I'm rereading the Swish of the Curtain for first time in 25 years, childhood books you have reread as an adult?

I am a real saddo and often buy childhood favourites from eBay (Gillian Avery, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Noel Streatfield, Leon Garfield etc etc). I even have a special bookshelf to keep them on! .

Most of them have withstood the test of time. But a few years ago I bought all the Enid Blyton "Adventure" series for DS (then aged 9) and settled down for a cosy re-read after a gap of almost 40 years.

OMG!

They were awful. The racism ("dirty thieving foreigners") and snobbery ("dirty thieving poor people") were quite startling.

I'm really not a member of the PC brigade (honestly!) and am more than capable of reading old literature in context. Just a word of warning. You might not agree with me, but do check them out for yourself before passing them on.

Me too, I think he was my first fictional crush . Am still trying to find the last book of the series which I never read as a child, now have four swish of the curtain books to try and find as well!

Ooh, Lostgirl, I would love to re-read the Lorna Hill books. i had a bit of a crush on the boy - Sebastian, was it?

I don't know the Antonia Forest book at all! What am I missing out on??

I recently re-read Monica Edwards' Wish for a Pony when I was feeling poorly - I loved Tamsin and Rissa and all their adventures on the Rye Marshes. I also have the Pennington books (including the earlier ones featuring just Ruth - Fly by Night and The Team), Swallows and Amazons, Swish of the Curtain - but never read any of the sequels - and some of the Streatfeild, but not all.

DS has all the Famous Five, Just William, Roald Dahl, etc. He has the Blyton 'Adventure' series waiting for him for Xmas.

I loved those Willard Price books when i was a teenager! Are they really not worth re-reading? Must admit I had those at the back of my mind for DS when he gets older...

What are the sequels to Swish of the Curtain? I have just re read the Wells books by Lorna Hill.

Patrick kissed Nicola???? Was that in a missing chapter?

Oh my GOD I want a complete set of Antonia Forest.

God how I love Mallory Towers & The Twins at St Clares and The Chalet School books! And I loved the Adventure books with those terrible brothers. I also loved Anne of Green Gables and all the Avonlea books.

I have to admit that I've re-read all of the above over the last few years and really enjoyed them!

I re-read all the Malory Towers books a few months ago and had much fun regaling MN with its repressed filth- sadly it was in chat and now gone. Alicia's wild tongue featured heavily, as I recall...

no sorry mavis was unthinkingly hijacking, was just excited to meet a fellow marlowe fan. as you were

I've got four of the five Swish of the Curtain series, inherited from my dad, and I read them annually at least. They still make me laugh.

The reissued one has been rather roughly updated in places.

Little Women and Molesworth are my other comfort reads.

(sorry seemed to have jumped in mid convo)

Antonia Forest must not have been too sure either. I know it didnt go with the books really but I liked it. we can only live in hope someone discovers more missing marlowe chapters someday..i do occasionally look in on the trennels website when rereading but it does get very heated over there at times!

Recently re read "The Eagle of the Ninth" by Rosemary Sutcliff,also Kurri kurri and loved it just as much.Very good childrens fiction about the lost legion.If your dc is into history would heartily reccomend all RS books.

Me too.
I'm not sure how I feel about the Patrick/Nicola kiss.
I did find the missing chapters fascinating tho'.

i would happily have read an unedited typo-filled handwritten copy of that planned book. i was astonished patrick finally made a move on nicola when they were under the stage

Yes!
The bit where Buster died made me well up.

I was so saddened to read that there was another book in the pipeline but she appeared to have destroyed it before her death

i understand that pantryboy! they really are the best example of a childrens series you get more from every time you reread. Better character development than many adult books IMO. Did you get to read the bits that got left out of "Run Away Home?" in "Celebrating Antonia Forest"?? It was a great treat to have the equivalent of 2 lost chapters

The Naughtiest girl in the school series. Full of the old fahioned illustrations as well. Bliss.

Also the Enid adventure series (Castle of Adventure, Ship of Adventure etc). Have just ordered the series from Book People and am very excited (sad).

I know!
They were a Christmas present from DH (I tracked them down and he paid)
They are one of my most prized possesions. DH refers to them as 'the precious things' in the style of Edward and Tubbs from League of Gentlemen

you are very very lucky to have full set of antonia forest- they sell for 50 pounds each on ebay so am building my library slowly!

I've reread The Swish f The Curtain - apparantly there were sequels as well.

I reread Antonia Forest at least once a year (am very lucky as I have the full set)

I love K M Peyton and often reread her books, especiallty the Flambards series.

I also love to reread The Anne of Green Gables books and the Swallows and Amazons series as well.

Obviously not!

I joined Amnesty the first time I read the Railway Children so "Daddy, my Daddy" raised a few pennies for real prisoners of conscience.

I read The Swish of the Curtain the other day and really wished I hadn't. It was painfully obvious to me that it was written by a fourteen year old girl. Although I too loved it so much as a child that I remembered every event and joke.

Enid Blyton books are vicious - have you read the Naughty Amelia Jane ones lately? Full of crying dolls being left out of the party, and it serves them jolly well right. I bloody loved them as a child though, she is a very compelling writer.

I think Pennington was one of my earliest crushes