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Hello, Gustav Flobers' advice was, do not read as children do to muse yourself or like the ambitious for the purposes of instruction.

No, read in order to live.

Advice or instructions on reading litter the ages from the Catholic Church refusing to translate the Bible into modern languages to 18th century women being warned that in judicious reading could turn them to prostitution or much worse.

As soon as the written word was invented, it came with a health warning. Throughout the history of reading from the invention of the printing press onwards, much of that advice has been completely ignored.

To discuss the history of reading in Britain, I'm joined by Professor Kevin Sharp, author of reading revolutions, the politics of reading in early modern England.

And by Professor Jacqueline Pearson, who's written women's reading in Britain 1750 to 1835.

Kevin Sharp, we're going to start at the printing press, but can you just give us a few sketch marks before the late middle ages.

I mean, there was a library at Alexandria, the Greeks wrote, the Romans wrote, and Charlemagne brought back the book and so on.

Well, because readings are relatively new subject, there's still a great deal of work to be done here.

But I mean, one of the things that's clear is from the classical world, the association of reading with power and with privilege was very evident.

The Library of Alexandria was very much as it were what we might almost call a governmental resource.

And reading was one of the marks of privilege and power, one of the ways in which privilege and power were reinforced.

I think we can, if we return to classical texts with that sense, we could reread particularly someone like Catullus with their very obvious interest in the relationship between authority, writing, and reading, a fresh and new.

And in those classical pre-blade medieval times, is reading most important for instruction?

Yes, among an elite. I mean, reading was of course restricted. The literate class was the governing class.

And we can see depictions of this on Greek vases, as well as within the texts themselves.

Do you have anything to bring us from that particular theory, Jacqueline?

I think not only was reading associated with power, I think it was also meant to transform, wasn't it?

There's a story about St. Augustine hearing a voice telling him to take up and read, at which point he picks up the Bible and becomes converted to Christianity.

So right from the start, I think reading was meant to do things to the individual reader.

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