In terms of books, I had a pretty special childhood. My Mum was a children’s librarian so she made sure my sister and I had the right books at the right age. There were disadvantages – no comics, although we were allowed Tintin books (I used to read Mickey Mouse and so on at friends’ houses, or at the doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room).
My Mum was, not surprisingly, an inveterate quoter of lines from kids’ books – her own favourites were Alice In Wonderland (so many lines ending with “…said Alice”) and Winnie The Pooh, from which her favourite was (when Pooh was offered a choice of two things) – “Both”, said Pooh.
As I get older and less able to remember what happened 5 minutes or 5 days ago I find myself often remembering and quoting lines from books I read 50-60 years ago. The current one, as I am doing a lot of cooking, much from Ottolenghi’s books which seem to require honey every second recipe, is “Ramona never minded being sticky”. I find myself saying this when I wash my sticky hands for the umpteenth time – I don’t have OCD or anything but fuck I » Continue Reading.