Lissa Evans on Lichfield: ‘I went into the library the day we moved and never really came out’

The author on her childhood move from leafy Surrey to the West Midlands

Until I was nine, we lived in Englefield Green, a sprawling commuter village next to Windsor Great Park in Surrey. We had a big garden, my best friend lived in the next road and I went to the village school where we sat at desks according to our rank in class. I don’t need to tell you which articulate little know-all was ultra-keen to cling on to desk No 1. I was bossy and self-confident, and utterly secure in my status as both baby of the family and Queen of the Playground. Then we moved to the West Midlands.

I don’t know exactly how I introduced myself on my first day at Chadsmead junior school in Lichfield, but I’m guessing I used several of the following phrases: “Hello, my name’s Felicity; my father’s a scientist; my favourite television programme is Tales from Europe, especially the Polish one set in medieval Kraków; Last year I had a letter published in ‘Melody Maker’; Have you ever read the ‘Uncle’ books by JP Martin?” Bear in mind that all this was spoken in an accent not dissimilar to that of Celia Johnson, while everybody else in the school rhymed the word “you” with “cow”, and you’ll see that my subsequent lack of popularity is easily explained.

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from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2EVez4Q

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