I love to read. I am by no means a literary expert, my tastes are broad and wide ranging- poetry, fiction, non-fiction, nature writing, essays - anything really. My only caveat is that it has to linger a little, make me think, evoke a feeling or plunge me into another space for a while. I think that’s probably what most people are looking for when they pick up a book. It’s the same when visiting the theatre, gallery, cinema - did the experience resonate and entertain, was it food for thought, did something stay with you after the event. I have no room for snobbery when it comes to what constitutes “good art” or how you should enjoy it. I am a member of a book club with friends - we all like different things, enjoy a lively debate but equally enjoy the inevitable raucous boozy night that follows. As a child growing up in Birmingham, we would visit the Museum and Art Gallery on a weekly basis and the local library. These places were free and a lifeline of culture, history, art - a portal to another world on a rainy day. If anything shaped my love of books and pre-raphealite ladies it was their ready availability at the end of the no51 bus ride. It’s so important to keep access to arts and books free and available for all. To have access to a world beyond your own four walls and feed your imagination and widen your horizons.