Forgotten authors
Never meet your heroes. As a wannabe writer, I learnt that lesson early on. I was ten years old, and my favourite writer was Leon Garfield. Imagine how thrilled I was when my mother arranged for me to have tea with him! My mum was friends with Philippa Pearce (author of the children’s classic, Tom’s Midnight Garden) and Philippa was friends with Garfield, so a date was set for high tea, at Philippa’s lovely country cottage, near Cambridge.
I arrived giddy with
