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Library residency
Sheila Stansfield
The book I'm reading currently
I'm reading a book called Millennium by Tom Holland, lighting up the Dark Ages. So far I've got 20 pages to go out of a 400-odd page book. It's set in the last millennium, so everything that was happening across Europe at the turn of the last millennium. It's been challenging, I've had to look words up that I didn't understand, I've learnt a lot, I've had to re-read pages. It's history told in a very story-telling style. I've really enjoyed it.
A book that had a big impact on me
If I had to pick the one book that's had the biggest impact on me, I read it as a teenager when my big sister gave it to me and I read it as an woman, it's called The Women's Room by Marilyn French.
My desert island reading
From my childhood I'd take The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, and The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis. I would take The Women's Room. I would take The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvior because it's been on my mental reading list since the age of about 19.
If I can take only one it would be The Lord of the Rings.
My choice of lifetime magazine subscription
National Geographic. It's a window on the world and I'd get bored of running magazines.
My must-see film
Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood it's a good book and a fabulous film. It's about a mother-daughter relationship. It's about friendship in older ladies as they reflect back. It's set in the Deep South, in America.
My guilty-pleasure telly
Strictly Come Dancing.
My radio turn-on and turn-off
Radio turn-on is The Today Programme every single day. Radio turn-off is Gardener's Question Time because it makes me feel guilty because I don't do any gardening. I very rarely turn Radio 4 off.
My favourite work of art
Rodin's The Thinker. I went with my mum on a French exchange when I was about 10 or 11. That's when I saw it and it never left me.
The weekend paper I am most likely to pick up
The Observer.
The section of the weekend paper I read first
General news.
A piece of music that makes me smile
A piece of music that really makes me smile is Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty.
A piece of music that makes me cry
Spin and Turn, a folk song, it's about the circle of life. Lots of music makes me cry which is why I don't listen to it that much.
