I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to anyone to hear that the woman who became an anxious, over-thinking author started out as a shy, bookish little girl, will it?
The one thing I’ve noticed most authors have in common is that we all started out as bookworms… and I have a theory that the books we obsessed over in our formative years are at least partly responsible for shaping the people we become. Or, as Taylor Swift once said, “there wouldn’t be this, if there hadn’t been you…”
Here are just a few of the books that helped make me the author (and human!) I am…
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five
I’d always been a book lover, but it was The Famous Five that really ignited my love of reading. I was so obsessed with these books that my mum used to carry a list of the ones I’d already read around with her so she didn’t buy me a duplicate, and I was even a member of the Famous Five Fan Club at one point. I had a badge and everything. Yes.
I genuinely think discovering these books probably changed the trajectory of my life, not even joking. (Oh, and they also led to my very first ever published piece of writing, too, in the shape of this blog post, which was published as part of an anthology called ‘Twitter Titters’.)
I kept all of my original copies for my future children (even though I wasn’t actually planning on having any future children at that point), and have been reading some of them to Max lately — an event that has completely validated my decision to have children after all.
The ‘Secret’ and ‘Adventure’ Series
They’re not quite as well known as The Famous Five or Secret Seven, say, but Enid Blyton’s ‘Secret’ and ‘Adventure’ series also feature groups of children having highly improbable and yet wildly entertaining adventures, and they’re actually even better than The Famous Five in my opinion.
The Secret of Moon Castle and The Castle of Adventure were my absolute favourites, and are basically gothic mysteries for kids. I credit these books with kicking off my love of gothic literature, and my ongoing obsession with creepy castles and mysterious old houses…
The ‘Pony’ Era
As a pony-mad pre-teen, I’d read anything with a horse in it, but my favourites were Ruby Ferguson’s ‘Jill’ series, and Patricia Leitch’s ‘Jinny at Finmory’, which featured a girl with long red hair (just like mine!), who moved to Scotland (I live in Scotland!), and ended up the owner of a beautiful chestnut Arab mare called Shantih (my literal dream!).
I absolutely adored this series. I still think about it now, actally…
The Brontës
Once I’d graduated from pony books, I discovered the Brontë sisters, and never looked back. This was the start of my love of gothic romance: I wrote my high school English dissertation on Wuthering Heights, and also studied it at university. I can never quite decide whether Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre is my favourite, but I do know these books are probably part of my DNA at this point, and when we visited the Brontë parsonage in Haworth earlier this year, it blew my mind to think I was standing in the actual house my literary heroines lived in.
Buy the complete collection here
My Jane Austen era…
Can you even call yourself a rom com fan if you don’t love Jane Austen? I’m going with ‘no’. I love all of them, but Pride & Prejudice is my ultimate comfort read, and I will read/watch literally anything set in the Jane Austen universe. These books are basically my Roman empire, and I bought myself a gorgeous new box set of them earlier this year, which sits on my desk as a reminder than Jane Austen walked so future authors could run…
Forever Amber (of course!)
I couldn’t not mention Kathleen Windsor’s Forever Amber — it’s one of my mum’s favourite books, and although she didn’t name me after its heroine, Amber St. Clare, I did name this blog after the book, so…
Some other books that changed my life…
I got really into American literature at university, and mentioned all of these in my dissertation, although it was mostly focused on Jack Kerouac.
Just one of the best examples of gothic literature ever, and with the best opening line of all time.
Finally, as a rom com author, I couldn’t end this list without mentioning what are, in my opinion, two of the absolute best examples of the genre, and I will happily die on this hill.
Want more?
Check out the full list of the books that made me on my Amazon storefront!
