Marianne Dreams

Agree that The Owl Service is quite unsettling. I think that's why I liked it! It seemed to be talking about things that were a lot stranger and darker than most children's books.

Margaret Mahy! I had forgotten her. I had some of her short stories. There was one about a leaf that became a dog, I think. I loved that one.

I adored Joan Aiken’s stories. I loved that the parents were often involved rather than always absent as in earlier children’s books. I can never remember the actual title but the story about Mark’s weather ship has influenced my whole concept of my own life. The Serial Garden is amazing too. I feel as if none of them are really filmable - they’re much more like dreams, where the most fantastic events and coincidences are things you barely even notice, you just know they’ve happened.

I had The Wheel on the School!

And Marianne and Mark, and The Chinese Egg - although I didn’t read Marianne Dreams till much later.

Loved lots of the authors and books mentioned above.

I’ll add Margaret Mahy and Nicholas Fisk to the list of supernatural/magical children’s authors I remember. And Jenny Nimmo.

Also loved the historical ones - Cynthia Harnett and Rosemary Sutcliff - and I’ll add Leon Garfield whose books were a bit darker and grittier.

I didn’t like A Wrinkle in Time, not sure why, possibly as I first read it as an adult.

I really liked Alan Garner, especially the Weirdstone and the other books set around the edge. But Owl Service deeply disturbed me for some reason. Maybe I was a bit too young when I read it... It's not explicit at all and doesn't contain any subject matter that's unsuitable for children. It's just so intense in a way that's unusual for a children's book.

Years later I read a collection of essays by Alan Garner (would highly recommend) and he talks in there about having a nervous breakdown while filming an adaptation of the book. It's really interesting seeing his perspective on the stories he wrote

Did anyone read the Heartsease children's series? It's where there's a spell on the whole of the UK so people regress back to the Medieval times/associate all technology with witchcraft. I sort of categorise it with the Marianne dreams, Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Dark is Rising books. I think the category might just be "really good books" though.

Jan Pienkowski is probably my favourite ever illustrator and I can’t separate my love for the Joan Aiken stories from the beautiful silhouettes of his art. Every time I look at a dark tree against the sky or a lake I think of these pictures! And to do the beautiful complexity of these, then the gorgeous simplicity of the Meg and Mog ones, is so brilliant.

Yes! I borrowed it from the library and found it so weird but brilliant. A couple of years later I tried to remember what the book was and couldn't tell if I was remembering a dream or an actual book! Then I found the book in the library again and rediscovered it all over again. It still comes to mind decades later.

Jan Pienkowski's illustrations for the Joan Aiken short stories are stunning too. Worth googling if you haven't seen them.

My mum saved loads of books from her childhood that I had, and we still have those plus mine that now I have for my kids. So I reads lots from the 50s/60s. There was one called The Wheel on the School about storks on the roofs of houses in a Dutch village, not sure if that's one that others came across.

This book terrified me as a child! I still remember the feeling of bleakness that I got when reading it

Not sure if I ever actually finished it

Joan Aiken’s short stories are wonderful. The Armitage family ones are great, but my all time favourite is The Dark Streets of Kimballs Green. So haunting. And @CatChant I absolutely agree about Lantern Bearers , probably my favourite RS. The bit where Aquila returns Flavia’s son to her always makes me cry.

I think I was around 11 when I first read Marianne Dreams. It seemed around the right age for me. I had seen at least one episode of the television adaptation before then because I remembered the rocks with eyes far too vividly!

Paperhouse (the film based on Marianne Dreams) I saw when I was an adult. I remember enjoying it but being dissatisfied with the ending.

Lovely to see someone else remembering Cynthia Harnett’s wonderful historical novels. They were so well-researched and so detailed it was like having a window on other times, and generally to periods that weren’t covered in history lessons. My interest in pre-Tudor history was definitely created by Cynthia Harnett. My favourites were Ring Out Bow Bells, The Wool Pack and The Great House, but they are all well worth reading.

I also loved Rosemary Sutcliff, especially the Dolphin ring novels. The Lantern Bearers is haunting. It really made me think how frightening it must have been when the Roman legions abandoned Britain to invaders.

Joan Aiken was another favourite, especially the short stories. I have wanted a cut-out model garden like the one in The Serial Garden for years!

I also wanted the very posh witch’s broom advertised at the end of Mary Stewart’s The Little Broomstick. Actually, I wanted to go to a nicer version of Endor College - one that didn’t experiment on familars.

Alan Garner was great. My favourites were The Owl Service and Elidor. And Joan Aiken was wonderful. As well as the longer books she wrote some fantastic short stories.

I do remember liking Marianne Dreams, but my heart is always first with Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf stories. I knew a cousin of hers too.

I'm currently desperately trying to get my 10 year old to read some of these (which I know he will love), rather than spending all his time on gaming and YouTube. Less competition for my attention as a child! Fortunately he does read but screens often win the battle.

My copy just arrived.
I don't want to reread myself if I'm going to read it to my kids too - what age do people think it's ok for? I have a 7 year old but would it terrify her or be ok?

I didn't click it was by the same author as Clever Polly. Love those books and they are great for first chapter books to read.

Others I loved, also Diana Wynne Jones, The Dark is Rising, Alan Garner's books (eg The Owl Service).

Joan Aiken eg Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Midnight is a Place, The Whispering Mountain but there are loads, plus her short stories such as The Kingdom under the Sea and A Necklace of Raindrops.

Plus lots of historical fiction, Rosemary Sutcliffe and Henry Treece, Ian Serallier and The Silver Sword. Cynthia Barnett who wrote The Wool Pack.

Yes, I vaguely remember reading it at primary school .

Blueyedbogwitch- thanks so much for the podcast recommendation. So many of my favourite books on it and such intelligent, interesting and amusing discussion. It really helped me through a long day of travel yesterday 🙂

I loved this book. We used to have reading time in class and I remember being so engrossed in it that I didn’t hear the teacher tell us it was time to stop! I think that was the first time I’d been so fully immersed in a story that I was oblivious to everything else.

The Dark is Rising and Green Knowe were also favourites of mine.

I am going to look up all the others that people have mentioned that I haven't read and hopefully some of them will be available on Kindle.

Yes seeing your thread title reminded me I loved this book

I enjoyed The Chinese Egg and another of Catherine Storr’s that would probably be classed as YA these days - The Mirror Image Ghost, but Marianne Dreams is in a class of its own.

It’s reasssuring to know I’m not missing much by failing to track down either Marianne and Mark or Lucy Beware because I have been looking for a long time now!

I did love The Summer Birds but it is a very different book to Charlotte Sometimes and they really don’t sit comfortably together. But being able to fly like a bird is something I imagine we’ve most of us dreamed of at some time or other.

@MonGrainDeSel Diana Wynne Jones was a one of a kind, wasn’t she. So imaginative, so clever and so original she was simply streets ahead.

So many great books mentioned on this thread. Yes to A Wrinkle in Time and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I’d also add The Dark is Rising, The Children of Green Knowe and Cold Christmas.

I loved it when I was younger, and bought it on kindle to reread.

I’ve actually done that with quite a few childhood favourites recently - it seems like a lot of PPs have very similar tastes as lots of them have been mentioned already It’s a lovely bit of escapism to reread them all.