Saucy hidden secret

CRAIG BROWn’S article about Lady Chatterley’s Lover brought back so many memories for me.

I was 14 at the time and I and my best friend Rosemary were eager to get our hands on the book after the furore of the 1959-60 obscenity trial.

This was beyond our means as mere schoolgirls and our parents would never have approved anyway. Luckily, we had a neighbour who had three teenage boys, the eldest of whom had a copy and offered to lend it to us if we kept it secret.

We used to race home from school to read each chapter of the book, which was hidden in Rosemary’s bedroom. But our mothers got to hear that we had a copy and, when we were at school, they searched Rosemary’s room.

We’d hidden it beneath the bottom drawer of her dressing table so that when they moved this piece of furniture, the book slid along with it. We thought we were clever.

Mind you, all I can recall years later is our skulduggery, rather than the book itself.