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A really obscure ‘help me remember this book’

121 replies

TulipTuesday · 25/01/2023 08:39

I had a dream last night that was about a book or story I definitely read when I was young. I haven’t thought about that story since I read it, but somehow my dream brain brought it back to me.

I’m not sure if it was a book of its own, or maybe a story/cartoon in a bigger reference book or even a bible story. I can only remember a bit of it so going to be near enough impossible. But MNers are great for this kind of thing 😄

All I can remember is a girl who ended up being a slave/imprisoned. It was possibly set in East Asia or maybe Egypt. The bit that I mostly remember is that she had a heavy wooden collar round her neck to stop her escaping. Then at the end she thought she was being executed but the ‘bad guy’ cut through the collar rather than chopping her head off.

Any ideas? It’s so weird that I dreamt about last night.

OP posts:
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TronaldDump · 25/01/2023 21:28

Oh wow this thread is amazing! I love how quickly the answer was found. I had several of these annuals from my cousin who was quite a bit older than me. So formative on young girls!

There was a thin girl who had a fat family and when they went to the zoo to feed buns to the elephants the fat family ate all the buns. She had to watch them and tell them off for scoffing. I mean you'd never get that story now on so many levels. But what's stayed with me? The thin girl's blue dress. Height of sophistication and has remained so in my head for 30 years! I wish I could remember the edition it was in to find a picture.

It's funny though despite the sexism and fattism etc the girls all seemed to wear stylish but practical clothes and have proper adventures, it didn't feel like they just wore pinnies and baked cakes all day - unless I'm misremembering it!

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 25/01/2023 21:29

Does anyone remember Oh But I Do CLAIRE, everyone had a doppelgänger with shiny alien eyes, and at the end Claire jumps in to her dad’s car and he turns round and has the alien eyes too 😱 god some of these have stayed with me for 35 years 😅

Yes, that one really stuck with me for some reason.

TitoMojito · 25/01/2023 21:30

Well done Mumsnetters! My first thought was Aliyah Din from Scooby Doo in the Arabian Nights 😂😂

JackandVeras · 25/01/2023 21:34

I used to get the Mandy and Bunty annuals for Christmas from about 1983, I remember my nan taking me to look on a charity shop and she bought me some 1970s Mandy's and I was in heaven reading them all. I'm sure there was a scary story too about ice skating in one of those.

Allezvite · 25/01/2023 21:37

I love this thread and I loved Mandy! Does anyone remember the story about the girl who somehow knew there was an evil alien invader at school masquerading as one of her classmates. The alien’s weakness was salt water and the heroine of the story had to make another girl cry every week to unmask the alien, thereby making herself horribly unpopular. The amazing twist was that the alien had fooled her early doors by using a teddy bear to cry into (or maybe the bear had a way of leaking water to make it look like she was crying!).
evidently the heroine won out in the end…

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 25/01/2023 21:39

Anyone remember 'The double life of Julie Ellen Jones' - she pretended to be twins to date two boys at the same time. Julie wore plaits and 'Ellen' wore her hair loose, with a pair of glasses. The boys were called Tim and Des.

tothesea · 25/01/2023 22:00

Oh @Merchdda thank you for posting that. I loved all these annuals so much. Like others I used to get old ones from jumble sales and just be in spooky story heaven. I definitely remember the ice skaters and the twins.
I loved the artwork in Diana, all the girls had hair that kind of floated in the air around them. I remember one girl called Cherry who I definitely wanted to be!
I have a feeling there might be a few in my parents attic I’m going to try and find them.

OneFrenchEgg · 25/01/2023 22:00

The four Mandy's anyone?

And a weird tale of an orphan who was recognised by her parents family because she said squiggle instead of squirrel? I adopted that affectation for several months hoping to be rescued from middle class suburbia by a passing landed gentry

Merchdda · 25/01/2023 22:01

I think I've got too many of these annuals - even though I lost many of them years ago! I've been slowly building my collection back up
Smile here is the double life of Julie-Ellen

A really obscure ‘help me remember this book’
Riverlee · 25/01/2023 22:04

SheWoreYellow · 25/01/2023 15:44

I remember one with a story about paintings where the eyes seemed to follow you around the room. The twist was that they were real people, imprisoned behind them. The girl who noticed was made to be one.

Stuff of nightmares.

I remember that story. I think a new girl moved to an area. She ‘painted’ pictures of her friends on the wall, but, as you said, the people then became trapped on the wall.

Or that’s how I remember it. I think the baddie girl could have had shortish, dark, hair.

Riverlee · 25/01/2023 22:05

Merchdda · 25/01/2023 15:47

I've got the annual this is in too Smile

Show quote history

Can you post this e story?

Merchdda · 25/01/2023 22:06

@Riverlee I've posted some screenshots of what I think this story is further up. It's a little different to how you describe it though (it's an old woman in a big house ) so it could be a similar story

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 25/01/2023 22:11

Merchdda · 25/01/2023 22:01

I think I've got too many of these annuals - even though I lost many of them years ago! I've been slowly building my collection back up
Smile here is the double life of Julie-Ellen

I remember that story about the rings. Julie's got stuck on the finger of her right hand, so Ellen had to put hers on the left, leading Des to joke that it wasn't an engagement ring - Ellen's got stuck too so she had to keep one hand in her pocket all the time. In the end the rings fell apart I think.

If only I could remember useful things!

PriamFarrl · 25/01/2023 22:11

I had no idea that these comics carried stories like this. I always read Whizzer and Chips, thinking Mandy etc were too girly.

Riverlee · 25/01/2023 22:11

@Merchdda Thank you. Posted before reading the whole thread. Your post wasn’t quite how I remembered it, so perhaps there’s ai similar story in another thread.

(is your name Welsh?)

tothesea · 25/01/2023 22:14

Then of course there was Darla who was an evil alien or something, appeared in this family and everyone except the big sister thought she’d always been there. The big sister tried to outwit her but I can’t remember what happened. What I do remember is re-inacting the story with my wee brother with me playing the part of evil Darla and scaring the living shit out of him!

Merchdda · 25/01/2023 22:15

I think I remember a story and a girl who paints on a wall and they get trapped - it's not in one of the annuals I've got though. It could have been Misty.

Yes, my username is Welsh 😃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

ShirleyHolmes · 25/01/2023 22:20

@DasAlteLeid raggedy Anne - Emma is very attached to her RA doll. She becomes seriously ill and drops RA whilst being rushed to hospital by Mama. She is calling for RA, everyone thinks she’ll die. Overnight a nurse maid visits her and brings her RA. Emma wakes up better from her illness and tells Sister about the nurse maid who visited her. Sister remembers that the nurse maid had the same RA doll and died a year ago. Think that’s basically it! It was one of my favourites!

mightymam · 25/01/2023 22:21

Bloody hell! What are the chances @Merchdda?!!!!

Saisong · 25/01/2023 22:22

@tothesea so funny, the Girl in the Mirror story was the one I remembered too, I would have mentioned it if you hadn't. Amazing to see the pictures of it @Merchdda, the front cover is so intensely familiar now you have posted it!

MichelleScarn · 25/01/2023 22:28

Ooo love this!! Does anyone remember one about a girl who goes on a school trip to a castle which has dungeons and there's handprints of a woman who was tortured to death after being accused of witchcraft hundreds of years ago, and the girl puts her hands on the marks and gets possessed? Sooo dark!!

PolarBlair · 25/01/2023 23:04

tothesea · 25/01/2023 22:14

Then of course there was Darla who was an evil alien or something, appeared in this family and everyone except the big sister thought she’d always been there. The big sister tried to outwit her but I can’t remember what happened. What I do remember is re-inacting the story with my wee brother with me playing the part of evil Darla and scaring the living shit out of him!

Oh Yes - Darla!!!

I'm loving this thread! All my old comics are (hopefully) still in my parents attic. I'll have to reclaim them

Peverellshire · 25/01/2023 23:24

Trudi (who was she)? Heroine of a story set in Alps (?) Skiing, oddly I recall one line: ‘disaster struck at Trudi’. She fell (?) whilst climbing up a mountain. Mandy annual?

CalamityClam · 25/01/2023 23:56

Ooh I wonder if any of you sleuths can help with this one!
It would be an annual from the late 70s to the mid 80s, I think - I have no idea of the story but the girl in it had long, straight hair with her fringe cut in a zig-zag. I thought she was beautiful and I wanted that hair!!

tothesea · 26/01/2023 00:00

Oh that is ringing a bell