What awakened your passion for

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DS got me into archaeology when he was four. We visited yet another castle, he was fascinated by them, it was Roman and he kept asking questions I couldn't answer. When I got home I saw an evening course in Roman Archaeology advertised and did it. That was nearly 40 years ago. I now have a degree in archaeology and archaeology remains my main interest.

Ga we often went to the Free Trade Hall to hear the Halle, when I was a student in Manchester.
Once saw Sir John Barbirolli conduct the Messiah, but I think that was at Belle Vue.

Still learning - about a mass of things.
Especially history, sparked by my genealogy research....I follow all kinds of clues into all kinds of places, mostly online....love detective work.

I've always had a passion for learning, reading and other cultures and languages- which I really would NOT call academia personally. Never been interested in academia per se.

When I was at primary school (in the Swiss Jura mountains where I live now)- we had a big arrival of immigrants from Italy, with their children who did not speak a word of FRench- and I was ashamed how they were treated by some of the local children. So I befriended some of them and visited their homes- and learned quite a bit of Italian, how to make pasta and gnocchi, etc- and taught them French and showed them the wonderful sights, taught them how to make some of our local specialities, etc. My mum was the local librarian and we had the library as part of our house in exchange for cheap rent- so I always had books around.

I came to London for 6 months, to learn English (on the job- as assistant translator and secretary for Beecham's)- as I wanted to travel the world. All my friends became teachers, which was my worst nightmare. I met a wonderful man in London- so never made it any further... offered my services at a French assitante at a local 6th Form and became a teacher aged 32... life is funny.

Reading, and on to read English? And thence to a passion for poetry? My parents taught me to read early because they were fed up with my constant demands for stories, then introduced me to the local library (same experiences as you, when with the grown ip books) and local second hand book shop. There, aged 10, I bought an ancient copy of Palgrave's Golden Treasury, and got completely hooked on poetry. I learned lots by heart, and now have a mind full of quotations from there, as well as elsewhere from my studies and my teaching.

Oh, and etymology too! I did Classics at school - Latin and Greek to "A" Level, and, with French and English, this opened up a whole new world. Anglo Saxon at university just added to my delight in tracing the roots of words.

Food? Hunger

I saw my first ballet last year because my 6 year old granddaughter wanted to see Sleeping Beauty at the Sunderland Empire.

......and from reading Agatha Christie and the sleuthing children in Enid Blyton's books came my fascination with crime and the criminal mind, hence a career in probation and academic pursuits in psychology.

My 'epiphany' was being allowed to go to the library on my own, aged eight. I was allowed three books, usually Enid Blyton, but then I started exploring the shelves and would spend ages devouring the books before choosing what to take home. When it got to the stage that I was going there twice on a Saturday, aged eleven, the stern librarian told me she thought I might enjoy some adult books and showed me the Agatha Christie shelf. I sat in the corner engrossed, but wasn't allowed to take the adult books home, till the same librarian suggested my mum's library card would get me two books, and she gave me a knowing wink! I used my mum's card for quite some time before I got my own adult card and could raid the whole library.

I have been an avid reader all my life, but my ex-husband was not well pleased with my passion soon after we got married, when I set the newspaper on fire whilst standing at the cooker trying to read and stir gravy.

It depends when you read something. I always felt my children should never read anything I wouldn't want to reaD myself but now I think back how stuffy of me. But the right book at the right time . I read TH White 's books when I was getting books for my children. We weren't deprived of books as a child just no guidance and I get quite cross when I find there were children's books which are now considered classics published when I was a child and I knew nothing about them.

I have still got my copy of Jane Eyre. And Black Beauty. Given to me by a neighbour who must be long gone now. I' m glad she wrote in them. Even if she couldn't actually spell my name!

I think I owe my love of books to the children's library in the bowels of the old Town Hall in my home town. Used to spend hours browsing the shelves. Loved that place.

My grandfather worked with the railway horses, nightowl; supposedly he was awful to my grandma but if one of the horses was ill he used to sleep with them. He died round about the time that I was born, and I'm sure part of his spirit made it's way into me. In our first [rented] house there was a cupboard at the top of the stairs that had a box full of books; I can still remember looking at them. Mum always took me to the cinema and bought me books; she and my dad were both lacking in education so I don't know where that came from. I went to an amazing primary school in a really poor area and so many of us went on the grammar school. And there I met an American lad who took us to Stratford to see Shakespeare. And my ex husband, who's family had a passion for travel, drove me round Europe each summer for several years. That's why I'm so passionate about Education; sow the seed in a child and it will grow.

Stansgran have read reams about King Arthur both adult books and kids. Even bought a very tatty copy of The Mabinogion! (can't say I've read cover to cover though )

BUT, The Once and Future King was the only one I couldn't take to! Might give it another try - borrow it back from grandson (he loved it!)

Think I might be a bit King Arthur'd out now though! It was a grand phase in my reading life.

We didn't have a bookcase as such, and my mum was not a great reader. But she had a strange assortment of books in the tiny bedroom that we referred to as the box room and in there I found 'Jane Eyre'. Goodness knows where it had come from. I started to read it one day when I was bored - I can't have been more than 8 or 9 and I'm not at all sure how much of it I understood, but I was hooked on literature from then.

I think I was born with a love of ballet and of horses. I have no idea where either came from as no one in my immediate family shared them. My grandfather was a farmer and worked with heavy horses, but he died before I was born. I think I inherited his genes. Either that or I was a horse in a previous life.

For me it was meeting a new friend, when we were both about 19. She came from an educated background- her family knew about art, discussed books and spoke foreign languages. I went on holiday to Italy with her - when all the famous buildings were free of tourists. We were often the only ones. We 'did' Paris and then Italy and after that I was a changed person.
The next great leap was to learn German, to embrace a new culture, to speak it fluently and become bilingual.
I am still interested in so many things.

On school trips I also went to see ballet at the Palace in Manchester and heard the Halle Orchestra several times at the Free Trade Hall. Sir John Barbirolli was the conductor and it was the most amazing experience; I remember being enthralled.

I have always read a lot and still do. I muddled through senior school, doing what had to be done but not really enjoying it much. Now, I am interested in all sorts of things. I think what makes the difference is that now I learn about what is relevant and enjoyable to me personally.

When I was 8, our teacher, Miss Crossley, took a small group of us from our primary school in Stockport, by bus, to the Palace Theatre in Manchester to see the Festival Ballet perform The Nutcracker Suite.
I was enchanted, mainly by the music. I have loved classical music ever since.
But I wonder how many children from very ordinary backgrounds these days are offered such an experience.

Perhaps one of my greatest inspirations for learning was my father. He came from the Netherlands as a small boy at the time of World War I so grew up bilingual but he had an amazing gift – and ear – for languages. In Germany, they assumed he was German or Austrian, in France, they thought he was French. He also spoke fluent Spanish and Italian, although those were the only two languages he ever confused, and competent Arabic, Japanese, Swedish, Afrikaans and several others that I have now forgotten. As a child, I just assumed that all adults spoke loads of languages and he encouraged me to have a go wherever we were on holiday, saying that it didn't matter if I got it wrong. I speak several European languages, two of them fluently, and can read several more, including Old English and Old Icelandic. I am planning to learn Maori as soon as I have the time as it is unlike anything I already know.

To my mother's annoyance, he never taught me Dutch. His reasoning was that only Dutch people spoke Dutch and they all spoke at least one and usually two other European languages. As a child I understood quite a bit of Dutch because my father's family chatted away in Dutch when they were together and when I was in Belgium I was surprised to discover that I could understand quite a lot of Flemish. I couldn't reply in Flemish, though.

When I'm teaching I almost always have a dictionary on the table and most of my students are intrigued because few of them have ever used one.

Grannyactivist, tell your kids to stop laughing because there's someone else who reads dictionaries for fun.
My kids always used to say, "Mum's got a book on it," if they wanted to know anything, but now they look things up on the internet and it's not such fun. Fortunately all my grandaughters have inherited my love of reading.
When I was at college, where I went because I liked learning, there was a lecturer in Environmental Science who could link history, geography, literature and the environment. I could have listened to him for hours - but I usually had to pick the kids up!

There are so many things I would still like to learn about. Even Maths, which I never took seriously at school, despite my father's best efforts! As Chaucer said:

"The life so short, the craft so long to learn
Th'essaie so hard, so sharp the conquering."

That's what studying literature does for you - a quotation for any occasion! Just ask my long-suffering family.

Geology is now my big interest as a "hobby."
I think my last year form teacher in junior school had a hand. He was well into Meterology and enthusiastic about clouds and Geography.
I was always picking up unusual bits of rock then.

Next came my geography teacher Mr Kneeshaw in my secondary school. He was a lovely man and well respected by all. He saw me through to O level and inspired me, particularly with regard to the physical Geography (Geomorphology) which led me on to do Geology and A level Geography.

Ah! Wegner's theory that continents were drifting about the earth was blissfully mind boggling to me.

In the mid 1960s the concepts of continents subducting and sea floors spreading was not quite main stream enough for a school curriculum.