Dear WW,

I think it was my mother's fault that I was so interested in words. When I was small, it went:

Patty-cake, patty-cake
Baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with C
And put it in the oven for Cristina and me!

(Even at that young age I was being taught, for example, that my name started with "C" - I don't remember learning the alphabet, for example...as far as I'm concerned, I've "always" known it! So even as a baby, I was a wordie already - and the rest, as they say, is history!)