When I was a child, I slept in a crowded house, up in a converted attic. There was a cubby hole in my bedroom that I never entered alone, day or night - it contained a vampire that would have dispatched me to the realm of the undead. So, naturally, my first stories were about vampires, particularly Dracula, though at that age I considered them all to be based on true stories from my life. I have since learned to draw a sharper line between fantasy and reality, most of the time.

I can't recall the first story I ever read, but the first novel I read (about twenty times) was Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert. It filled my heart with a love of idealism, justice, and merry old times with good friends. I think it was a very good book to read as a child, and the bravery of Robin et al in the face of a hostile hierarchy was, in a subtle way, good preparation for life. {It was years later that I learned that Maid Marion was actually Robin's sister in Celtic mythology - I like to think that she represented freedom to Robin and his band.}