I am too young to remember those words....

...."Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin" when they were spoken on the radio by the BBC at the beginning of "Listen with Mother". However this was familiar to my parents, both of whom grew up in the 1950's, so it was second nature to them to begin any bedtime story when reading to my brother and I in the 1980's. Those words always made me snuggle down deeper under the covers, stop any fidgeting and made me feel safe and secure.

Hear it here

My mum would read Jane Austen and other classic novels, my favourite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice, and I often wonder if it's the memory of it being read to me that makes me love it so much. My Father would read us fantasy but more often than not he would tell us made up horror stories, which weren't really a sleep aid, but I loved them all the same.

My mother was and still is a bookworm, my father was less so given his dyslexia and lack of reading opportunities as a child. But he understood the importance of it, and I will never forget him reading The Hobbit to us.

My parents instilled of love of books in me that I have carried throughout the rest of my live. Now I am in my 30's I realise it's one of the most precious gifts they could have given me. Something I HOPE that I have given my children too.

So, my blog is in dedication to them; a "thank you" for surrounding me with books, a homage to all the hours I would spend sitting on bookshop floors waiting for my mother to decide which books we were taking home that day and an apology for all the late library book fines I managed to collect throughout the years.