Nikita Gill: ‘I read Flowers in the Attic too young. Someone should have stopped me’

The Guardian · Guardian staff reporter · 2026-11-06 10:00 UTC

The Indian-Irish poet on the Mahabharata retelling that inspired her to write, Arundhati Roy’s courage, and the poetry of Lucille Clifton

My earliest reading memory

My father was a sailor and my mother a teacher. They were both voracious readers. I was lucky enough to come from a home full of books and when we joined my father out at sea for extended periods of time, my mother carried plenty of books for me to read. I remember sitting by the porthole in our cabin, looking out at the sea on a sunny day, the ship moving calmly through the waters. I was reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, a book that still feels like a dream. I was four years old.

My favourite book growing up

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