Which books did you love reading as a child?
My earliest choices included the stories of Mary Plain by Gwynedd Rae – a little bear born in the Bearpit at Berne in Switzerland who is found and adopted by a man she calls The Owl Man because of the glasses he wears, and she is taken by him on a journey including a stay in a hotel where she also meets The Fur Coat Lady.
Other favourite books in my childhood were Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth and Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding, an Australian children’s story, as well as Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat. All of these books I thought witty, brilliant and imaginative.
The adventure stories of Enid Blyton were among my top favourites too. So many authors have mentioned Enid Blyton when asked what made them want to become writers. I even believe you can tell the personal characteristics of that author from their favourite member of The Famous Five. My favourite member of the five was George! She was rebellious, she hated being thought of as a submissive girl, and she wanted to be as adventurous, intrepid and risk-taking as any boy.
And certain beloved books I read over and over again: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, Heidi by Joanna Spyri, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, What Katy Did and What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge.
Among the most thrilling books I’ve ever read is King Solomon’s Mines by Rider Haggard. I also enjoyed the books of Monica Dickens: e. g. My Turn to Make the Tea and the stories of how she tried her hand at a career in nursing and a career as a new reporter. Again I found her a very funny writer, and one who described her experiences in ways I could identify with.
In addition poetry was very important to me, especially the poems of Walter De La Mare and narrative poems like The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes and The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I have long loved Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Later I discovered the Liverpool Poets – Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri. I admired their poetry in print and at public readings.
What made you want to be a writer?
My answer to that, as I’ve said above is: when I was a child I read Enid Blyton, and her fiction inspired me to write children’s adventures stories like her. I wrote many, but none ever made it to publication. I particularly enjoyed the Famous Five books and also The Castle of Adventure and The Island of Adventure. I loved stories in which the children outwitted nefarious adults. And George was my favourite, closely followed by Timothy the dog!
The love of writing that Enid Blyton first instilled into me has never left me, but only strengthened over the years. If I’m in the audience at a workshop or conference or public talks I’ll always have my notebook with me, and am apparently writing down everything that’s said, but in reality recording all the names of the other people on the workshop together with whatever personal snippets of information they share about themselves.
Which authors have influenced you?
I have loved many books in my life, but the ones that stand out for me all seem to have three ingredients: archetypal themes, emotional charge and X factor.
Some have the power to shock and electrify the reader: authors such as Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and Shusaku Endo. Others have characters that haunt you through the years: Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, Cathy and Heathcliffe, Lizzy Bennett and Darcy, Pip and Estella; perhaps Bathsheba from Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd or Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, or Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray; or the master-criminal Count Fosco in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, or maybe Dorothea in George Eliot’s Middlemarch or Nicholas Darrow in Susan Howatch’s Mystical Paths.
And I also favour authors who are witty, perceptive and brilliantly funny – like P.G. Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe, David Lodge, Jerome K. Jerome, Dodie Smith, Stella Gibbons and Jilly Cooper.
I respond to authors whose work shows warmth and compassion, such as Katie Fforde and Joanna Trollope, or those who sail to the furthest reaches of the human psyche, such as Iris Murdoch or Susan Howatch.
And among my most-loved books are those which tell of a small person harnessing the power of loyalty, friendship and love to overcome great odds – JK. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, or C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I have marvelled, too, at the imaginative fireworks in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Finally, as a postscript to this, I remember a line from Virginia Woolf’s essay How Should One Read a Book? “I have sometimes dreamt, at least, that when the Day of Judgement dawns…The Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when he sees us coming with our books under our arms, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.’”
Hello! My name’s Sheila and I write under the pen name of SC Skillman. I live in Warwick with my husband and son, and my daughter currently lives and works in Australia.
I was born and brought up in Orpington, Kent, and have loved writing most of my life. I studied English Literature at Lancaster University, and my first permanent job was as a production secretary with the BBC. Later I lived for nearly five years in Australia before returning to live and work in the UK.
My output includes psychological, paranormal and mystery fiction, and historical and paranormal nonfiction. Each of my nonfiction books is illustrated by 100 original full colour photos, mostly taken by myself, and others by my son and daughter (both talented photographers!)
In March 2023 I was the Nonfiction Adjudicator at the Scottish Association of Writers Annual Conference in Glasgow. I’m a member of the Society of Authors and the Association of Christian Writers.
My nonfiction books on Warwickshire are published by Amberley and include Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire and A-Z of Warwick. I’m now researching a fourth book for Amberley: Paranormal Gloucestershire. I also have a new contemporary fantasy novel in progress called Director’s Cut.
In addition to my published books, I blog weekly on scskillman.com about books and films I love, people and places of inspiration, life, spirituality, history and travel.
I’m also a public speaker and have spoken to many groups and organisations about Paranormal Warwickshire, Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire, the quirky tales of Warwick, the art of writing creative nonfiction, and the power of story. Do get in touch with me if you’d like a speaker for your group!
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