While books provided me with some escape from the mental and physical horrors of my early life, they were unreliable. Many times the protagonists suffered terribly and then died at the end.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It always strikes me how almost unbelievably bad are the early versions of my novels.
My second, third and fourth novels were mistakes, essentially.
I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
The comments I most appreciate come from ordinary readers who've happened on one of my books at some time of stress in their lives, and who actually credit the book with helping them through a bad time. It's happened a few times in forty years.
In those early days, the important thing was the happy ending. I did not tolerate unhappy endings - for my heroines, anyway. And later on, I began to read things like 'Wuthering Heights,' and very, very unhappy endings would take place, so I changed my ideas completely and went in for the tragic, which I enjoyed.
My parents were wonderful people, but there were terrible rows between them, and at times I found the atmosphere at home unbearable. The Arthur Ransome books gave me an alternative childhood and the tools to escape.
I had a ludicrous childhood, but I feel that I was able to profit from a lot of the idiotic and unfortunate things that happened to me by turning them into fiction.
It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.
My books always focus on the response of the characters to extreme events. As dark as they get, they are ultimately positive, uplifting books about children who take control of their lives and overcome great adversaries. I think that is why they have been so popular.