Record Number: 20102
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'When I was about six, she decided that the time had come for me to learn to read. And that was when she made her mistake. Instead of merely sitting me down in front of Peter Rabbit, The Secret Garden or the Jungle Books and telling me to get on with it, she provided a dreadful book about a Rosy-Faced Family who Lived Next Door and Had Cats that Sat on Mats, and expected me to get on with that. I was outraged – I, who had walked the boards with the Crummles, and fought beside Beowulf in the darkened Hall of Heriot. I took one look, and decided that the best way of making sure that I should never meet the Rosy-Faced Family or any of their unspeakable kind in the future was not to learn to read at all. So I didn’t, and my mother never quite had the hardness of heart to stop reading to me. We had lessons and lessons and lessons; and we got practically nowhere.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 14 Dec 1926 and 1 Jan 1928
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Child (0-17)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:14 Dec 1920
Socio-Economic Group:n/a
Occupation:Artist/Writer (eventually)
Religion:unknown
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[children's book]
Genre:History, Children's Lit
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:20102
Source:Rosemary Sutcliff
Editor:n/a
Title:Blue Remembered Hills: A Recollection
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1993 [1983]
Vol:n/a
Page:54
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Rosemary Sutcliff, Blue Remembered Hills: A Recollection, (London, 1993 [1983]), p. 54, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=20102, accessed: 28 April 2025
Additional Comments:
Dates of reading are approximate: 'when I was about six'. Sutcliffe's mother was trying to teach her to read.
