"My earliest reading memory is The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss, particularly the little red fan the cat holds in the tip of its tail. At the age of five, I was reading The Famous Five, getting to grips with Enid Blyton's most complex characters, Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin."
"C.S. Lewis's lucky strike was to come up with the idea that a wardrobe was the portal to another world. Although she terrified me, I wanted to meet the White Witch, who rode on a sleigh pulled by white reindeer."
"Cheri by Colette introduced themes of sex and sadness about ageing and desire, which I didn't quite understand aged 14, and because it was set in France, which I had never visited."
"Around my 40s it seemed to me that the late great JG Ballard had found an intellectually entertaining way to air his preoccupations and obsessions in his later fiction."
Early reading experiences included Dr. Seuss and Enid Blyton, contrasting with the realities of apartheid South Africa. C.S. Lewis's imaginative storytelling in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe captivated the imagination. Cheri by Colette introduced themes of desire and aging during teenage years. JG Ballard's later works provided a social critique that influenced personal writing style. These literary encounters fostered a deeper appreciation for storytelling and character complexity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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