What books did you love as a child

Scarlett · What books did you love as a child

God there are so many

What are your favourites?

I loved Just William
The Famous Five
Jill's Pony Club (series)

but favourites were the "little women" books

Little Women
Little Men
Good Wives
Jo's boys they were ace!!!

shorty

loved the Land of the Faraway Tree books, Mallory Towers, St Claires....LOVED all the Anne of Green Gables ones too!!

nickmacuk

First memories The Faraway Tree, Then went through the Famous 5 series but my favourites were tHe Aventure Series with "The Castle of Adventure" posibly my favourite.

Scarlett

Oh guest Id forgotten the Mallory Towers ones..........I loved them too!

My dad used to take me every week to buy a book..........I think its so important to get young children reading, all of mine still do!

I also loved Black Beauty...............cried my eyes out when Ginger died

Also the Enid Blyton series "the Mystery of........ "

Tango Bunny

Anything Enid Blyton when I was younger then in my teens I was into horror books
Graham Masterton mostly

Acorncup

I liked Enid Blyton too.....the secret seven, was it? solved mysteries....

and Mallory Towers etc.

Frpm the library I got books of fairy/folk stories from different countries, they had different colour covers....

I even liked Jennings!!!

Ive probably fogotten lots

but my favourite was Carbonel, about a witch's cat.

there's one for sale on ebay!!

Scarlett

Awww I remember Jennings too!

Its funny you've just brought back a really strong memory for me.

I read one of the Jennings' books when very young and there was a poem in it that totally frightened the living crap out of me, and I was scared to walk anywhere on my own for ages after it................it still gives me the creeps and I cant imagine why it was in a Jennings book

something like

A stranger on a lonesome road doth walk in fear and dread
And having turned once, turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread.

ooooooothat still scares me now

Added later: Wow! Ive googled it and although I totally misquoted it, its from the poem "The ancient Mariner".................you live and learn eh?

madsue

Enid Blyton!! In fact I don't think there is one book of hers I haven't read and reread!!! Starting from Noddy onwards

In fact I still have loads of them here, and did read an old Famous Five not that long ago when I had nothing else in the house to read

annsie

Just about all of the above, plus "A Star for Starlight" (horsey story) and "Jill at Hazlemere and all the "Chalet School" stories and when in my teens the Dennis Wheatley horror stories. Oh and Georgette Heyer novels. My english master told me that if I "must" read romantic fiction then let it be Heyer and NOT Cartland!!

numberplease

I`m with you Jo with the Little Women, etc, read and re-read loads of times. Also loved The Famous Five and Secret Seven, and Schoolfriend comic and annuals. In my teens I graduated to Georgette Heyer, recommended by my English teacher, and Agatha Christie.

Scarlett

Funny Lois as I got into my teens it was Agatha Christie I read too.

Also read most of Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann (Valley of the Dolls)..................very trashy but good!

numberplease

When I was 14 I read Anna Karenina, was so pleased with myself I thought I` read War and Peace. It ended up as the only book I`ve actually given up on, it was just too heavy going.

GoldenChippie

i used to have a massive hardback book of fables - cant remember whos they were - but it had arrabian knights and stuff like that it - can remember i read it loads

then it was old Enid

then i loved the lion, the witch and the wardrobe books

Pam7

Milly Molly Mandy books (LOVED the map inside the front cover of her 'village')

All Enid Blyton books...(The Greylings Treasure was a fav!)

All Mary Elwyn Patchett books - Set in Oz...all about wild dingos and horses - The Brumby etc

As I got older ALL Dennis Wheatley books and scared myself to death

hilda

mallory towers,,,,,st claires,,,,,,,,,,,,,,still remember them as if id read em yesterday, and some books about some kids that soved some mysteris in cornwall,,, three of em and an a asian lad?? they re up the loft,,,,,,,,,,

Acorncup

Ooh I read some Dennis Wheatley tooo....

and Agatha Christie

and how could I forget the "Little House on the Prairie" series?

guest that is amazing about the poem....fancy you remembering it

we had to learn a few poems, I remember

Slowly, silently, now the moon
walks the night in her silver shoon
this way and that she peers and sees
silver fruit upon silver trees....

I forget the rest

Pam7

My fav poem was The Highwayman!

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/highwayman-orig.html

Scarlett

I remember that one Acorns

one by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery latch
Couched in his kennel like a log
With paws of silver sleeps the dog
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in a silver feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

I love poetry, I can remember lots from school.

I loved "the Ballad of Semmerwater"

hilda

oh oh on hol once me dad gave us a tape recorder,,,,,, the rectangle ones,,,,,,, and told us to press play,,,,, hed taped himself reading a book for us to listen to on the journey, and when the tape ended he gave me the book to carry on with,,,,,,,,,,it was the faraway tree,,,,,,,, moonface,,,,,,,, fanny,,,,, silverpixie,,,,,,,,saucepan man,,,,,,,,,, and mallory toweres i so wanted to be darrel,,,,,,,,, but was a tad more like gwendoline,,,,,,,alicia ooo all coming back now,,,,,,

Scarlett

OH MY GOD HILDA

I vaguely remembered the books and what they were about, but you saying that it all comes flooding back!!!!

And they played tricks on the teacher.................God Darrel thats right, she was the heroine!

numberplease

Gail, was it Aesop`s fables? I forgot about them, also Scheherazade`s 1001 Arabian nights.
Pam, I`d forgotten about the Dennis Wheatley books, loved `em!
As for poetry, I always had a fondness for John Masefield, particularly Cargoes. And the one that begins
I must go down to the sea again,
To the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I need is a tall ship,
And a star to steer her by,

Pam7

OOO Yes Number!! Sea Fever it was called!

Scarlett

I love "the lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats!

oooo Im so glad I started this thread its bringing back SOOOO many lovely memories Id forgotten

Thanks everyone.............please keep them coming

Acorncup

I don;t remember the faraway ones at all

where was I????

who were they by?

Hilda that was nice of your dad to make a tape

guest thanks for finishing off the poem.....do you think our schools had the same poetry books? My hubby likes the Highwayman......

Our primary achool also entered a competition where they recited/acted out the "jackdaw of Rheims"

The jackdaw sat on the cardinal's chair
bishop and abbott and prior were there.
Many a monk and many a friar,
many a knight and many a squire
insooth a goodly company...

and the jackdaw sat on the something or other......stole the ring and caused a right hoo ha.....got itself cursed but brought the ring back in the end

I remember other snatches of it too.....it was by Rev Ingoldsby......

Scarlett

Ive never heard of the Faraway ones either

But Gail I did love all of the Narnia books............favourite was Prince Caspian.

Pam7

Spike Milligan books!!!

and...Little Black Sambo books too!

Scarlett

"Adolf Hitler and my part in his downfall" Pam

I loved that one.

a quote from Spike

"A pain shot down my left leg and across the road to a bus stop"

and when he was joining the army

"they gave me a picture of Hitler marked "this is your enemy"

hilda

full of little poems hed written while recovering from shell shock and in the army bant,,,,,,,was there a series of them,,,,,,, the little pot boiler???

musicman

Then they put me on a train and ....

shorty

The faraway Tree ones were Enid Blyton!!! Oh they were excellent

. I forgot until I saw other people had put them I also loved the Famous Five and the Secret Seven but the best book I ever ever read as a child was called "Jenny" and it was about a child who turned into a cat at night and had adventures with another cat...cannot remember the author

Acorncup

For all Jennings fans...

you might like this, there's a good review if you scroll down the page...though ignore the second one

http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/jennings.html

ooh just seen your post, guest...I'l have to look up the faraway tree ones.....of course, you couldn't get Enid Blyton in the library because they weren't reallly approved of, were they?

Mind you I read a biography of her, which was an eye opener

hilda

gosh ive just googled them and didnt realise they weer so old,,,1939 .........

Acorncup

Nope don't remember the farawy tree ones at all

But I do remember ones about nature.....Tales from Green Hedges????

hey but...what about.......Noel Streatfeild???

Ballet Shoes, and the Gemma series

shorty

never heard of them! Were they girly girl books? x

staceylc

The Faraway Tree series was one of my favourites too!!! I saw a box set in TK Maxx a few weeks ago for about £5 but I didn't buy it, I wish I had now.

I also loved The Worst Witch series, a book called The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler (don't know who it was by) & also a book about a ghost that lived in a coal shed in this boys back garden, I can't even remember what the book was called.

Ooh & The Demon Headmaster.

I used to love going to the library. My Mum took us every week or 2 & I used to get 4 books out at a time.

Scarlett

Muisicman, yes I loved all Spikes books too.

Im loving this thread!

Did anyone have "Monty Pythons big red book" (it was blue).

I still have mine, and although the humour is slightly old fashioned in parts its still hilarious!

GoldenChippie

numberplease

I haven`t got mine anymore, but I can remember them both having green backs with gold writing. I don`t know how long it existed for, but as a child (lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong ago!) I had the Enid Blyton magazine every week. It was really only very small, not as big as a comic, but a bit thicker. I also read a couple of the Biggles books, loved them, then went off them.

sunbear

All the Narnia stuff. Not seen the The Hobbit mentioned. Lord of the Rings. The Otterbury Incident. Biggles, Jennings and Derbyshire. Enid Blyton stuff. Arthur C Clarke and Issac Azimov when I was a little older.

And I could just lose myself in some of the book cover art work...like the ones to the Narnia tales and the hardback version of LOTR I had.

shorty

guest, I bought that Monty Python Big Red Bok with a gift voucher I won at school, it was the music prize!!!! haven't thought about it in yeras, was this the one with the story in it (among tons ofd others) about the Princess who had a dead dog she used to drag round on a lead in her castle?

Acorncup

Doh, how could I forget the narnia books???

And yes sunbear, books in those days had real artwork on the covers...

Which reminds me, thinking about artwork, what about Ladybird books? they were little gems

numberplease

I`ve got 3 hardback children`s books, given to me over 30 years ago by a couple of elderly aunts, spinster sisters, and they have the fancy label inside to say that they were Sunday School prizes..................in 1913! I`ve read them, they`re very old fashioned, as you`d expect, and very moralistic. I can remember one of my daughter`s friends cracking up when she read the sentence "Oh, Wilfred, you ARE a brick!" They`re in really good condition, and I took them to the Antiques Roadshow a couple of years ago when it came to Boston, and he said they were worth about a fiver, which surprised me.

Scarlett

Acorncup

Yes, we liked the film too (sorry if I'm going a bit off topic

)

have you seen it?

I used to get a couple of 7/6d book or WH Smith tokens for Christmas/birthday, and in those days the paperbacks were 2/6d each....so I'd stock up for the summer holiday

Pam7

I'll always remember a cheeky chappie in one of the Enid Blyton books who said 'Go boil your head...and fry your face while you're about it ' !!!!

RUPERT! Was a bit unsure on this one....Tiger Lilly etc.....so...WHO read the quick method of the couple of lines under each picture...or the WHOLE block of type? HOW many water lilly origami things did you make too!

Scarlett

Funny I never took to Rupert at all............something about him I didnt warm to.

Same with Wind in the Willows, never liked that frog person.

When I was really tiny I do remember one called "Orlando the Marmalade Cat"

He was class!

added later:- googled him...............here he is, does anyone remember him?

Acorncup

Oh yes I remember Orlando

I liked Wind in the Willows......are you thinking of Mr Toad??

And Rupert....hee hee I only read the verses too....did ANYBODY ever read the long wordy bits? I used to have Rupert annuals....if you look on ebay now, the old ones are quite pricey, about £28

k&r

i loved enid blytons famous five, and adrien mole books............i had all the sets,

not so keen on the secret seven, but read them anyway..........

madsue

I'd forgotten about Rupert!!! I had his album for Xmas every year!! And I read the "real" words, cos I don't like rhymes

The Faraway Tree was just the best! In fact when I went to Powerscourt House last year the trees lining the walk reminded me of the books! Also this year at Kentwell Hall the trees there reminded me of them too, I even said so to a lady who was staring at them at the same time as me!

She just smiled....so maybe she didn't understand what I meant!

shorty

Rupert gave me the serious willies, hated him!!

Acorncup

willies should be fun, deffo

madsue

gypsy93

i loved enchanted wood, land of the faraway tree etc, also secret seven, famous five, twins at st claires and mallory towers. then loved black beauty (skipped the bit where ginger dies ) what katy did series, anne of green gables, jane eyre and the lion, witch and wardrobe (but not the others). couldn't stand rupert or wind in the willows either. in my teens i read jacquline suzanne and harold robbins ( 79 park ave was my fave) but i remember reading a book about a boy from a dis-functional family, set in new york and mostly set around coney island, i read it probably a dozen times, but have no idea now what it was called or who by--i do remember he had a cat called --cat---ring any bells for anyone?

k&r

oh gypsie, i forgot about mallory towers and the twins............

how i wish i had kept my old books for my daughter to read now........

Scarlett

Heh heh Gypsy how did I know you would like the same books as me!!!!

Harold Robbins was very risque in the 1970s!!!

My favourite of his was "A stone for Danny Fisher" it actually is a very "good" book, I could read it again.

In fact I just might geet a copy for me hollies next week!

medot

ooo i used to love reading.... the secret seven. got a couple for my daughter to read....and she thought they were utter rubbish!!

i remember starting to read the narnia books...and then it coming on the telly...i watched the first episode and it scared the living daylights out of me...never got back into it after that!!

Chelseagirl

Famous Five for me, any Enid Blyton, and I love Beatrice Potter too.

medot

i still love beatrix potter!!

Pam7

Dottie ..have you been to Melford Hall near me - just before Kentwall Hall in Long Melford? I think Beatrice Potter was a family friend or something and stayed there. They have a Beatrice Potter room

More details here... http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/m...hall-ancestors-beatrix_potter.htm

Gypsy

Skyegal

What a great thread.

I absolutely loved the Enid Blighton Faraway Tree books. Bought a couple recently and was reading them with James. He really enjoyed them ... but I think I enjoyed them more. Memories of Mr Saucepan Man, Moon Face, Silky the Fairy, Pop Cakes and fantastic lands like The Land of Topsy-Turvy, the Land of Toys etc etc.

Never really liked the Famous Five or Secret Seven books.

Carol

Famous 5 & Secret 7
Also Mallory Towers

bettyboop

Famous 5 and Nancy Drew

tinkerbelle

Lovely thread. Brings back so many lovely memories. Does anyone remember Malcolm Savile who wrote the Lone Piners series. They were set around the Long Mynd and Church Stretton. Lots of adventures a bit like the famous five.
Margaret

Acorncup

ooh glad I looked on here

yes, I remember them....but they were quite hard to find in our library, and I don't think I read many........

I've got a feeling they were actually written quite a long time ago

tinkerbelle

They were written a very long time ago but so were lots of the the really goos children's books on here. All the Enid Blytons were years ago. There is a lot of interest in Malcolm Savile books on the web which surprided me. I am gad someone else remembers them.
Incidentally, a great childhood memory, When our local library was refurbished was walking in as it opened again and finding every book in its right order just waiting to picked up. Ah, happy days.
Margaret

Acorncup

Welll that's true, about lots of the books being written a long time ago.......

I do wonder if some of the values in them make much sense to modern kids?

Fortunately a lot of children's classics are timeless.....set in other worlds etc.

tinkerbelle

Oh God . Should have checked it. Full of typos

Acorncup

Don't worry... I had to re-read your post oto find them!!

Somebody once posted something they'd found, where all the words had the letters in the wrong order, but you could still read it....

and I'm always pressing keys in the wrong order, wiht my 2 fingers so the pairs of letters get back to front! See

jules

Got to be the Famous Five for me.

Pam7

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Acorncup

thats it, pam

(bguegr doenst wrok for shrot wrods

)

and I definitely typed t a h t s instead of thats and it's come up with thats ???????????????

thats
oo is "t a h t s" a rude word and the swear filter had changed it?

please can somebody else try it for me?

Pam7

thats pmsl...yes I typed t a h t s and its changed to thats

Acorncup

ooooo er......????????????????????

whats that all about then?