I read a lot while growing up. My parents – vigilant in most things – were no less so when it came to literature. Plenty of books didn’t make the cut. “You can’t read that, it’ll rot your brain,” they said of Judy Blume, of Stephen King… And I remember one book, The L-Shaped Room (by Lynne Reid Banks, actually a quiet classic) being firmly returned to the school library – with a note to say that they didn’t consider it suitable for a girl of 14 and would like it taken off the shelves. As long as I read...