May I Introduce...?

I'm doing this week's Booking Through Thursday rather late. Well, you could probably work that out from the day... Never mind, eh, let's just pretend I spent the past few days pondering the question.

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

Well, as Margaret points out, this question involves the very tricky decision as to favourite authors. Since I shan't be compiling a proper list today, I'll just mention the ones which are undoutedly favourites, and any others which come into my head.

-Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker - this is the one I yammer on and on about! See the 50 Books... Well, this was loaned to me by my piano teacher, after a chance conversation.

-The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield - Though this is quite well known in the world of middlebrow interwar fiction, and still in print, I came at it in rather a roundabout way. Bought 1940's Modern Humour because it had a sketch by AA Milne in it - read the others, and read two by EM Delafield. Those exact two should be available through a link on the excellent EMD website www.starcourse.org/emd but that address isn't currently working on my computer... Anyway, loved these sketches (actually from As Others Hear Us) and sought out other EMD things from our local library - step forward Provincial Lady.

-the non-Pooh works of AA Milne - saw a Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon early in 2001, and re-read the books. Then sought out Christopher Milne's The Enchanted Places, then AA Milne's Year In, Year Out, then his autobiog, then everything else...

-Persephone Books - found a Richmal Crompton novel in a local bookshop and, having loved William, thought I'd give it a go. Loved it, and read many. Later saw a newish looking copy of Family Roundabout at the library, which led me to Persephone...

-Sometimes I just pick up a book more or less at random, and love it. Examples include The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks; The Love Child by Edith Oliver...

-Most books I read are through some sort of connection. A LOT are recommends from dovegreybooks Yahoo Group (responsible for my penury). Some are recommended by parents or friends - though I haven't had a recommendation from Mum for a while. If you're reading this, Our Vicar's Wife, recommend me something!

And for 2) - yes, they were all favourites after the first read! I'm afraid I rarely re-read, and certainly not something I didn't enjoy much the first time.


Before I go, Nancy asked about the film Amazing Grace - I'll quote The Carbon Copy's blog from March 07, when he saw it: "I went to see Amazing Grace last night, the new film based on the life of William Wilberforce (and there's no real excuse if you don't know who he is) and I was pretty impressed; not sure how close to the truth it was, but I enjoyed it - and was moved by it. Nice to see a strong(ish) Christian message coming through, and the idea that Wilberforce needed the love of a good woman before he could help abolish slavery is one that I like, even if it's almost certainly untrue. A worthwhile film."