Record Number: 20102

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'When I was about six, she decided that the time had come for me to learn to read. And that was when she made her mistake. Instead of merely sitting me down in front of Peter Rabbit, The Secret Garden or the Jungle Books and telling me to get on with it, she provided a dreadful book about a Rosy-Faced Family who Lived Next Door and Had Cats that Sat on Mats, and expected me to get on with that. I was outraged – I, who had walked the boards with the Crummles, and fought beside Beowulf in the darkened Hall of Heriot. I took one look, and decided that the best way of making sure that I should never meet the Rosy-Faced Family or any of their unspeakable kind in the future was not to learn to read at all. So I didn’t, and my mother never quite had the hardness of heart to stop reading to me. We had lessons and lessons and lessons; and we got practically nowhere.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 14 Dec 1926 and 1 Jan 1928

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Rosemary Sutcliff

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

14 Dec 1920

Socio-Economic Group:

n/a

Occupation:

Artist/Writer (eventually)

Religion:

unknown

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

Her mother was trying to teach her to read

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Text Being Read:

Author:

unknown

Title:

[children's book]

Genre:

History, Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

20102

Source:

Print

Author:

Rosemary Sutcliff

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Blue Remembered Hills: A Recollection

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1993 [1983]

Vol:

n/a

Page:

54

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Rosemary Sutcliff, Blue Remembered Hills: A Recollection (London, 1993 [1983]), p. 54, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=20102, accessed: 25 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Dates of reading are approximate: 'when I was about six'.