Favourites were The Railway Children and The Secret Garden but the book I related to most was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I too, was born in India like it’s heroine Sarah, and I was sent away to boarding school when I was aged six with long gaps when I didn’t see my parents.
My school in Scotland was somewhat bleak and brutal but I drew inspiration from Sarah’s defiance, courage and stoicism. There was the joyous reunion with her father just as I looked forward to a reunion with mine.