Bookworm

A love-letter to children's books. 'Beautiful and moving... It will kickstart a cascade of nostalgia for countless people' Marian Keyes'Beautiful and moving... It will kickstart a cascade of nostalgia for countless people' Marian KeyesWhen Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up different worlds and cast new light on this one.She was whisked away to Narnia - and Kirrin Island - and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library.In Bookworm, Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life and disinters a few forgotten treasures poignantly, wittily using them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.'Passionate, witty, informed, and gloriously opinionated' Jacqueline Wilson

Short-listed for IBW Book Award 2019 (UK)

“"What Mangan does brilliantly is express the experience of reading and articulate the emotional connections we make with stories. She understands how books become entwined in our lives and help us make sense of the world. You don't need to have enjoyed the same books as she has to recognise the pure, life-affirming joy of reading that Bookworm celebrates so eloquently ." - - The Observer”

THE most wonderful, funny, clever, charming, evocative book. India Knight
A book for people who love books, by a person who loves books. Bookworms unite (or just sit in our separate corners and read!) Stylist
A delicously nostalgic treat that will make you want to pull out all those old favourites again Good Housekeeping
Artfully evokes that particular magic of reading as a child… Deliciously unrepentant, Mangan’s Bookworm makes a timely case not just for how vital reading is, but also for rereading books as a child, and how reading remains consoling, fortifying and, sometimes, magical. The Sunday Times
A wonderful romp through the pages of childhood, illuminated by wisdom, humour and enthusiasm. Bernard Cornwell
What Mangan does brilliantly is express the experience of reading and articulate the emotional connections we make with stories. She understands how books become entwined in our lives and help us make sense of the world. You don’t need to have enjoyed the same books as she has to recognise the pure, life-affirming joy of reading that Bookworm celebrates so eloquently. The Observer
Lucy Mangan has enough comic energy to power the National Grid... We need this new memoir about her childhood of being a bookworm. It's enchanting. The Spectator
To read Lucy Mangan’s memoir of growing up bookish is to be taken back to a time in life when reading wasn’t merely a gentle pleasure or mild obligation but an activity as essential as breathing. Guardian
Anyone who has ever preferred books to life will recognise Lucy Mangan as a kindred spirit. Her moving, funny, honest and superbly-written memoir about how childhood reading shapes our personalities, memories and chances could not be more timely or more needed in an age of library closures, embattled Humanities teaching and Philistinism. Amanda Craig
Lucy Mangan's passionate, amusing and nostalgic reflection upon her favourite children’s books deserves to become as much of a classic as the novels she revisits. Sunday Express

Lucy Mangan is a columnist for Guardian Weekend magazine and Stylist, and the author of My Family and Other Disasters, The Reluctant Bride and Hopscotch and Handbags.

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