Libraries are crucial

I thoroughly enjoyed Father Leslie Adams article on September 10

(A passport to new worlds) on how reading is a passport to new worlds.

This also chimes with the launch of the Portsmouth group of Read Easy, featured earlier in the week in The News (Free help for adults

who struggle to read, September

9), a charity to help those struggling with reading, which I am looking forward to supporting in my capacity as an author.

Father Adams says how a good novel will transport the reader from the troubles, stresses and strains of every day life of which sadly today there are many and how right he is.

I know this both personally and from my readers comments.

It was the discovery of a small library in Portsmouth as a child – the Alderman Lacey Library in Baffins-- that sparked my interest in reading and enabled me to explore new and very different worlds, to undertake countless adventures and fire my imagination.

The Portsmouth librarians encouraged me by recommending reading material and the libraries across the city provided free access to books which my parents could not afford to buy.

All this fuelled my desire to one day become a fiction writer, which I have achieved and hope that I pass on the pleasure of adventure and escapism to others.

Reading gives pleasure, knowledge, understanding, insight and perspective.

Free access to books with the continuation of public libraries is a critical part in helping to provide

that.

Pauline Rowson Rogers Mead, Hayling Island