I have been working on a ‘memoir’ in pictures based on my younger years and have been wrestling with just how I wished to present this. You may have seen my last post, which shows some progress with the sketches, and although I think I know what I wish to portray, I am still looking for how I shall achieve this. Naturally I have been thinking back to early memories, and particular things which have been salient throughout my life, and helped shaped my adult self. Books certainly. So, yesterday I looked up the names of books which I remember loving in my Primary school years. Five stood out.

‘What Katy Did’ series, by Susan Coolidge (American), Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (Australian), My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durell (British), The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailier, (British) and The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller (American).

I read a brief description of each, and was flabbergasted. What Katy Did, and The Seven Little Australians, dealt with children who had no mother, although the second family did have a stepmother. It was how these children basically lived in a shambles, running rings around the adults who were either too busy, or ill-equipped to deal with their children. The children therefore, did more or less what they wanted, played outdoors and learned through their own discoveries of a world beyond. In both there was a scolding adult. In ‘Katy’ this was an Aunt Lizzie, and in the Australian book it was the stepmother.

These stories reminded me so much of my childhood; playing in a wild overgrown garden with my sister. My brothers were always out, involved with sports or music. My father worked two jobs, and Mother was – the scold. Yes, and I did seem to get into a bit of trouble, though I never felt I was deliberately naughty, just rather a lonely child who missed a mother’s love.

I then picked up My Family and Other Animals, which was set in Corfu, Greece, where the father was a vet, and the mother seemed not to handle the exotic environment. But the animals! I loved the excitement of learning about different wildlife, and another child’s exciting, and sometimes dangerous adventures. This book was read aloud to us in class, by a teacher I had when nine and again when eleven and twelve.

Mr Howie was his name, and he enjoyed reading these stories as much his students enjoyed hearing them.

We learned about the second world war through The Silver Sword; and come to know how a Polish family were separated, the father imprisoned, and later the mother taken by Germans to work for them. The children had to fend for themselves. It was a gripping tale to hear. To learn of the suffering war wrought, was alarming, but necessary. Fortunately this story had a happy ending with the family reunited.

And with The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller, I learned compassion, to feel empathy for someone becoming blind through illness. Yet, we were shown how she lived a full life, becoming the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts in the USA. She also became an author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.

Our teacher never preached, but showed us through reading us these great stories what there was to discover about other peoples and worlds beyond our own experiences.

So, just five books, and what food for thought! I still adore books, wildlife, other countries, people’s histories, and to be concerned with those less fortunate than myself and what is possible to achieve.