Look what's NOT back in print...

[forgottoremember]

I'm feeling v frustrated that so many books I loved in childhood AREN'T in print, and are only available for insane amounts of money second hand.

For eg
Tilly's House
books by Gunilla Wolde (Thomas bakes a cake etc. etc.)
Benjamin and Tulip

Why is this? Why aren't they republished?

What are your other longed-for books, that can't be got without (not quite) a second mortgage?

[bialystockandbloom]

Oooh I loved Ant and Bee! Remember vividly the one about the chalk (red and white). Wasn't Ant always getting one over on Bee? I'd love to know if you can get hold of any now.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Have any of you read the Bagthorpe Saga as an adult? Just HILARIOUS. So much I didn't get as a child.

[Napsalot]

I too have searched for What A Mess in the past -I feel like I have found kindred spirits seeing that others also miss it!

I think of it a lot as I clear up all the darn toys and mutter whatamess

[Matsikula]

Just looking through this thread is making me feel misty eyed. I don't have any of my childhood or young teen books (except a copy of Voyage of the Dawn Treader I used all manner of devious methods to get my Mum to buy). All my books came from the library. Can't blame my parents for this, we were a big family and I was a seriously voracious reader.

The ones I remember loving which are mentioned here are the Saddlers Wells ones, the Four Storey Mistake and the Saturday Club, Charlotte Sometimes, Felicia the Critic, the Family from One End Street, and also the Trebizon books. I would love love love to own some of these, but I don't have any girls (or shelf space) so I am not sure I can justify it. Maybe a little Christmas present to myself.

One book I definitely wouldn't buy is Brother in the Land by Robert Swindell. It was set in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. It kept me awake at night for weeks afterwards. Even googling the plot synopsis just now made me shudder. anyone remember it, and was it that scary or was I just a freak?

[Aethelfleda]

Ooh so many cool books! CharlOtte sometomes is fab.

I have a 1960s two book set called The Swing in The Summerhouse amd the Diamond At the Window (at least I hope I do, in the attic! ) they were great concepts.

And does anyone remember StarStormers about a group of children who built their own working spaceship out of junk and then went on a series of adventures?!?!

[TunipTheHollowVegemalLantern]

Yes, Brother In The Land was terrifying. It was one of the few books I wished I hadn't read.

[MorrisZapp]

The Worst Kids in the World! That was my first Amazon purchase! Was so thrilled to find it.

I remember exact lines from it, like the kid who said his dad hangs about the house in his underwear.

Such a funny and touching book. The bit where Imogene Herdman (dressed as Mary) cries at the end of the nativity play absolutely kills me.

[deleted203]

Brother in the Land! And Z for Zachariah! If you grew up in the early 80s they force fed you post nuclear war literature left, right and centre I seem to remember.

We read Z for Zachariah at school and then watched a film of it which starred Jeremy Irons, which I chiefly remember because he jumped into a stream at one point and it was the first ever willy we'd all seen, aged about 13. And it was very disappointingly small.........(although to be fair, Jeremy, it was probably very cold in that stream). I'll throw you another one, folks. Anyone remember 'A Quest for Orion'?

I am hugely fortunate that my parents kept everything, and I've just eaten a Walnut Whip and finished reading Milly Molly Mandy to DS2 (7), who is loving it. The book was my mother's when she was a little girl, and then ours, and now all the DCs have been through it. I LOVE the original books we've got.

And yes, I've read the Bagthorpes' as an adult and hugely enjoyed them still. Please tell me I'm not the only person who reads my favourite kids books again and again.......

[Aethelfleda]

Ooh, post apocylyptic whotsit! children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence was a heebie jeebie inducing read. Also A Rag A Bone and a Hank Of hair by ? Nicolas Fisk, was it? I think it was one of the "puffin Plus" Teen series.

[Stiffybyng]

I adore the Bagthorpes. I must get my missing ones from Amazon. I have a feeling I actually own that last one but I may be wrong. DSS got the unabridged audio version of Bagthorpes V the World from the library at the weekend and I am eyeing it covetously.

I cannot believe anyone would tamper with the ending of Charlotte Sometimes and I am rather horrified that I've been recommending it to adult friends, and buying it for them, in such an altered state.

[comeonbishbosh]

I am one of the lucky ones with hoarder parents. When mum finally moved last year my sister got her mitts on a good amount of furniture and the 'Christmas Crockery' (yeah, whatever) but I Do NotCare because I got custody of 'The Pirates under the Deep Green Sea' by Eric Linclater which was my absolute favourite book for ages. Fantastic adventure story with a beautiful inked map in the covers. I shall at some point also be smuggling out BB's 'Little Green Men' and 'Down the Bright Stream'.

For Ant and Bee fans I have news! Was randomly given one (the tainbow) for DD by an American friend. Maybe they are still in print there? It appeared to be brand new.

[Colyngbourne]

It was Anthony Andrews in "Z for Zachariah", not Jeremy Irons. I think those early Eighties years were full of nuclear terror - Threads and the like - it felt quite appropriate at the time.

Puffin Plus were good in a time when YA fiction was beginning to find a voice of its own.

[wearymum200]

I also remember being freaked out by the post apocalyptic ones (another grown up in the eighties child here).
On my current wishlist for republishing are Ronald Welch's historical novels. Ds1 loves the ones I have managed to get my mitts on (our local charity shops are fab), but most are £70 plus. Some are in the library ,but a good number are not.
Girls gone by is a good source for old books, also Fidra books republishes some oldies.
What we really need is for all these old favourites to be available as "print on demand"

[deleted203]

Was it Anthony? Gosh...that makes even more sense as to how disappointed we were about the willy . We'd all loved him best in Brideshead.