‘My mother told such sagas by our hearth that she made me long to do the kind of deeds she spoke of… She put a sword in my heart, but couldn’t put one in my hand. The only swords I have wielded were the sticks I played with as a boy.’
These words were spoken by Brinin in Kith and illustrate how, for most of history, stories have been a shared activity rather than a solitary one. From earliest times people gathered to listen to tales told by those in their community who were skilled at recounting them. Stories couldn’t change Brinin’s situation in life, but they could fire his imagination, just as they must have fired the imaginations of countless millions of people through history.
I have often thought it was a shame that stories have become something we mostly enjoy alone. We read stories to children but as soon as they are old enough to read for themselves we leave them to it. I love curling up with a book and a cup of tea, but some of my most memorable experiences of books were shared ones. I remember a holiday as a student when a friend, Tom, read aloud ‘Henri learns the language’ from Still William by Richmal Crompton, first published in 1925. It was so hilarious that we had to have a slight pause in the middle to allow one of our number to breathe again. A copy of that book has travelled with us all the way to West Africa and been enjoyed (aloud) many times.
Thankfully our daughters haven’t grown out of being read to yet, and my husband is an excellent reader. He does voices! We have enjoyed Watership Down and The Lord of the Rings (multiple times – the Treebeard sections can be slow to get through as he takes his voices seriously). We’ve shared Swallows and Amazons, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Eagle of the Ninth, Warrior Scarlet and many more. When we were reading some PG Wodehouse one of our neighbours came each evening to join us.
Stories are for sharing. They always have been. They are wonderful to listen to together and to talk about afterwards. That’s why it can be so great to be part of a book group. When I wrote Kith I wanted it to be something that could be shared as people have shared stories throughout history. It’s not written for adults or children, but for anyone who wants to be taken on a journey in their imagination. In a 1986 interview, Rosemary Sutcliff said ‘I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety.’ Reading aloud is for children of all ages, and some of Kith’s first readers (before it was even published) shared it by hearing it read aloud. That’s what stories are for.
So here’s my challenge for you in 2022. Find a good book, and enjoy it with someone. You won’t regret it.
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