Reading an article about the new Sylvia Plath film I came across a slightly weird thing. Which is that when they were young and lived in Cambridge, (which is where I was brought up - why was I bothering to hide that?), they lived about four doors away from my parents. My parents married really young and their first house was rented from the University in a charming suburb called Newnham. My father has read more books than anyone I have ever known (apart from Badger). Together we even won one of the Sunday Times annual Literary Quizzes, which was quite a big deal at the time and he got all the answers right every year afterwards but they wouldn't give him the prize twice.

Anyway .... They lived there at exactly the same time and were pretty much the same age. AND the man who lived above Sylvia Plath and was their friend was also a friend of my parents and I met him when I was little. Why on earth did my father never mention that? We used to talk about books all the time and I'm sure I would have had 'The Bell Jar' lying about at some point. Who didn't? If only we were speaking I suppose I could just ask him.
- posted by Iris @ 11/03/2003 01:21:00 PM comment