World Book Day

I was watching the children going to  the school across the road this morning. They were  all dressed as a favourite book character. 
I then did the shopping early and, late morning, took Stephen up to the hairdressers  before I went to have a coffee whilst I waited for him. 
     I asked if I could sit down opposite a young person with  beautiful shades of purple hair as it was pretty well full, being Caffe Nero.  
We shared a table in an alcove. 

She took out a book to read, by Matt Haig called "How to Stop Time".
   I asked her about it  and we ended up having a wonderful discussion on how we both came to love books, discovering it was down to our fathers who encouraged us and read to us, my sister and I, when we were younger.
   My own dad gave me a love of Shakespeare. 
It was a joy when we moved into the Midlands to take him to take him to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon on several occasions.
Shakespearean plays come alive on stage. So much better than the reading the text out loud which we suffered from one or two of our teachers at Grammar School! With one exception.......a Mr Reg Phillips. 
He was our English tutor in the Sixth Form, and he had a way of making the characters come alive, even when we were just studying the texts, 
     I came away feeling that it was so encouraging to see a young person have such a love of books, and the feeling of turning the pages, rather than reading on a Kindle or other device. 
    Stephen reappeared and said he would walk home, (about 15 minutes or so away). I was the "back up" so waited about 10 minutes and then set off once more in the car.
He was almost home when I passed him. 
Another milestone in his recovery. 
      His former secretary is coming to visit this afternoon.    
               
                 Happy World Book Day everyone!