Movies and TV were always my thing. My father had a VHS and DVD rental store, so it was just my bread and butter for entertainment. I binged it when I was a kid because I literally had everything as available to me as this generation has to online streaming. It’s only since I became a mother and practiced reading with my daughter that I even took joy in reading. I had to do it a bit in school, and there were a few books I loved as a teenager, but I was honestly in my thirties before I learnt how to consume a book with the same joy and patience as I had learnt with TV and Film.
Without influence, my first child was very much like Roald Dahl’s Matilda. She would read at school, at home, and the teacher would comment, while I didn’t even realise it was actually uncommon. My husband is an avid reader, and I suppose he inspired her, but since she became a teenager, she has taken great joy in recommending books to me. It’s been a great bonding experience, and since I took up writing, I've used her as my sounding board. She is beautifully honest, and with no pity or phased sympathy, she genuinely loves talking about my characters and books with me. I even wrote EQUINOX entirely for her because as soon as I told her the rough concept of it, she would not stop asking questions about it.
So that’s a long explanation of our shared hobby of reading and buying books together. For every trip we take down to London, we always visit the five floored Waterstones on Gower Street. But we made our trip to Edinburgh all about books. We hit the Book Festival, did a bit of the Fringe Festival. We squeezed in a bit of sightseeing and an underground ghost trail tour. But we made sure to pack light so we could find some books together. We found the two cutest independent stores.
In Ginger and Pickles Children’s Bookshop, I found an imported edition of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, with orange text and illustrations. It was one of my favourite Dahl books, and I had to stop myself from buying all the other editions.
Across the road was Golden Hare Books, where I got a copy of Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono. I’m currently reading Howl’s Moving Castle, so the Studio Ghibli influence was strong. When my daughter was younger, she rented Wonder by RJ Palacio from the library three times, but never owned it. She found a yellow clothbound Puffin Classic edition here too.
We got a hell of a lot more. Returning with fifteen books between us, which was no easy feat, stretched between our backpacks. Not only that we have a great time. I believe Edinburgh is the most beautiful city in the UK, and my daughter agrees. The only problem is she’s set her sights on university there, which is a six-hour drive from home or a three-hour train ride. Oh, no.
