Pat Barker: ‘When I first read Pride and Prejudice, I hated it’
The author on reimagining Homer, the sexiness of John Donne’s sonnets, and what she’s learned from Margaret Atwood
My earliest reading memory
Four years old, teaching myself to read with a girls’ school annual my grandad brought back from a jumble sale. One of the stories involved a lacrosse match between two girls’ boarding schools. I pestered the adults to give me words, marking my progress in thick green crayon, and by the time I got to the end of the book, I could read, more or less.
My favourite book growing up
Biggles Flies West by WE Johns. Or north, or south, or east. Biggles got around a lot and, wherever he went, I followed. I can’t remember anything about the books, but I do remember the excitement I felt when I looked along the library shelf and found one I hadn’t read.
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