Corner of the Bookshelf

The bookshelf is a good place to start to retrieve old memories. You might remember where you bought a book and what else was happening in your life at the time. Maybe you read the book on a long journey or an exotic beach. A book can bring back so much more than the author intended.

In the sixties, my parents rented half an Edwardian house in Aberystwyth, another couple lived on the top floor. They had a daughter called Susan, who was my age.  

Inspired by Princess Margaret’s televised royal wedding, and at the tender ages of four, Susan and I got married, while siblings and friends threw privet-leaf confetti over us. It was a brief union lasting no more than half an hour.

Susan’s greatest influence on my life wasn’t as my short-lived spouse, but was because she had a large collection of Eagle comics. She would to meet me on the turn of the stairs with her pile of comics and introduce me to the colourful world of Dan Dare. 

Thunderbirds and TV21soon replaced Dan Dare, but I rediscovered the 50's space hero as an art student. I started collecting crumbling Eagle annuals, picked up from charity shops, and later glossy reprints of those original strips, read before I'd even started school.