Book friends

What's a book friend? You know, those favourite books that uplift or transport you to a better place, the book that you can trust to give you escapism or clarity, the one that refocuses your mind back to love...

Book friends sit patiently on the shelf, waiting for us to invite them down into our world. They might wait for years but books are very accommodating and they'll wait until we're ready. As with other friends, timing is everything with books. We can read paragraph after paragraph without really connecting or 'getting it'. We skim over the surface missing the deeper meaning or true value right in front of our eyes.

Then, one day we are open, ready to hear more than before. Like something has been removed or changed so we can connect. That is a special moment. The perfect time. When we take them into our hearts. That is when the book and we become friends forever...

Of course, our kindred spirits become book friends too, when we share a passion or vision through the books we've been reading, perhaps leading to book-signings or other fun outings off the page and out into the world!

Book friends can be the authors too, Nigel Slater is one of my book friends, even before I make a dish, his writing brings me peace and well-being, it makes me think differently, and with more grace, about food and ingredients, there is a beautiful, natural energy that is gentle and real in his writing. When I first read his books, they were like listening to an old friend giving me a helping hand in the kitchen...

There are many other book friends, who have taught me a lot, Florence Scovel Schinn was a game changer, someone I wish I could have met in person, ahead of the curve doesn't even begin to describe her wisdom...

Then there are the classics, Shakespeare and the Emilies...then there are the teachers, Andrew Graham-Dixon, (the first to make art history enthraling to me), Dr Mosley, Monty Don and Carol Klein...the inspirers who uplift by teaching me or taking me to a far away place. Seeing through their eyes enriches my world and I appreciate them all...

Never happier than when surrounded by books, be it reading or note, I happily fill every spare space I have with them, like a cocoon of dependability, they are always there to lend a hand when I need them. I love my Kindle but rarely am I happier than when I have my nose stuck in a proper book, it brings with it a sense of occasion, it makes reading special for me, sacred.

I also love a good manual, this goes back to my childhood where the happiest of memories lie with my late father, under the car, tinkering on weekends, pouring over the Haynes...Good times indeed...

So who are your book friends? Remember them, they are always there and usually they lend us a new perspective, clarity, fun or inspiration for supper...