Feel Better:Complain About Anything, page-60701

when I read your posts I realise how privileged I was. How can one not want to read when your father leads you into mysteries and magic sitting around a cosy fire - with him adopting the different voices of the characters in the books. His love of them shone through. Our house was full of books. Hundreds of them. reading was part of our lives from a very young age.

Mum and dad had both been to uni and dads grandfather was a scholar and world recognised botanist. His children were well educated. Mums father was the chief auditor for a large bank. Mums mother was a secretary at a time when more men did that work. Both sides of the family valued music and art. And food was a thing. So expectations and opportunity were high.

but it actually meant I took education for granted. I was two years ahead of my age peers and that was agonising at times. I fluffed around at school and seldom did homework. In fact I did more homework for other kids who were struggling than I did for myself. I chose uni subjects so that I could undertake a liberated social education and those I chose came easily.

I often thought afterwards that those who discovered the joy of learning got far more out of it than I did. I rather think I wasted the gifts I was given.