Horror has always been a closed book as a genre to me, because when I was ten I read a story than which I cannot imagine anything more terrifying. I was listening to Everything but the Girl’s version of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” as I read, and if that comes on the radio to this day I have to jump up and turn it off.

The story was in a collection of ghost stories I had borrowed from the library, and concerns some teenagers who rent an under-the-counter video from a dodgy newsagent. A mysterious youth, unknown to the others, appears and persuades them to let them watch the film with them.

It is called “Video Nasty” by Philip Pullman, who has been heard of since. No, I don’t think such stories should be kept out of the hands of ten-year-olds.