In hindsight, my favourite book as a child is very telling…

I was a girl in search of a mother, the same way the little bird in the story was.

I was a prolific and quick reader as a child – I would often read a book a day, more on weekends. I loved the Famous Five and Secret Seven series’, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl. I was drawn to sci-fi and fantasy books, although there wasn’t a lot in that genre in the 1970s and 1980s – I read a lot of fairy tales instead.

I stopped reading as leisure once I started university – I had the pleasure of books beaten out of me after six years of hard slog, and I’ve never really got back into the habit of reading.

Instead, I love to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. I love to be read to. Where I used to read, now I pop in my headphones and multi-task.