Which author have you read more than any other?

[LaceandChintz]

I'll start!
Enid Blyton, without a doubt. And still the author who instilled a love of reading, whose books I devoured, and have loved as much all over again reading them to my own children.

As an adult, I guess it's Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine.

Over to you...

Marvis Jarvis is hilarious. My favorite episode on CD is when his unfriendly neighbour who is renting the house next door for the summer takes William's ball and bow and arrows when they fall into her garden.

He steals them back in the middle of the night. Of course she doesn't know that the burglar is William and is completely thrilled to the point that each time she tells the story she exaggerates more and more...

I love Jarvis saying Ransacked! Oh I was absolutely ransacked! and she sounds ecstatic

Map and Lucia is of the same sense of humour.

As a kid The Baby Sitters Club
I was completely obsessed.

Definitely Darren Brown

Terry Pratchett (my favourite author)
Christopher Brookmyre (have read everything he has written)

As a child/teen loads of Enid Blyton, Willard Price, whoever wrote Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Jilly Cooper (must have read Prudence at least 5 times!).

Interesting comments about Enid Blyton. I would never recommend them to a child now and didn’t give them to my dc to read but as a child very much enjoyed them. There wasn’t as much choice as there is now for children and Enid Blyton dominated the children’s shelves - famous five and secret seven were my favourites. I didn’t need encouraging to read but EB gave me a lot of fuel! I did enjoy them but on reflection (racism and sexism aside), none of them were stand out and I couldn’t tell you the plots of any of them now.

Sorry it's late in my time zone Martin Jarvis.

L M Montgomery without a doubt.

The grown up authors I've read the moat are Anne Tyler and Sarah Waters. Currently sad because I've read all the Sarah Waters books now and need a new one!

Ooh I forgot Elinor M Brent Dyer. My mum had the full chalet school collection and I must have read the first 15 or so about 15 times each. I kept trying to get beyond that but once they came to the UK they got frankly awful. They gave me my love of the Alps long before I actually went there!

I read a couple of Enid Blightons but I never got into them so definitely not a most read author for me.

I too loved Enid Blyton, I still have some in my parents attic. My favourites were the Faraway Tree and Amelia Jane when I was very young, then the Adventurous Four, Famous Five, and the Mallory Towers series. I so wanted to go to boarding school! My DD who does go (partial scholarship as we're not well off) shattered my childhood illusions regarding midnight feasts and the like.

As an adult, I've read everything from Huxley and Marquez to Martina Cole and Stephen King. The last book I read was American Psycho which was truly disturbing. I'm about to revisit the Great Gatsby which I love.

I've just remembered the Beverley Cleary books from childhood with Beezus and Ramona. They were so funny! Happy memories.

When I worked in a junior school library, we had lots of Enid Blyton, mostly donations. They were among the least popular books, mainly borrowed by teachers reliving their childhood. The children preferred Diary of a Wimpy kid, Anthony Horowitz, Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket.

Ian Rankin
James Herbert
Patricia Cornwell
Kathy Reichs
Tess Gueritson
Jilly Cooper
Meave Binchy
Phillipa Gregory

As a child, Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell, I loved working my way through the spinning display stand of those in the library! Then Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Chuck Palahniuk. I don’t seem to seek out all of a particular author’s work nowadays however, unless it’s Ann Cleeves!

I read many many books written by Haruki Murakami!

As a child I loved the Mallory Towers series but could take or leave most other Enid Blyton books. Read hundreds of Babysitters’ Club books as a young teen.

I read pretty widely as an adult but the author I’ve read most of is probably Winston Graham - I read all 12 of the wonderful Poldark books in about 18months and felt bereft when I finished.

Enid Blyton as a child and probably Georgette Heyer as an adult, both very prolific! All the Jane Austens too plus some fragments, letters etc.

Authors I’ve read maybe not everything but most things published by -
Kate Atkinson - on a long waiting list for her latest from the library
Barbara Kingslover
Isabelle Allende
Jonathan Harvey - love him, sort of Marian Keyes like, seems frothy at first but he can break your heart!
Mhairi McFarlane - lighter, sort of chick lity but the good kind!

Also pretty much everything by John Irving until about 2012.

As a child I read Enid Blyton, but preferred Arthur Ransome, Antonia Forest (the whole set, not just the school ones), Heinlein.

My favourite author as an adult reader is Lois McMaster Bujold.
One that I doubt anyone else has heard of is the My Friend books by Jane Duncan.

Katie Price

I hate to tell you Bertrand but she doesn't write her own books

Damn

😢

Wasn't allowed to read Enid Blyton for some reason. There seemed to be some weird 1970s backlash against her writing style or some such bollocks.

So as a child, it would have been the entire series of Janet & John ladybird books, plus all the accepted children's classics but did love Penelope Lively's books.

As an adult:

Caro Fraser - every single one of them
JK Rowling
Anya Seton - have read Katherine at least 100 times in my adult life!!! but all her others too
Tom Sharpe
Jilly Cooper

Lesley Pearce

I forgot about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott and Susan Coolidge.

Richmal Crompton and Enid Blyton as a child.
C.J Sansom recently.

As a child
Enid Blyton
Judy Blume
Sweet Valley Twins & High

As a teenager
Stephen King
Virginia Andrews
Jilly Cooper
Barbara Taylor Bradford (my Nan had loads and I quite liked the female focussed tragedy turns to great success theme)

As an adult
David Baldacci
James Patterson
John Grisham

Enid Blyton every one as a child!!
Noel Stretfield
Chalet School Books by Elinor M Brent Dyer
Catherine Cookson
Virginia Andrews
Danielle Steel
All the war type saga books Annie Groves Dilly Court etc etc .

Funny how you go through different authors throughout the years