the Wind.  A wonderful book and a wonderful film.   I haven’t read the Harry Potter books but I am told by my daughter, who devours them, that the films are very true to the books in every sense.

I can remember the day my first book Evie was published in hardback very vividly.  I was at work, managing my staff and typing important reports for my boss.  So really it was no different from any other day for me.  I did now and again get this little thrill in so much that I’d achieved getting a book published.  I do remember being very worried that anyone who read it might not like it.  That concern hasn’t left me and to this day I still worry about that.

As I write this I am working my way through Sue Grafton’s books. I’d been meaning to try her books for a long time and finally did and was so annoyed with myself for not doing so before as they are so enjoyable.  I just love her style of writing, her sense of place and can really relate to her main character who’s a P’I in 1980’s America.   I am currently on O for Outlaw. P, Q and R  are waiting in my pile to read books when I have finished it.  I am also reading The Citadel by A J Cronin.  I have read it before, many years ago, and really loved it but I am revisiting now by way of research for the book I am currently writing which is based around a doctors surgery in the 1930’s.