Whenever this novel is mentioned I still tear up and feel faintly nauseous at the same time. Some 40 years after I read the book, I still cannot bear to read it again — and I have never watched the film. I certainly stayed away from it during my own sensitive baby’s childhood. I did definitely find it traumatic. However, I absolutely agree that it changed me and was one of the books which, read as a child, began to form my attitudes and perspectives for adulthood.