Found a box with all my childhood books!

[mavornia]

We were clearing out my parents' garage today and I found a box with all the books from my childhood - it was like finding long-lost friends. St Clare's, Mrs Pepperpot, A Bottled Cherry Angel, Surprise Island, Little Plum, Foxglove Tales, Heidi's Song - ah, I could go on and on, they were all there and all perfect

My husband was looking on bewildered as I welled up, hugging them to my chest

I'm just so full of the joy of it that I had to share

Aww- old friends! I am soo enjoying revisiting the faraway tree with dd (4)!!!

aww St Clare's !!

I found loads of my old books round at my sister's house. Cheeky mare had 'liberated' them from my mother's. So I took them back again and spent a merry few days in the company of E Nesbit and Noel Streatfield and Enid Blyton. Sister thought it was very amusing that I was getting all tearful over the Railway Children.

oooh how fab

cant you list them all for me to go and buy them all on amazon

do you have Milly Molly Mandy ?

awww old billy blunt

and best friend Susan

or was it little friend Susan ? - they were my mum's books and I loved the drawings

NotAnOtter, do you use TheBookPeople? They keep offering tempting packages of my childhood favourites as box sets.

My little sister has pinched some of my Noel Streatfields but at least I know where they are now, in her room at our mum's house.

ooh, I loved the Faraway Tree - it's there with all the other Enid Blyton books

I think I'm so moved because I live in Egypt now but we're home in Ireland visiting my parents at the moment - I'm always a bit nostalgic about home at the best of times now and finding that box was like being able to reach out and touch my childhood

there are loads - I was a real bookworm

I'm dusting off
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (it was great)
The Family from One End Street
Saddlebottom by Dick King Smith
Bambi by Felix Salten
The Hundred and One Dalmations and Starlight Express by Dodie Smith
Moses Beech by Ian Strachan
The Magician's nephew by C.S. Lewis
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (ah, Pippi!)
The Puffin Book of Christmas Stories
Tales from the End Cottage by Eileen Bell
The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy

God, there's loads - I'll happily ramble throught the whole lot if you're interested!

milly molly mandy is in there too!

wasn't molly meant to be short for margaret? I always wondered at that....

Charlotte Sometimes ...........swoooooooooooooooooon

do go on!

I'm wiggling with excitement - want to dive into all of them.

DH has taken himself off to the living room to watch Law and Order (he never read a single book growing up in Egypt and can't quite understand my deep love and awe of books - I find it unbelievably sad thinking what he missed out on, especially as the books you read in childhood are so important and become part of who you are)

let's see what's in the next pile:

Sam Pig Goes to the Seaside and all the other Alison Uttley titles
Hi There, Supermouse! by Jean Ure (can't quite remember what this was about)
A Christmas Carol
Woof! by Allan Ahlberg
The Witch Child by Imogen Chichester
The Mermaid Summer by Mollie Hunter
About Teddy Robinson by Joan G. Robinson
Olga Meets her Match by Michael Bond
The Dwarfs of Nosegay by Paul Biegel
Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst by Lois Lowry
A Bottled Cherry Angel by Jean Ure
Black Beauty

I remember we had a book club at school - a magazine came out every month or so and you would select your titles, give the money to the teacher and the books would arrive in a few weeks - I used to be so excited waiting for my little pile.

was it called the Lucky club or something similar? I think it had a little black and white cat mascot

can't recall the exact name

How wonderful

ooh teddy robinson - i loved those when i was far too old to admit!

pardon me while I gloat a little!

ah mavornia, I have several of those books too - do you have all 3 of the Family from One End Street books? I loved them!

I have most of my childhood books here at home already as my parents wanted me to clear out my bookcase; have recently re-read
Bottersnikes and Gumbles
The whole Anne of Green Gables series
Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (BEFORE I knew they were making that travesty of a film about it)
Noel Streatfield's White Boots (I never had Ballet Shoes)

I never owned Pippi Longstocking but I had read it - and re-read it at a friend's house in the last few months - that woman who draws Charlie and Lola has re-done the pics for it - I personally don't like them as much as the original but maybe just because I'm an ol' stick-in-the-mud!

I remember Charlotte Sometimes too - I think I read that as a library book, or borrowed it from a friend, I know I don't own it.

The Family from One End Street was a great favourite !!!!

I loved Mrs Pepperpot!

Oh I'm going to have to raid my mums bookshelves now and claim back my old books.

I've just been looking at buying some of the old Billy Blue Hat and Roger Red Hat books for dd.

I loved The Family from One End Street.
I still have all the Arthur Ransome books.
Loved Noel Streatfield and E Nesbit.
I read my way through the entire Chalet School series and wanted to go to boarding school!