LEGACY OF CHILDHOOD

MANY OF US who enjoyed some years of childhood before our world blew up in August 1914 had the inestimable advantage of being born into a family where books and reading were of paramount importance. Learning to read myself at an early age, because for one thing I was finding the books read aloud to younger members of the family too childish, but also because I as the eldest was encouraged to take on the task of reading aloud, throughout my life I have never escaped the ‘fascination of the printed page’.