I come from a family of readers. In my home, reading was as natural as breathing. So, if you start as a reader, it's not surprising if you end up a writer,

Major influences, then, ...my mother and father who never insisted that I read but who so often had their heads stuck in books.

School did not encourage my reading or writing. The English teacher, in our small grammar school, was hopeless and had been for many years before my arrival. When I reflect upon it now, it rather ... well,  after nearly seventy years, it still irritates me.