By Sarah Pont – Customer Marketing Manager
From a very young age I was encouraged by my parents to read books and lots of them, because to me it never felt like a chore or something I had to do, I really enjoyed it.
Before the Harry Potter craze really took hold of me (and I mean really – I am still massively obsessed with the wizarding world despite being an actual grown up now) I loved the stories of Roald Dahl.
Stewart Lee
Born in Wellington, Shropshire, Stewart Lee began stand-up at the age of 20 in 1988, winning the Hackney Empire new act of the year award in 1990. In the 90’s he contributed to various BBC Radio comedy shows, including Fist of Fun and On The Hour, with Steve Coogan and Chris Morris, performed as a stand-up almost nightly on the London circuit, and co-created four series for BBC2 with Richard Herring. Stewart directed the Mighty Boosh’s breakthrough Edinburgh show, Arctic Boosh (1999), Simon Munnery’s Golden Rose Of Montreux nominated BBC2 show, Attention Scum, (2000), and a revival of Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio (Underbelly 2007).
Robert Louis Stevenson
Very few authors can claim to have written a piece of work that had such a broad influence on culture that it redefined a genre of literature. But Robert Louis Stevenson can. And, in fact, he managed it twice. Stevenson wrote both Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, two books that span completely different genres and even generations. For that, he is our World of Rare Books Author of the Week.
Crime writer Peter James was born 22nd August 1948 in Brighton (that’s near us!). The son of Cornelia Jones (the former glove-maker to Queen Elizabeth II no less!) During his childhood Peter attended Charterhouse School and then, in later years went on to study at Ravensbourne Film School. As a result of his training there, he travelled to North America, and spent several years as a screenwriter and film producer.