Ann Landers

I read a lot of advice columns. As in one or two a week, not a lot'. A lot as in: I used to read problem pages every day, often for half an hour at a time.' 'A lot' because I spend more time reading advice columns than I do reading actual books in a few weeks. However, I don't read them for the information. I loved them for the tiny glimpses into other people's lives. I started as a youth in the 1990s in Australia. I used to babysit for a family who wanted to watch The Spectator, a British newspaper. There were always copies lying around, and when I finally leafed through one of them, I discovered a 'Dear Mary', written by Mary Killen (from Gogglebox) and still running 25 years later.