As well as being the Lunar Year of the Horse, this is also the Year of the Book, or, more accurately, ‘The National Year of Reading’, an initiative by the National Literacy Trust to celebrate and encourage reading. Studies show the urgency of such an initiative: a YouGov poll in March 2026 showed that 40% of British adults have not read or listened to a whole book in the last year. So we at Stanbrook asked members of the community some questions about books and reading:

• Is there a book that changed your life?
• A book whose impact you will never forget?
• A book you return to often?
• What is the first book you recall reading?

Over the coming months, both on the website and in our magazine Stanbrook Benedictines, we shall share their responses, beginning with a piece by Sr Thérèse.

If you feel inspired to reflect on these questions yourselves and would like to share your thoughts, please send brief contributions to Sr Laurentia, crieflodges@stanbrookabbey.org.uk

or Sr Philippa,
tessapip@hotmail.com

Sr Thérèse writes:
I can’t remember being unable to read. Mum taught me when I was very young and I loved to look at and read books, at home, at school, at the library. One day at school I went into the book corner and read and read, then, suddenly recollecting myself, felt guilty at having been so pleasantly occupied and returned to the classroom. The teacher, spotting me wandering about, sent me straight back to the book corner! What joy!

I was soon moved up to the second class. A boy joined us who didn’t even know his alphabet; I felt so sorry for him. Then he began to make progress, and as he went through the letters, and the sounds they made, I watched, filled with amazement at how our teacher had helped open up this new world of books for him.

I do remember learning to read Greek at secondary school. Having learnt the alphabet for homework, we were then presented with words. Our teacher read each one, and we were to repeat it – ‘What was that, Miss?’ we asked. Then suddenly the letters began to represent sounds – alpha became ‘a’ – and I could sound out these mysterious words. Learning their meaning took much longer.

I remember many books in my childhood – Heidi was a favourite for a while, followed by Ballet Shoes. Later, science fiction and fantasy took over, but this was always mixed with a scattering of classics – Jane Austen and Dickens being prominent.

Yet I never found the ‘one book’ that I could always go back to, that would sustain me for years. I would wonder what I might take to a desert island and was never satisfied with my choice, until a few years ago: Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich.