Chris Riddell

And one day I remember I got to Peter and Jane 2B.

I went into a neighbouring classroom and on the table I saw this astonishing book.

And it was Peter and Jane 12C.

It was the very top of this reading scheme.

And I looked at this extraordinary book and there was Peter and there was Jane and they were sort of having tea with mummy or something, but in incredibly long sentences.

And I looked at this book and I thought, if only I can get from Peter and Jane 2B all the way up to 12C.

then I will have mastered this incredibly difficult skill called learning to read.

And then I'd never read another book again because I'd have died.

And then next to Peter and Jane, 12C, there was another book, and it was called Agaton Saxon, The Jewel Thieves.

And it had an amazing cover by the illustrator Quentin Blake.

And this was an illustrator that at the time I didn't know, but I just saw this exquisite drawing of a bloodhound eating a cream cake and a detective with a big moustache and a bowler hat and some jewel thieves in the distance.

And I thought, that's not Peter and Jane.

And I picked it up and I flicked through and it had these lots of pictures in it and it had very complicated sentences, but it also had

this thing that I recognized instantly that I wanted, which was a story, a real story.

It wasn't having tea with mummy.

This was a proper story that I wanted to get to the bottom of.

And I borrowed that book and I took it home and I carefully and with great difficulty managed to pick my way through it and get to the end.

And I realized, you know, with a shock that I had loved this experience and I wanted to do it again.

I wanted to find another book.

with a cover like that.