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I cannot remember a time when I did not read. The actual sensation, whatever the content, is very important to me. To my mother’s disappointment, as soon as I learnt to read I did not want to be read aloud to – and to this day I cannot stand audio books.
I discovered The Lives of the Young Composers in my school library when I was about six and read them over and over and over. I cannot think why (see my answer on music below!). I still know the first two pages of The Young Beethoven off by heart. I graduated to all the children’s classics, and then on to teenage angst like I Capture the Castle when I was about 14. I wallowed in misery through Grahame Greene when I was at university.
I now read all the time – anything available, from the back of the cereal packet to Dostoyevsky. I am panic stricken if I am ever somewhere where there is nothing to read. For poetry, it is Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Herbert, both of whom reduce me to tears. I reread a great deal and I am always surprised when people think this is strange; I cannot see the difference between rereading a book (odd) and relistening to music (normal).
I was brought up in a very bookish, aesthetically aware but silent house and my regret now is that I have ill-informed and random musical tastes. Despite my best efforts, I have only ever really been reached emotionally by Gregorian chants and Edith Piaf. I am not proud of it. But I do like lyrics which, once heard, I retain such that I can still recall them years later.
Films: The Third Man; Schindler’s List’. Paintings: anything by Fernand Leger; Raeburn’s ‘The Skating Minister’; Chardin’s still lives; Vermeer’s interiors (especially the tiled floors); Gwen John; Winifred Nicholson. These all just came to mind; there are so many others which, once seen, linger for ever in the hinterland and subliminally change the way I see things.
The grey landscapes of Norfolk where I grew up remain in my blood. My father always said Norfolk started at Liverpool Street Station and that is true for me; I get a lump in my throat as I approach it. Bryher in the Scilly Islands where my husband and I return most years, and which truly feels as isolated as it is ever possible to be in the internet age. Of course the Temple, where I have spent my working life, with its strong feeling of history. When I turn off Fleet Street at night and the gate at the top of Middle Temple Lane closes behind me, I feel I am home in every sense of the word.
My essential for a mid-trial stayover is a small beanbag rabbit, bought for me by my husband 30 years ago and who has slept with me ever since. (The rabbit, though my husband has too.)
I cannot remember a time when I did not read. The actual sensation, whatever the content, is very important to me. To my mother’s disappointment, as soon as I learnt to read I did not want to be read aloud to – and to this day I cannot stand audio books.
I discovered The Lives of the Young Composers in my school library when I was about six and read them over and over and over. I cannot think why (see my answer on music below!). I still know the first two pages of The Young Beethoven off by heart. I graduated to all the children’s classics, and then on to teenage angst like I Capture the Castle when I was about 14. I wallowed in misery through Grahame Greene when I was at university.
I now read all the time – anything available, from the back of the cereal packet to Dostoyevsky. I am panic stricken if I am ever somewhere where there is nothing to read. For poetry, it is Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Herbert, both of whom reduce me to tears. I reread a great deal and I am always surprised when people think this is strange; I cannot see the difference between rereading a book (odd) and relistening to music (normal).
I was brought up in a very bookish, aesthetically aware but silent house and my regret now is that I have ill-informed and random musical tastes. Despite my best efforts, I have only ever really been reached emotionally by Gregorian chants and Edith Piaf. I am not proud of it. But I do like lyrics which, once heard, I retain such that I can still recall them years later.
Films: The Third Man; Schindler’s List’. Paintings: anything by Fernand Leger; Raeburn’s ‘The Skating Minister’; Chardin’s still lives; Vermeer’s interiors (especially the tiled floors); Gwen John; Winifred Nicholson. These all just came to mind; there are so many others which, once seen, linger for ever in the hinterland and subliminally change the way I see things.
The grey landscapes of Norfolk where I grew up remain in my blood. My father always said Norfolk started at Liverpool Street Station and that is true for me; I get a lump in my throat as I approach it. Bryher in the Scilly Islands where my husband and I return most years, and which truly feels as isolated as it is ever possible to be in the internet age. Of course the Temple, where I have spent my working life, with its strong feeling of history. When I turn off Fleet Street at night and the gate at the top of Middle Temple Lane closes behind me, I feel I am home in every sense of the word.
My essential for a mid-trial stayover is a small beanbag rabbit, bought for me by my husband 30 years ago and who has slept with me ever since. (The rabbit, though my husband has too.)
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