ABSTRACT
The focus in this chapter is on those born before the outbreak of the World War II in 1939.1 The seven people whose voices we hear below have taken very different paths in life. Yet all share the common factor of being successful readers and writers, of using reading and writing frequently in both their work and their leisure activities. Our aim in this chapter is to ask: How did they manage this success, apparently against all the odds? What do they remember to be important in their early literacy lives? We unpick the scope, span and nature of learning to read and write at school, at home and in the community and examine the role played by parents and other key mediators of literacy in their lives as children in the first half of the twentieth century. Throughout the chapter, we return to our theme of contrasting literacies as the key to early literacy success.2
