Favourite Author or Book as a child?

[ChristineCagney11]

Ok I'll start, I was a big fan of The Faraway Tree, lots of other Enid Blyton stuff Famous five, wishing chair but that was my favourite, then on to Jack London.
Have fond memories of The 🐅 Tiger that came to tea also.
Mr men books anyone?

I loved the Flambards books.

@Chelsea26 Oh I do remember Anne being a drip. George was my absolute hero too and Timmy the dog was absolutely why I went into rescuing dogs

I was also a big Blyton fan. I liked the Famous Five the best, but I also rated The 'R' Mysteries with Barney, Diana, Roger and Snubby. I read them again recently and I think Blyton had a bit of crush on Barney. Roger and Diana get a line of description each over the series, while Barney's corn-coloured hair and piercing blue eyes get a paragraph per book...

I would happily read anything set in a boarding school - I liked Jennings, St Claire's, Mallory Towers and I really liked Greyfriars. I also enjoyed the first couple of Chalet School, which make setting up an English school on a mountain in Austria seem like the easiest thing in the world - but the later books get a bit baffling with all the references to old girls and the heaps of babies everyone seems to have.

I also loved the Moomin books - except Moomin Valley in November; what a downer. Moominsummer Madness is magic, though.

Like loads of pp’s, I was a big Enid Blyton fan, particularly St Clare’s, Malory Towers and the Adventure series.

I also loved Willard Price who wrote adventure books - Amazon Adventure, African Adventure, Volcano Adventure etc. They were in the boys’ section (I know🙄) of our local library and were the most exciting books I had ever read.

Oh and of course Tales of End Cottage by Eileen Bell.

My dd is 17 now but she read all of my old favourites when she was younger, including Malory Towers. She loved them.

Some of the Enid Blyton books in particular need to come with a bit of a health warning, as they are very much "of their time", but I don't think this means that they need to be censored. It just means that you need to talk to your kids about some of the dodgier stereotypes that they will find in the books, and how what was accepted back then wouldn't be accepted now.

Just remembered how much I loved the Mary Poppins books!

Another one for The Secret Island by Enid Blyton then moved on to Jacqueline Wilson and couldn’t get through them quick enough, I read them all so many times.

@Mumwantingtogetitright
Yes that's true, probably best read together the first time. Chalet school would be even more so!

@StellaOlivetti No - just had a Google and found them Constance M. White, nurse at St Marks books - I remember my dad bought me the three in one bumper book and I just found the exact one 😍

www.amazon.co.uk/ST-MARKS-STORIES-MARKS-JUNIOR/dp/0001851675

Judy Blume!

I was an Arthur Ransome fan and used to act out Swalliws and Amazons type adventures all the time. I was very disappointed that when I tried reading then as bedtime stories to my own children they weren't at all interested at all, despite the fact that we are a sailing family. Maybe that's it actually. As a child I longed to sail but never could so the stories fascinated me, whereas my kids have actually done it so aren't that interested in stories?

Roald Dahl, without a doubt!

Probably! It's a while since I read them!

I so wanted to go to that school....

@Ladyelizabeth - I’d forgotten about Little Grey Men- thank you!

As a younger child, my favourite books were: The Quangle Wangle’s Hat- Edward Lear; In the Night Kitchen- Maurice Sendak, and A Child’s Garden of Verses- Robert Louis Stephenson.

So interesting. I enjoyed Charlie and the chocolate factory but never really got on with the rest of Roald Dahl that well. I know a lot of people really loved his books though.

@ChristineCagney11 Tell me you have a Timmy dog now? We have a rescue but she massive and dopey and definitely wouldn’t save us from bad guys in Kirrin Island!

@Twopenny Oh my gosh - Greyfriars! They were amazing!

@ClinkeyMonkey Willard Price was amazing - he’s who got me onto Wilbur Smith

All Enid Blyton.

Also Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series as well as Linda Craig horse mystery books.

Ramona Quimby
Goodnight Mr Tom.

On more of a fantasy theme, DP and I both loved The Weirdstone of Brisingamen series by Alan Garner, but were both traumatised by the scene where the children get chased through the underground tunnels. We've made a pact that we'll neither ever take up pot-holing.

I also loved The Hobbit, The Midnight Folk, and The Sword in the Stone.

@Mumwantingtogetitright
I never liked roald Dahl either. Just didn't get him at all.

I loved all my Ladybird books too, especially the "well loved tales" series. Sleeping Beauty and Rumplestiltskin etc

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Gregory

I think we had the same taste in books!

I loved:

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Ballet Shoes.
Milly Molly Mandy.
James and the Giant Peach, Danny The Champion of the World and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The Lily Pickle Band Book.
The Fib by George Layton.
The Secret Garden.
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Superfudge.
Black Beauty.
Anything by Enid Blyton.
The What Katy Did series.
Little Women.