Five books that changed me (Sydney Morning Herald article 2012)

Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Graham (illustrated by Arthur Rackham)

I loved this book as a kid. Especially the edition with Rackham’s beautifully detailed illustrations. I keep coming back to it. It’s the reason I write anthropomorphically. Ratty, Toad, Badger and Mole have such wonderfully fully formed personalities - flaws and all. Graham was very good at putting the reader right where he wanted - in a boat, on a motorcycle or having a picnic in the sun on the riverbank. This book still stands out after all these years.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

This is one of those books where I remember how I felt reading it. Mostly, I felt excited. It is very much a boy’s book and consequently I have many childhood memories that are associated with it in some form. I often imagined myself as Tom Sawyer or Huck floating down the Mississippi with hours to kill. It was also the first book where I can recall being aware of the writing and recognising that this was a valuable skill.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Some books are much more visual than others and this book is particularly memorable in that regard. Before The Hobbit, I had never read a story so big, so scary, so hobbity. Tolkien was a master of imagined worlds and I spent many, many hours getting lost. Plus the maps are cool.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières

When I first begun to read this book I wondered where on earth it was going. Bernières spends a good deal of time introducing the reader to the central characters and it comes together agonisingly slowly but when it does the payoff is sweet. It’s a testament to the power of good character writing. The protagonist shouldn’t be the only well written character.

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

This is only a short story but it’s a beauty. It has all the themes. Love, fear, war, trust, hatred, retribution. I have no idea how Hughes was able to make this unlikely story about a giant metal man work as it is as outlandish as it is ambitious. It’s the sort of book that makes me want to write without worrying about logical thought and the limits of ordinary stories.