Joseph Farrell (3)

Growing up in Scotland for my generation meant growing up with Robert Louis Stevenson. It was not that we were all avid readers, although many of us were, but the B.B.C. did adaptations of his fiction on radio and T.V., and a series of “classic comics” circulated and were keenly read and swopped. Treasure Island and Kidnapped were part of our lives, in the same way, I suppose, as social media is for today’s younger generation. At least that was the case for boys. I was surprised when working on this book to be told by female friends that he was regarded as a boys’ writer, not someone for them. (p.13)