\n The summer my middle sister was born, my mum and I would walk\u00a0to the shops at\u00a0Cherryvalley, in east\u00a0Belfast, to do her messages, and she\u2019d buy me the latest issue of Storyteller, illustrated tales from around the world. It came with a cassette tape of actors reading the stories, a ding to tell you when to\u00a0turn the page. My favourite was a Japanese folktale called The Goblin Rat. I was only just two, but I listened to\u00a0it, entranced and terrified, until I could recite it by heart.<\/p>\n
My favourite book\u00a0growing up<\/strong>
\n Susan Cooper\u2019s The Dark Is Rising series. I first read them aged 10 \u2013 I\u2019ve read the title book every midwinter since, and read them last year with my own then-10-year-old son. They tell a haunting story of the age-old battle between the forces of dark and light, weaving in Arthurian legend, shot through with an adult melancholy that makes them as compelling now\u00a0as then.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1e7a295e531a0e8da3677946a4571a180611ff62\/648_0_6503_5202\/master\/6503.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ba4037a97b2c5404ad4c402da572d08e\" "\\"Lucy")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"