What was the scariest/most chilling book you read as a child?

I remember the owl service, I've actually got the book

the growlygus.. the book you mentionedabout the nuclear fallout was by Louise Lawrence and it was in a collection of short stories written by her. Arggh I can't think of the title but I loved it. In fact I thought she was a brilliant author anyway.

There was one she wrote which was set in Wales and (I can only remember a snippet) and basically these men dissapeared into a door in the mountain and their dog sat and waited and waited for them but they never returned. I cried loads over that.

I remember Brother in the land too

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if anyone's already mentioned it but I was terrified of the book of the children's programme Chocky (nightmares and everything) and the littlest vampire storis .
Also at about 6 or 7 we had to read these books and they scared the crap out of me especially Dancing ann and the green gruff grackle which no one else seems to remember

I definitely found The Owl Service disturbing, also Z for Zacharia (although I think I was too young for it when I read it).

When I was a lot younger I was really upset by a Ladybird book called 'Mick the Disobedient Puppy'. I was truly terrified our house would catch fire and we would all perish because my Mum wouldn't let me have a dog to save us like Mick did in the story!

There was a terrifying Roald Dahl about a husband and wife. The wife liked to leave plenty of time for trips and the husband used to like to delay her because he know it wound her up. He came to a sticky end and it bothered me for ages. But by the time I found myself married to a permanantly late-running DH, I'd stopped having nightmares about the husband's sticky end and found a lot of sympathy for the wife in the story.

most scary book i read as child was big sisters diary! - actually still think its the scariest book ive ever read !

beanieb The Farthest-Away Mountain is one of my very favourite books EVER I used to get it out of the library pretty much every week. Bought myself a new copy a few years ago and it is just as brilliant as I remember. Love the moaning gargoyles, 'ahhhhhhhhh!' and Drackamag.

Was also a big Look and Read fan. Dark Towers was fantastic, not that I can remember anything about it now.

Mine was 'the farthest away mountain' by Lynne Reid Banks.

I think I heard it on the radio and then had the book.

also 'Z for Zachariah' by Robert C O'Brien, another Nuclear one.

Also read The Rats by Herbert. I was about 11. Flippin' 'eck, what was I thinking??? Every now and then when I'm waiting on the London Underground I imagine giant rats are trundling down the track.

The Owl Service, yes, but does no one else remember this? My copy was called the witch doll, but I had some trouble tracking it down, I must have been about 12, actually I don't remember much of the story except the image of this evil wooden doll, the story was so scary I was even scared of the book, a little bit, as if the doll was real and somehow in the book....may have to get the book and read it again now...

Omg Fondue - I haven't read that Swan one. Remember the bee one though and a horrible one about tatoos and one about fingers.

ooh yes i read grinny. didn't her face come off? nicholas fisk underrated imo.

Roald Dahl's short stories - mainly 'The Swan' about a young boy who was chained to a railway track by two bullies, then survived a train going over him, only for the bullies to kill a swan and tie the swan's wings to the boys arms - he eventually, bleeding and half-dead, flew home to his Mum.

There was another Roald Dahl one about parents feeding their baby daughter so much royal jelly the baby turned into a bee. And the girl being imprisoned in a picture forever, by The Witches, also haunted me.

Wonderful writer, but he had some dark images that stayed with me some two decades. Looking forward to introducing dd to them one day!

Did anyone read a book called Grinny, about a boy who had a great aunt living in his house who was an alien? It was really chilling but a great read. It's by Nicholas Fisk. Might go off & find my very dog-eared 1970s copy & reread it!

I don't remember being frightened by Thomas Kempe at all but remember v little of the story.

The Grimm story about the pot of basil (or something) made me squirm a bit.

The Red Shoe mention has just sent the hairs on my arms up! I loved Charlotte Sometimes and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Grinny freaked me out a bit - it just seemed quite plausible! I also remember a pictorial Bible and there was a particularly horrible rendering of the devil in the Temptation in the Wilderness story. I used to keep it under my bed for some strange reason and look at it when I wanted to be scared. Embarrassingly enough, I also was quite frightened by Virginia Andrews books (My Sweet Audrina and Flowers in the Attic). Shame.

I remember a book called The Almost Year. It was about a girl who stayed with a family and they made her feel unwelcome and a poltergeist (generated unknowingly by her) started up in the house.

That really scared me! But it was a good book too because it covered the subject of racism to some degree too.

i loved a wrinkle in time. and playing beattie bow.

and rats and flowers in the attic. the rats bit in the forest is set quite near where i live.

m r james scared me to death - oh whistle and i'll come to you is terrifying.

there were the stories by edgar allen poe especially the one about the beating heart under the floor boards, it give me nightmaresI must have been quite young maybe 9.

There was a point horror story (believe it was in one of the collections of short stories) called Collect Call... only vague recollections of the plot, but something to do with a dead person leaving messages on an answerphone. Scared me shitless.

I also managed to scare myself when I was about 11 by writing a horror story for school which involved an attic. I couldn't sleep for days after I'd written it and my mother was very bemused at how much I'd managed to frighten myself with my own story

Although looking at clips of Look&Read on youtube it's no wonder some of us turned out the way we did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzC_VhjYBs&feature=related

Struwwelpeter (sp?!)

There was a childrens programme called Look and Read. They read a story called Dark Towers:-very very scarey!

Also the Boy from Space -also on Look & Read