@SquitMcJit Thank you! Lovely to come across someone who recognises and loves Penny’s Way. The characters are real in much the same way as Antonia Forest’s Marlow family, and it was so refreshing to have a schoolgirl heroine in the bottom stream at school, living above the fish and chip shop, with a dragon Maths teacher and a not very pleasant best friend.
And yes to Ursula Moray Williams! I’d add Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat, The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse and The Further Adventures of Gobbolino and the Little Wooden Horse.
And speaking of cats, definitely yes to Carbonel, The Kingdom of Carbonel and Carbonel and Calidor - all by Barbara Sleigh, whose granddaughter was on a MN book recognition thread recently.
@Tarahumara I knew someone would recognise my username on this thread! Diana Wynne Jones was amazing, wasn’t she - when you opened one of her books you never knew where it was going to take you, but they were always a feast for the imagination. Dd and I were in tears when we heard she had died.
So nice to see someone else who remembers Nina Beachcroft. I think Cold Christmas was my favourite but I loved Well Met by Witchlight, Under the Enchanter and A Visit to Folly Castle too.
Yes to Mary Norton’s The Borrowers series and her Bedknob and Broomstick. Which puts me in mind of BB’s Little Grey Men and Down the Bright Stream.
A few more that I forgot last night:
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr
The Mantlemass series - Barbara Willard
My Friend Flicka - Mary O’Hara
The Silver Brumby series - Elyne Mitchell
The World’s End series - Monica Dickens
My Naughty Little Sister series and A Strong and Willing Girl - Dorothy Edwards
Pollyanna - Eleanor H Porter
The Changeover, The Haunting - Margaret Mahy
Black Harvest - Ann Pilling
Do please keep the recommendations coming.