'Although mainly an outdoor boy Rider began to read several popular romances of the day...: "I loved those books that other boys love and I love them still. I well remember a little scene which took place when I was a child of eight or nine. Robinson Crusoe held me in its grasp and I was expected to go to church. I hid beneath a bed with Robinson Crusoe and was in due course discovered by an elder sister and governess, who, on my refusing to come out, resorted to force. Then followed a struggle that was quite Homeric. The two ladies tugged as best they might, but I clung to Crusoe and the legs of the bed, and kicked till, perfectly exhausted, they took their departure in no very Christian frame of mind, leaving me panting indeed, but triumphant".'