Today is our final post of the year: sadly Mr Parris, Mrs Mackenzie, Mrs Graham, Dr Ruddick, Mr Barile, Miss Leconte and Mr Yao are among those leaving SPS at the end of this term. But they very kindly paused in the middle of their packing up to answer the blog's Leavers' Questionnaire ...
What were you reading when you were a teenager?
Mr Parris: Iain Banks – The Wasp Factory, Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting
Mrs Mackenzie: I went to boarding school at 8. The house bookshelf had a full set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and a Times Atlas of the World. I loved looking at the atlas - I find maps fascinating - but generally there were slim pickings and I read books that were passed around the house. So, lots of Judy Blume, Jilly Cooper, Danielle Steel and Wilbur Smith.
Lace by Shirley Conran came out when I was about 13 and was immediately banned by the Housemistress so of course several copies did the rounds, covered in the dust jacket of something more improving. I don’t recommend that anyone spends any time reading these.
The first book I remember reading that wasn’t a bodice ripper or a spy novel was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It rocked my world and changed my reading habits.
