Children's fantasy classics - Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Westall, Ursula le Guin, and more...

@TheRedLip ah yes, so it was. Sorry, it’s been a very long time since I read them. I really wanted to find out what happened to Adric too.
I think I might have to find them on Amazon and reread.

Do you mean the 4th book The Warlord's Domain, because that was pretty brutal. And I really hated how it ended on a cliff hanger and we never got to find out whether Aldric survived.

@TheRedLip Yes! I loved the first two books (and Aldric) but found the last bit of the third a bit too brutal for my teenage sensibility!

I've never entirely given up on their being a sequel to the Blue Sword, etc.

You're very welcome.

I loved fantasy literature as a young teenager. I first read The Mists of Avalon when I was 11 and that was that, never looked back. Lived and breathed The Dark Is Rising, Weirdstone and The Moon of Gomrath (though like others, I never really got Red Shift) and anything by Robin McKinley. I thought I was the only person to ever read The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.

Did anyone else read The Horse Lord trilogy by Peter Morwood? I fell in love with Aldric Talvalin and he was the man by which all my boyfriends were measured

@TheRedLip Thanks so much for the suggestion - I'll check it out and get back to you!

Could this be When The Night Crow Flies? Or the sequel (the name of which I can't remember sorry).

What a wonderful memory. I love Elizabeth Goudge - so does JK Rowling!

What a wonderful thread!

Has anyone read Marigold in Godmother's House by Joyce Brisley, or Five Dolls in a House by Helen Cresswell?

Don't forget E Nesbit - Five Children and It, The Enchanted Castle, et al.

One of my favourite authors, Sheri Tepper, wrote the True Game series of three trilogies, which I think may have been classified as YA. Jinian Footseer is a constant re-read.

Just a few loved ones mentioned here: Nicholas Stuart Grey, Joan Aiken, Alan Garner (especially The Owl Service, wonderful last lines). William Mayne (have to hold my nose re his little girl problem, especially since he wrote them so tenderly) especially Earthfasts and non-fantasy Summer Visitors.

I just started, and finished (fast read), The Book of Dead Days by Maurice Sedgwick. I quite liked it but it was a bit overly portentous and plot light. Now casting around for something else for escapism. I have been given a lot of crime novels but it’s the same with our evening TV watching; DH and I are choosing His Dark Materials rather than starting on Tokyo Vice.

Troy Hawke fan here, see his show every summer when he’s at the Edinburgh Fringe. Apologies for the digression from the thread.

What's everyone reading at the moment? I'm just rereading the sequel to Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor which is a lovely world to escape into.

I love Lives of Christopher Chant - Millie is such a delightful character. A Sudden Wild Magic is lots of fun too, though not for kids. I love the way DWJ builds up to a crescendo of perfectly logical hilarious chaos in so many of her books.

I've just remembered another one, Nina Warner Hooke did a story about carousel horses that came to life. I think it was on Jackanory. It's out of print, not available as an ebook, and a second hand paperback was well-over £100 on Amazon. I'd love to read it again.

Yes, Millie/living Asheth and the formulaic school stories was sheer genius 😂

From me, to me! (See also a pylones butter dish to replace one broken by kids). Finished both and now trying to work out when I can get to library to borrow lots of these recommendations- new year’s resolution not to buy ALL the books. I have a room full of spare books to go into my Little Free Library and all our bookshelves are bursting so borrow I must.
Chrestomanci definitely a dream. But he also appeals to my youngest, though he was very impressed by Millie/living Asheth. I think DWJ so good because she mixed the heroic and the mundane without having to make it all a giggle fest. Super deft writing and brilliant characterisation I think.

Can anyone remember a book for me that I've searched for for years? I only read it once and would say that that was perhaps written in the 1970s. I would have been around 12 when I read it.

It is set in a village and a girl (around 11/12?) goes to stay with an aunt/great aunt in a village full of witches. Aunt is also a witch and they somehow upset the rest of the village and are under siege. I seem to remember Aunt wasn't that good a witch. There are birds watching or attacking them and it was exciting. It's definitely not the Weirdstone. This was all female as far as I can recall. Set in an English village.

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received. I remember borrowing from the library.

On another note, I was amazed as an adult to discover an odd book called the Carpet People which I vaguely remembered reading from the library at primary school was actually Terry Pratchett!

Think I've just realised who the comedian Troy Hawke puts me in mind of!

Loved so many of the booked mentioned, agree the 80s were such a great time to be a bookworm. Wish my DC were more into fantasy fiction but you can't force them...
Tempted to google the stuff about MZB but worried it will ruin the Mist of Avalon for me.
Mercedes Lackey Valdemar series very good for older teens/adults. Might dig them out for a re read...

@ChillinwiththeVillains great Christmas presents!

Also this 😆

Thinks wistfully of inscrutable expressions and the gardener's boy when the castle is under siege

Witch Week is a wonderful book but my favourite DWJ is the Lives of Christopher Chant.

This thread has been like carrying out one of those heritage genetic tests - I feel connected to MNetters across country by a shared reading heritage.

Over the last couple of years I have been slowly recollecting all of these books to pass on. I had forgotten Nina Bawden though, so thank you to that poster!

Totally get the Chrestomanci thing…

Oh, this thread is like a late Christmas present!

Like many pp I love Alan Garner, DWJ, Robert Westall and the Taran Chronicles. I bought them for my children to read, but they're not interested, still at least i can reread them. A favourite from my childhood is The King of the Copper Mountain, linked stories and slightly mournful. I love the Last Unicorn and The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart which might be my favourite book ever. Grinny was very creepy, it's stayed with me though it might be over 30 years since I read it. Also the Mouse and His Child, a wistful tail.

Of more recent authors, another shoutout for Francis Hardinge, Garth Nix and Catherine Fisher. I also like Adrian Tchaikovsky, who does fantasy and SF, and seems to have books out every 5 minutes, I don't know how he keeps the quality up. I think he's mostly okay for older children.

Late to this thread, but you are my tribe! When I was learning to read my parents put a copy of The Little White Horse by my bed. It was the original hardback copy with wonderful colour illustrations, and had been given to my mother as a Sunday school prize in the late 1940s. They didn’t read it to me, just said ‘ This is for when you can read yourself’. I used to look at the pictures and be half fascinated and half scared, especially by the line drawing of Digby swinging on the bell rope that opens the tunnel to Moonacre Manor. When I was about 7 I read it myself and was completely spellbound- it was definitely my gateway into fantasy fiction.
Have loved many of the books listed here, but would add Philip Reeves’ Mortal Engines trilogy and the prequels - wonderful. Shrike is one of the greatest creations ever.

I loved DWJ Power of Three as a child, and reread it many times. I didn't realise she had written anything else, then discovered Chrestomanci as an adult and had a one of the biggest crushes ever 😂

The snark, the dressing gown, the sheer competence and save-the-day sigh

Fire and Hemlock is one of my top ten favourite reads of all time as well. As you can see from my user name.