<b>Artfully evokes that particular magic of reading as a child… Deliciously unrepentant</b>, Mangan’s <i>Bookworm</i> makes a timely case not just for how vital reading is, but also for rereading books as a child, and how reading remains consoling, fortifying and, sometimes, magical.

The Sunday Times

<b>A wonderful romp through the pages of childhood</b>, illuminated by wisdom, humour and enthusiasm.

Bernard Cornwell

What Mangan does brilliantly is express the experience of reading and articulate the emotional connections we make with stories. She understands how books become entwined in our lives and help us make sense of the world. You don’t need to have enjoyed the same books as she has to <b>recognise the pure, life-affirming joy of reading that <i>Bookworm</i> celebrates so eloquently</b>.

The Observer

<b>Lucy Mangan has enough comic energy to power the National Grid</b>... We need this new memoir about her childhood of being a bookworm. It's enchanting.

The Spectator

To read Lucy Mangan’s memoir of growing up bookish is <b>to be taken back to a time in life when reading wasn’t merely a gentle pleasure or mild obligation but an activity as essential as breathing</b>.

Guardian

Anyone who has ever preferred books to life will recognise Lucy Mangan as a kindred spirit. Her <b>moving, funny, honest and superbly-written </b>memoir about how childhood reading shapes our personalities, memories and chances could not be more timely or more needed in an age of library closures, embattled Humanities teaching and Philistinism.

Amanda Craig

Lucy Mangan's passionate, amusing and nostalgic reflection upon her favourite children’s books <b>deserves to become as much of a classic as the novels she revisits</b>.

Sunday Express