Jenni Fagan: ‘Maya Angelou taught me to have hope’ | Books

My earliest memory of reading
Myth. I was emotional. I took fairy tales very seriously as moral lessons. I soon learned that every time I help an old lady cross the road, it is a good thing to do.

My favorite book growing up
The Hobbit was my favorite book growing up. It increased my understanding of what can be found in fiction. I found JRR Tolkien changing the world. I just felt like I knew what to like, and I wanted to see the elves. I could hear the hum of fireworks as they turned into dragons flying overhead.

The author who changed my mind
Maya Angelou taught me that I have hope. No matter how painful or difficult it was. His work is noble and light. I read all his works over the years and learned as much as I could. It made me want to step up and keep trying to find a way to create a life that was important to me.

The book that made me want to be a writer
I was reading a dictionary when I was very young; when I find a word I don’t know I can go look it up. Strange for a child to do but I loved the language itself.

Book I went back to
I found Frankenstein and Mary Shelley too claustrophobic. In recent years I have connected with Shelley more deeply and am now writing a modern adaptation of Frankenstein which will be published next year. He was ahead of his time, he started sci-fi, he brought to life such a powerful archetype in Creation, and when you can see the inspiration of, say, Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – he used to visit and read at his father’s house – it was a personal invitation to write this story. I am fascinated by his connection with gnosis, the power of life, death and how all the tragedies of his young life are carefully woven together with a terrifying intelligence. Shelley was a teenager when he started writing this book; interestingly, he revisited and revised it over the years. Like a skilled artist, perhaps, who adds a touch of shadow and light later, it only adds to the immortal light of the work.

I read this book again
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is one of my favorite stories of all time. Gregor Samsa woke up one morning feeling like Uaboutussome kind of horrible creature. I think it perfectly encapsulates the relationship between people and groups of people.

I can’t read this book anymore
Anything by Enid Blyton. His work has not aged well.

A book I found later in life
When I was traveling in Egypt I read The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany and Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. All of these books connect to my memories of my time in Cairo.

A book that changed me as a teenager
I read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess when I was 15 and living in an orphanage. His actor, Alex, was the same age as me. I found the book amazing. The use of “nadsat” (youth language) as the language spoken by his “droogs” also showed me that there are many ways to innovate in a book.

The book I am reading now
Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir A Hymn to Life. I think she is amazing and inspiring.

My comfort read
Poetry: one stanza in Thirteen Ways to Look at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens, or The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop, or Temptation by Nina Cassian. There are many poems that I return to endlessly, as are my favorite songs that never fail to have something familiar and new at the same time.