Penelope Lively and the Power of Reading
Penelope Lively: A Reading Life at Manchester Literature Festival, Wednesday 10th October 2012 at Whitworth Art Gallery, 7.30pm
The books we read in our youth can stay with us forever, perhaps unconsciously and perhaps to be forgotten about until a much later point in our lives. This was certainly case for me with Penelope Lively’s The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. As a young boy the book set into motion my love of ghost stories. I remember it being one of my first page-turners and yet I had thought little of it until a few weeks ago when I noticed that Lively would be giving a talk as part of this year’s Literature Festival. My reading habits and tastes, now in my twenties have evolved over the years from Lively’s novel. Memories of the book have resurfaced in recent weeks and have proven one thing, what we read as children maintains a hold on us throughout life.
That very sentiment is shared by Lively as she introduces us to her ‘book-infested life’ that encompasses seventy years of reading as well as a forty-year writing career. Lively’s love of literature is clear from the start as she sets the scene by taking us back to the beginning of her reading life, to a hot morning in her garden in Egypt. However the young Penelope isn’t in Egypt she is in another world entirely, lost deep inside the book she is devouring. She tells us that her love of books endured the negativity of her boarding school and Grandmother once she had settled in England. Lively’s school would use reading as a form of punishment whilst Lively’s Grandmother warned her that reading so much would damage her eyesight. Lively recounts these tales the way only a gifted storyteller can and we sit listening intently as she shares these memories.
It is important to note that Lively’s talk is entitled ‘A Reading Life’ and not ‘A Writing Life’. For although her writing was the reason that so many had turned out on this damp Manchester evening Lively makes sure she is clear on the point that it is her reading that has shaped her life and consequently her writing. She ponders throughout the hour-long talk the question of ‘what if?’ What if she had taken the archaeology diploma and never become a writer? What if her reading habits had been different when she was young? Would her writing have taken the direction that it did? Lively concludes not: ‘we are what we have read’ she says.
Lively creates a series of lovely images for us throughout her time on stage. The idea of readers having their own internal bookshelves storing all the little bits of information acquired from our years of reading rings true with this room of book lovers. She explains the thought process behind a range of her novels including Making It Up and How It All Began. Her descriptions have enticed me into picking up copies as soon as possible. My evening with Lively has left me feeling inspired. I suddenly have a thousand ideas for my own writing racing through my head and want to go home immediately so I can lose myself in a good book. She has reminded me how much of an influence books have had in my life so far. Her conclusion that ‘reading maps out a life’ strikes a chord with everyone in the room.
Sam Rigby