Sophie Hannah: ‘I’ve given up Wuthering Heights three times’ | imaginary

My first memory is reading
I was six years old, and I was in the living room of my first home in Manchester. I was sitting cross-legged on the gray carpet in 1977, when I finished reading one of Enid Blyton’s wonderful Seven Secrets novels, which contained the astonishing (for a six-year-old, indeed) twist in which Emma Lane turned out to be a way, not a person.

My favorite book growing up
Up to age 12, Blyton’s Seven Mysteries and Five Secret Mysteries; And from 12 onwards, it was Agatha Christie. Growing up, I was sure that no other kind of story could hope to be as satisfying as the best mystery story.

The book that changed me as a teenager
When I was fifteen, my father strongly suggested that, in addition to the mysteries I loved, I should read other, more serious books. I found a harrowing memoir in Didsbury Library by the actress Frances Farmer, entitled Will There Really Be a Morning?, about her being forcibly committed to an asylum and held there for years against her will. Her story of her struggle to survive and make sense of her horrific experiences was truly inspiring and unforgettable.

The writer who changed my mind
Life coach and self-help writer Brooke Castillo, author of Self-Coaching 101 It was always meant to happen this way. I had no idea that my ideas about the facts were something so different from the facts themselves, or that we could choose to tell any story we wanted, and found plausible, about any given set of circumstances.

The book that made me want to be a writer
I remember it clearly: Sisters and Strangers by Helen Van Slyke. It is no coincidence that the first novel I wrote (thankfully unpublished) was called Lovers and Losers.

The book I’m back
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. I abandoned it three times after finding it too difficult – and it is now one of my top five novels of all time.

The book I re-read
There are two novels – The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch and Coming From Behind by Howard Jacobson – that I reread regularly because I love them. They are perfection expressed in imagination. Jacobson is the funniest book I’ve ever read and makes me cry with laughter, and Murdoch is her masterpiece – a detective novel wrapped in a bizarre love story. It’s also the best dissection of creative ambition and literary rivalries I’ve ever read.

The book that I could never read again
Prayers for Owen Meany. For some reason, this amazing novel has left me unable to think of reading it again, or reading anything else by John Irving.

The book I discovered later in life
Agatha Christie Mary Westmacott’s The Rose and the Yew Tree – every bit as suspenseful as an Agatha novel.

The book I’m currently reading
The Coming Witch Trial by Harriet Tice – A gritty, unexpected murder mystery with a vice-like grip. Very exciting and suspenseful – in the best way possible.

Read my palm
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. My morning routine is: pick up the phone, look at my to-do list, swear a lot…but I like to dream of a day where I meditate, set intentions and read affirmations instead, and books like Elrod’s enable me to do that.