The novelist on learning empathy from Charles Dickens, the playfulness of Irenosen Okojie and avoiding Jane Austen My earliest reading memory I was eight when I was given The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, after being moved from my grandmother’s care to live with my mother and her husband, wh...
Source: [Guardian International](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/31/jacqueline-crooks-toni-morrisons-voice-made-me-want-to-find-my-own)