The Benefits of Reading

Ever since I was little I’ve been obsessed with reading, I devoured all kinds of books, from those that contained stories about children who were detectives solving crimes that were beyond the police, aided by a picnic and lashings of ginger beer. 

Roald Dahl, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Judy Blume. (Hands up if you read “Forever” as a teenager?)

The Adrian Mole books still make me laugh out loud and even now, if ever I’m feeling down or a bit jaded by life reading “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” will always put a smile on my face.

My other favourites include Charles Dicken’s “Great Expectations”, I just think it’s a masterclass in creating characters. Miss Havisham roaming Satis House in her decaying wedding dress with one shoe on and one shoe off because that was her state of dress when she found out she’d been jilted. Wemmick and Aged P, I love how they live in a replica of a small castle with a moat and a drawbridge. It’s not pivotal to the plot, yet it adds so much.

  I read Jilly Cooper’s “Rivals” every Christmas, I don’t know why, it’s just my thing!

More recently I’ve been binging the works of Syd Moore, Sarah Hilary, Steve Cavanagh and Nicola May. I was pretty much ready to pack my bags and move to Devon to open a shop after reading “The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay”.

I was reading a blog the other day about the habits of successful people and one of them was reading. 

Here are just some of the benefits of reading a good book.



I think my love of reading, has inspired me to make my book about Stanley Thomas as good as it can be, I love the idea of someone snuggling up in their favourite place to read and devouring the pages of something I’ve written. I want someone to hand their friend a copy of my book and say, “you’ve got to read this, I couldn’t put it down!”

I want that, not because I want fame and fortune (well a bit of fortune would be nice) but because I want to bring people joy. Books have got me through some really stressful times in my life, I read countless books whilst I was sat in my Dad’s hospital room. It helped the feeling of hopelessness that I had, that although I could do nothing to make him better, when he was awake and wanted to chat about any old random nonsense, I could share the plot of the book I’d been reading.

So maybe one day, even though Stanley Thomas is a very bad man, his actions will bring someone a bit of joy.  

So, please share with me, your favourite authors and books.

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