Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

Journalist Lucy Mangan married a fellow bookworm, and she hopes her young son will become one too, because she feels books made her the person she is today. This is a life told through books, starting with The Very

Hungry Caterpillar and Janet and John readers, and progressing to Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, CS Lewis and Judy Blume, to name but a few. All the old favourites are here, and many less well-known treasures too. Mangan’s memoir is funny and engaging, and she adds plenty of background: why and how writers write the way they do and which illustrators made a difference to which stories. On the downside, the cramming in of footnotes because she just can’t bear to leave anything out should be endearing, but it’s not. ■