Claire Fuller: “Dylan Thomas showed me that writing could make me feel everything” | books

My first memory is reading
When I was five years old and starting school, I used to catch a bus from the Oxfordshire village where I lived. Twice a day I read the little metal plaque attached to the upholstery bearing the warning “Mind your head when you leave your seat.”

My favorite book growing up
In the late 1970s, my father had a copy of John Michell’s Phenomenology. Each page covers something strange, which may or may not be true: showers of fish, scars, and spontaneous human combustion. I would lie on the rug and turn the pages and love the chills that (maybe) the existence of such strangeness in the world gave me.

The book that changed me as a teenager
When I was 14, I played Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard in a school production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. As we were reading those kind words out loud, I realized for the first time that writing could make me feel Everything.

the The book that changed my mind
“Learning to Love You More” by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The book is a list of tasks: some are very simple (take a photo under your bed), others are more difficult (do a one-person demo). Public tasks terrified me, but I discovered that I loved doing them finished Them and I have been searching for that feeling ever since.

The book that made me want to be a writer
We’ve Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This was the first book I read through the author’s eyes, trying to figure out how he created the extraordinary Jackson Merricat and how she made me feel so much about her.

the Author I have returned to
I read Angels by Denise Johnson about 15 years ago and thought: “What’s all the fuss about?” Then I read Train Dreams, then Jesus’ Son, and now his books are among my all-time favorites.

The book I re-read
There is only one book I keep on my desk as I write: The Wild Life by Richard Ford. I often pick it up and read a page or two to remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing.

The book that I could never read again
Last year I read and loved Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, but I never read it again because it’s 843 pages and there are so many other books I want to read.

The book I discovered later in life
I missed almost all the classics when I was younger, so last year I decided to read one a year, starting with Pride and Prejudice. And yes, I enjoyed it.

The book I’m currently reading
I run a book club in the vestry in Winchester. In addition to our regular monthly selections, I’ve selected The Stand by Stephen King to read over the course of a year. I can’t wait to receive it again.

Read my palm
I have a convenient author: Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, her stories, her characters. I just finished her latest book, The Things We Never Say, and it was fun.