Rupert Bear
I owe a great deal to the Rupert Bear Christmas Annual of
1946, when I was coming up to three and a half. For a while I just enjoyed
looking at the pictures as I couldn’t then read, but my mother’s best friend
was determined to teach me.
She would spend ages with me, reading out the two-line
verses under each of the pictures. It took her a few months but before I was
four I could read the verses – and not just remember them from earlier readings
to me – though the main bulk of the story, in what seemed like great blocks of
writing at the bottom of each page was still beyond me.
The 1947 Rupert Annual was the catalyst for reading those blocks and by four and a half I could read properly. Many years later, in 2003, I went to a reunion of my primary school class, not having seen any of them since 1955 when we moved away from the area, and learned my being able to read when I started school had seemed incredible to them.
David Parkin
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