My life in books

What childhood book sparked your love of reading? One that really stands out for me is Winnie-the-Pooh. I was given a hardback copy on my seventh birthday, and I still treasure it. The maps in the fro

Broadcaster and author Clare Balding shares the reads that have been her escape and inspiration

Novels, for me, have come from somewhere I wasn’t looking. In my twenties I was carrying an idea about a woman wandering around Ireland on a quest she didn’t understand and I sat in the Reading Room o

We have wandered many months through this land of Building Blocks. It is time for a break. Learning is a weary trek. And writing is not all about learning. Writing is about, well, writing. The doing o

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was my recent holiday read, and I loved it. It tells the story of lonely widow Tova, whose teenage son vanished 30 years ago. She works at a small aquari

Which childhood book first sparked your love of reading? I was a little bit of a mythical unicorn growing up – unlike everyone else I knew, my family never had a TV, so I spend a lot of my time readin