Don McGlashan's love of words and ideas is evident in all his music. Today he tells us about throwing a picture book at the wall, wagging school for novel-reading, and the other ways books have formed him as a reader and writer. Don McGlashan, performing in November 2018 at the Luxor theatre in Arnhem, Holland. Photo credit: Sara Bosch. Here’s one of my first memories: I’m awake too early for the rest of the family, (which happens a lot); unable to sleep, watching the lights

Poet, author and anthologist Jenny Bornholdt tells us about the books she read - and heard - as a child. My earliest memory of being read to: Kate Harcourt’s voice on the radio programme Listen with Mother as I sit on the bottom step of our stairs at home in Lower Hutt, while my mother feeds clothes through the clanky ringer in the laundry. I don’t remember what it was that Kate read, but this listening experience was repeated a few years later when my sisters and I regularly

Raymond Huber's childhood was enriched by the stories of the Moomins, told by Tove Jansson. Here, he tells us about moomintrolls, hattifatteners and more. Huber's most recent title, Gecko, illustated by Brian Lovelock, was released this month. Raymond Huber and his young grandson I’ve just started my grandsons on the Moomin novels and I’m delighted to see they can still captivate. These books by Tove Jansson are, I think, the perfect children’s stories – thrilling, comforting