Bookworm Paperback – 2 Sept. 2015

A book about children's books and the love of reading via a nostalgic tribute to Belfast's libraries and second hand bookshops of the fifties. Patricia Craig was (and is) passionate about reading, from Enid Blyton, and Just William to boarding school stories and Charles Dickens. In her youth she had somewhat of an aversion to books coming under the 'classics' tag - "I had a strong resistance to being either edified or bored." But when she rereads some of them in later life (The Water Babies, The Wind in the Willows, Little Women, The Secret Garden) her perspective shifts somewhat. It seems that the young Bookworm read her way through several libraries, and her descriptions are alive with the sense of place. Never having been to Belfast, I got lost in some of the streets, so familiar to the author, but I was interested to 'see' the city before the Troubles, from an enthusiastic reader's point of view, as she returns to a warm family home with her ever-new pile of books..

Aptly named, definitely of interest to the advanced learner, and a great advertisement for Andrew Carnegie.