FIRST LOVES, OF BOOKS...

One of my many passions is reading... I have loved books and language and words for as long as I can remember, and that is quite a time now.

My mother taught me to read before I started school and I was totally entranced. Books became my companions, my teachers, my means of transporting myself through time, to far off places I could never imagine ever being able to go. They took me into worlds of fantasy, of adventure... I became a part of history and a part of the future. I belonged to anywhere I wanted to.

My first collection of books was, like most children of my era, the Golden Book series. They were first published in 1942 for the princely sum of 2s 6d or 25c. This made them far more accessible than the average children's books which were selling for around a £1 or $2.

My two favourites were Mister Dog and Up in the Attic...

and then I loved Nurse Nancy, which had real bandaids in it. The novelty soon wore off for poor mother who seemed to be forever replacing the bandaids that I had taken out and put on my dolls or my younger brother.

The companion book to Nurse Nancy was Doctor Dan...

Later on, the Giant Golden Book series was released... I don't remember having a lot of these, but I still have my favourite.. Elves and Fairies. To this day, the illustrations still fascinate me, I loved counting the fairies and looking for the elves and the various animals.

Then of course, a few others survive on my shelves today... much read and loved by my children and then my grandchildren...

My childhood memories revolve around my much loved books... no matter what was happening, I was never alone...