Lesley Pearse: Books That Changed My Life

I borrowed it at library, in the spring of 1980. I recently had given birth, and I was feeding my baby upstairs late in the evening, while reading the book. I became so immersed in the colour and depth of the story set in Australia that I was totally unaware of time passing.  Next thing I knew, it was daylight, and my baby fast asleep in my arms. As I went downstairs, I thought if I could write a book with that kind of power, I could die happy.

I had been dabbling at writing for some time, but The Thorn Birds became my bench mark then. My life was changed. Writing was everything. Nothing was going to stop me, not even the many rejections.

Some 18 years later, with eight books published, I embarked on Trust Me, a book based on the scandal of 15,000 British children sent to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. I read The Thorn Birds again and was delighted to find it was even more compelling and immersive than at first reading.

I was given this book by a friend, and I treasure it. It is a profound and beautiful book which inspires me to write better and to live my life by the lessons it teaches. It is arranged in chapters about Love, Marriage, Children, and Work amongst others.

One I love is about Giving: "You give but little when you give of your possessions, it is when you give of yourself you truly give." It is a book to dip in and out of, and I would never be without it. 

This book makes me howl with laughter whenever I read it. I was introduced to it by my stepmother, who also found it hilarious. The main character Flora Poste is a lot like me, bossy and wanting to sort everyone. She goes to her relatives on Cold Comfort Farm, Howling in Sussex, rather than find a real job and home of her own. 

It is poking fun at dour, country life books, which abounded in the 1930s when this was written, and brilliantly so. Whether you smile at Big Business the bull, The Quivering Brethren religious group, or handsome Seth who sires a new baby each year when the suke bine is in flower, or even Elfin who spouts poetry in the fields. Each character is unforgettable.

The well-known line from this book is said by Ada Doom, the matriarch of the family: "I saw something nasty in the woodshed."

The Long and Winding Road by Lesley Pearse is published by Michael Joseph on February 29