BYE THE BOOK?

Cast your mind back to when you were growing up – what did you do to fill in the gaps between eating, sleeping and annoying your teachers?

My brothers built treehouses and dredged slimy black eels from the creek near our house; my best friend played with her Barbie dolls; and the Catholic school boys careered up and down the street on their shiny Chopper bikes.

I read. I read obsessively, compulsively and joyously. I read in the bath, at the dinner table, in the long grass behind the shed while scratching the soft downy belly of my neighbour’s puppy. I was busted for reading under the duvet with a torch, for missing my