Comics and Magazines
A big departure occurred in April 1950 when the Eagle comic was first published. This had high quality pictures and paper and was an immediate success. The lead story involved spaceman Dan Dare: perennially dealing with the Mekon, egg-shaped-head leader of the Treens. I regularly read the Eagle (weekly) and also a similar comic: the Lion.
Monthly magazines catered for my hobby interests (at successive dates): Meccano Magazine; Aeromodeller; Practical Wireless; Wireless World.
Books
The first books I was aware of were those read to me by my parents. I have been reminded by them of a picture alphabet-book with several items starting with the same letter on a page. I had trouble saying "s" so "der nake, der nail, der tar, der nip-nips" became my version of "snake, snail, star, scissors".
My mother had had a classical (Greek and Latin) education and chose to read to me tales from Greek Mythology: from Charles Lamb's "The Adventures of Ulysses" most probably. My main memory is of being rather scared of some of the "monsters" encountered.
I asked my mother to teach me to read. She had been taught to read by her own mother, and had suffered as a result by starting school with a class of older pupils since she could already read. My mother told me "You will be able to read when you go to school".
On returning from my first day at school, I picked up the newspaper and broke into tears. I told my mother that I could not read it as I had been promised. Children do take words too literally sometimes.
I did indeed learn to read at school. I visited the public library to borrow and read the usual "boys" books: Just William (Richmal Crompton); Enid Blyton; Biggles (airman; W.E. Johns); Hornblower (sailing battles; C.S. Forester).
I have always read rather fast, skipping any detailed description, to get to the plot denouement. By the time I was in the sixth form, my father, who had been an English teacher, gave me a list of "worthy books" that he felt would signify an "educated mind" to an Oxbridge entrance selection panel. I duly read most of these. Some made a big impact: 1984(Orwell) and Brave New World (Huxley) in particular.
I have read quite widely since, but not much has made a lasting impression. Perhaps Kurt Vonnegut is the closest: his dry clipped style and vivid imagination are to my taste. Les Animaux Dénaturés by Vercors also made an impression (it has been translated into English and the film Skullduggery is based on it).
Writing
I had to write essays at school and achieved satisfactory, but not more, assessments. My first "publication" was a newsletter that my colleague (Mike Weber) and I created when in the first form at grammar school. This was a mixture of journalism, general interest and a crossword. A rival group also produced a newsletter: created by writing copies by hand (like mediaeval monks) whereas we had an (ancient) duplicating machine.
At that time we used a typewriter to produce the text - my father had an ancient Corona portable typewriter. I did try to learn touch-typing but found that I could type with two fingers as fast as I could think: so never achieved the skill to touch-type. To practice touch-typing I used a list of the 100 most commonly mis-spelled words (as collected by my father from his days as an English teacher). As a result I can spell those 100 words, but I can be unsure about the next thousand.
My next ventures were scientific papers. As explained here, these were written longhand and given to a secretary to type. Scientific papers are a rather esoteric branch of literature: all feeling and personality having been removed.
Down the decades I wrote many papers (and reviews) -- for details see here .
When I had amassed a range of information about shipwrecks in Liverpool Bay, I decided to make it available to other divers and interested parties. I was urged to include photos of reasonable quality to illustrate the wrecks. After some debate, I decided to publish the book myself (as sole trader of Liverpool Marine Press). I was used to producing "camera-ready copy" for proceedings of scientific conferences, so went ahead to type-set the book using LATEX.
I found a local printer who would print the book (paperback). They put me in touch with Lavers (publishers of Tide Tables for Liverpool and elsewhere). Lavers agreed to help with distributing the book (including advertising it in their tide tables) for a commission. This helped to solve one of the big drawbacks of self-publishing: distribution. I also contacted some local bookshops myself and they agreed to take copies directly from Liverpool Marine Press.
For details of subsequent books (Wrecks of Liverpool Bay Vol II; Lelia; Liverpool Hurricane of 1839) see here.