Claire Fuller: ‘Dylan Thomas showed me that writing could make me feel everything’

The novelist on being inspired by Shirley Jackson, discovering the brilliance of Denis Johnson, and finding comfort in Elizabeth Strout

My earliest reading memory When I was five and starting school, I would catch a coach from the Oxfordshire village where I lived. Twice a day I read the little metal plaque screwed to the upholstery, which gave the warning “Mind your head when leaving your seat”.

My favourite book growing up In the late 1970s my dad had a copy of Phenomena by John Michell. Each page covers something strange, which might or might not be true: showers of fish, stigmata, spontaneous human combustion. I would lie on the carpet flicking through the pages and loving the chills it gave me that (maybe) there could be such weirdness in the world.

The book that changed me as a teenager When I was 14, I was Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard in a school production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. It was when we were reading those mellifluous words aloud that I first understood that writing could make me feel everything .

The book that changed my mind Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The book is a list of assignments: some very simple (take a picture of under your bed), and others more challenging (have a one-person demonstration). The public assignments terrified me, but I discovered that I loved having done them and I’ve been searching out that feeling ever since.

The book that made me want to be a writer We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It was the first book I read through a writer’s eyes, trying to work out how Jackson created the extraordinary Merricat and how she made me feel so much for her.

The author I came back to I read Angels by Denis Johnson about 15 years ago and thought, “what’s all the fuss?” And then I read Train Dreams and then Jesus’ Son, and now his books are among my favourites ever.

The book I reread There’s only one book I keep on my desk while I’m writing: Wildlife by Richard Ford. I often pick it up and read a page or two to remind myself what it is I’m supposed to be doing.

The book I could never read again Last year I read and loved Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry but I’d never read it again because it’s 843 pages and there are too many other books I want to read.

The book I discovered later in life I missed out on nearly all the classics when I was younger so last year I decided to read one a year, starting with Pride and Prejudice. And yes, I rather enjoyed it.

The book I am currently reading I run a book club at the Cabinet Rooms in Winchester. And as well as our regular monthly choices, I’ve selected The Stand by Stephen King to read over the course of a year. I cannot wait to pick it up again.

My comfort read I have a comfort author: Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, her stories, her characters. I’ve just finished her latest, The Things We Never Say, and it was a delight.