The BBCs recent Big Read project brought up a few missing volumes in ‘things I think I ought to have read’; there are plenty of the 100 books chosen that I have no interest in reading, and then there are others, like Jane Eyre, that I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to avoid reading.

I did read the beginning of this as a child up to the point where Jane skips quickly from being a ten year old to being an eighteen year old. Jane’s schooldays were fascinating to me and I reread them any number of times but at the time I wasn’t much interested in the life of a post-eighteen year old adult. I’ve at last remedied the situation and read the rest of the book. I thought that I pretty much knew the story anyway but there was plenty that was new to me.

One of the problems with having read The Eyre Affair first is that I kept expecting Japanese tourists to pop up whenever Jane wandered outside but if anything the antics that that conjures up in my head makes the book even better.

The best book ever? I’m not sure, but certainly one of the best.