Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Children's fantasy classics - Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Westall, Ursula le Guin, and more...

189 replies

astronewt · 20/12/2022 11:11

Inspired by the "Dark is Rising" thread.

I adored all these books as a child. My favourite book was Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and I read it over and over. I still reread The Dark is Rising every midwinter.

Fyi for those who may not know; Alan Garner wrote an additional novel in the Alderley Edge sequence about an adult Colin called Boneland in 2012 and Ursula le Guin has added another two novels to the Earthsea series; there are now six.

I can't wait to start getting my 8yo DS into some of these.

OP posts:
Sigma33 · 27/12/2022 13:10

Yes, Millie/living Asheth and the formulaic school stories was sheer genius 😂

IcakethereforeIam · 27/12/2022 13:26

I've just remembered another one, Nina Warner Hooke did a story about carousel horses that came to life. I think it was on Jackanory. It's out of print, not available as an ebook, and a second hand paperback was well-over £100 on Amazon. I'd love to read it again.

UnaOfStormhold · 27/12/2022 20:51

What's everyone reading at the moment? I'm just rereading the sequel to Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor which is a lovely world to escape into.

I love Lives of Christopher Chant - Millie is such a delightful character. A Sudden Wild Magic is lots of fun too, though not for kids. I love the way DWJ builds up to a crescendo of perfectly logical hilarious chaos in so many of her books.

AmadeustheAlpaca · 28/12/2022 18:09

Decisionfatiguequeen · 26/12/2022 23:16

Think I've just realised who the comedian Troy Hawke puts me in mind of!

Loved so many of the booked mentioned, agree the 80s were such a great time to be a bookworm. Wish my DC were more into fantasy fiction but you can't force them...
Tempted to google the stuff about MZB but worried it will ruin the Mist of Avalon for me.
Mercedes Lackey Valdemar series very good for older teens/adults. Might dig them out for a re read...

Show quote history

Troy Hawke fan here, see his show every summer when he’s at the Edinburgh Fringe. Apologies for the digression from the thread.

ChillinwiththeVillains · 30/12/2022 12:31

I just started, and finished (fast read), The Book of Dead Days by Maurice Sedgwick. I quite liked it but it was a bit overly portentous and plot light. Now casting around for something else for escapism. I have been given a lot of crime novels but it’s the same with our evening TV watching; DH and I are choosing His Dark Materials rather than starting on Tokyo Vice.

hagsrus0 · 02/01/2023 22:33

What a wonderful thread!

Has anyone read Marigold in Godmother's House by Joyce Brisley, or Five Dolls in a House by Helen Cresswell?

Don't forget E Nesbit - Five Children and It, The Enchanted Castle, et al.

One of my favourite authors, Sheri Tepper, wrote the True Game series of three trilogies, which I think may have been classified as YA. Jinian Footseer is a constant re-read.

Just a few loved ones mentioned here: Nicholas Stuart Grey, Joan Aiken, Alan Garner (especially The Owl Service, wonderful last lines). William Mayne (have to hold my nose re his little girl problem, especially since he wrote them so tenderly) especially Earthfasts and non-fantasy Summer Visitors.

Coxspurplepippin · 02/01/2023 22:59

LaBelleSauvage123 · 26/12/2022 14:24

Late to this thread, but you are my tribe! When I was learning to read my parents put a copy of The Little White Horse by my bed. It was the original hardback copy with wonderful colour illustrations, and had been given to my mother as a Sunday school prize in the late 1940s. They didn’t read it to me, just said ‘ This is for when you can read yourself’. I used to look at the pictures and be half fascinated and half scared, especially by the line drawing of Digby swinging on the bell rope that opens the tunnel to Moonacre Manor. When I was about 7 I read it myself and was completely spellbound- it was definitely my gateway into fantasy fiction.
Have loved many of the books listed here, but would add Philip Reeves’ Mortal Engines trilogy and the prequels - wonderful. Shrike is one of the greatest creations ever.

What a wonderful memory. I love Elizabeth Goudge - so does JK Rowling!

TheRedLip · 03/01/2023 14:59

MadMadMadamMim · 26/12/2022 23:34

Can anyone remember a book for me that I've searched for for years? I only read it once and would say that that was perhaps written in the 1970s. I would have been around 12 when I read it.

It is set in a village and a girl (around 11/12?) goes to stay with an aunt/great aunt in a village full of witches. Aunt is also a witch and they somehow upset the rest of the village and are under siege. I seem to remember Aunt wasn't that good a witch. There are birds watching or attacking them and it was exciting. It's definitely not the Weirdstone. This was all female as far as I can recall. Set in an English village.

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received. I remember borrowing from the library.

On another note, I was amazed as an adult to discover an odd book called the Carpet People which I vaguely remembered reading from the library at primary school was actually Terry Pratchett!

Could this be When The Night Crow Flies? Or the sequel (the name of which I can't remember sorry).

MadMadMadamMim · 03/01/2023 16:56

@TheRedLip Thanks so much for the suggestion - I'll check it out and get back to you!

TheRedLip · 03/01/2023 19:10

You're very welcome.

I loved fantasy literature as a young teenager. I first read The Mists of Avalon when I was 11 and that was that, never looked back. Lived and breathed The Dark Is Rising, Weirdstone and The Moon of Gomrath (though like others, I never really got Red Shift) and anything by Robin McKinley. I thought I was the only person to ever read The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.

Did anyone else read The Horse Lord trilogy by Peter Morwood? I fell in love with Aldric Talvalin and he was the man by which all my boyfriends were measured Grin

IcakethereforeIam · 03/01/2023 19:29

I've never entirely given up on their being a sequel to the Blue Sword, etc.

Neverknowinglysensible · 03/01/2023 21:41

@TheRedLip Yes! I loved the first two books (and Aldric) but found the last bit of the third a bit too brutal for my teenage sensibility!

TheRedLip · 03/01/2023 22:06

Neverknowinglysensible · 03/01/2023 21:41

@TheRedLip Yes! I loved the first two books (and Aldric) but found the last bit of the third a bit too brutal for my teenage sensibility!

Do you mean the 4th book The Warlord's Domain, because that was pretty brutal. And I really hated how it ended on a cliff hanger and we never got to find out whether Aldric survived.

Neverknowinglysensible · 03/01/2023 22:13

@TheRedLip ah yes, so it was. Sorry, it’s been a very long time since I read them. I really wanted to find out what happened to Adric too.
I think I might have to find them on Amazon and reread.

IcakethereforeIam · 04/01/2023 14:09

@Neverknowinglysensible I checked these books out on Amazon (the Horselord trilogy), I couldn't remember if I'd read them or not. At least some of them can be read 'free' in Kindle Unlimited, which is sometimes available on a free trial.

The Nina Warner Hooke book I mentioned upthread was The Moon on the Water. Forgot to put the title Blush

TheRedLip · 04/01/2023 14:37

MadMadMadamMim · 03/01/2023 16:56

@TheRedLip Thanks so much for the suggestion - I'll check it out and get back to you!

I did a bit of digging and the sequel is called Witch's Gold.

MadMadMadamMim · 04/01/2023 21:12

I'm genuinely excited and think @TheRedLip might have iidentified my book.

I've just ordered both that and Witch's Gold and I'm looking forward to reading them even if they aren't my vaguely remembered book!

I'll update once I've read them.😁😁

TheRedLip · 04/01/2023 21:23

I'm so excited for you, really hoping they're the right ones.

Copperas · 05/01/2023 09:18

Victoria Goddard is wonderful! I started in completely the wrong place with The Return of Fitzroy Angursell which completely confused me - but which was so well written I just ploughed on through. Having now read in the “right” order, I have a world of delight I keep returning to.

Copperas · 05/01/2023 09:20

And I have just been reading Katherine Ardern thanks to this fantastic thread

UnaOfStormhold · 05/01/2023 13:35

@Copperas that must have been a bit confusing - and probably changed the experience of reading of Hands of the Emperor too! I didn't get on quite so well with the Greenwing and Dart books or the one of about the Lord of Ysthar but Hands of the Emperor and At the Feet of the Sun and the Red Company books are extremely satisfying to read.

Copperas · 05/01/2023 19:16

It was extraordinarily confusing! I took the opportunity of the new book coming out to reread everything! Weeks of enjoyment

JaninaDuszejko · 05/01/2023 19:59

maeveiscurious · 20/12/2022 19:00

Beverly Nicols / The Tree that sat down,

Amazing story of witches shape changing and spitting toads

As achild I spent more time than I care to admit trying to make sleeping potion. Adored these books and still have my childhood copies.

Neverknowinglysensible · 05/01/2023 20:57

@UnaOfStormhold I’ve bought Hands of the Emperor but must admit I’m struggling to get involved with it. I’m only up to where the Emperor arrives at the holiday home so will persevere.
Thanks to @TheRedLip and @IcakethereforeIam I have also downloaded the Adricbooks and look forward to rereading once I have finished Garth Nix’s Sabriel.

UnaOfStormhold · 05/01/2023 21:44

@Neverknowinglysensible it's one of those books where a lot of the things that happen are quite subtle and at the heart of it is a relationship emerging in a situation that constrains its expression hugely. So the story gets off to quite a slow start with not much happening but lots of undercurrents. But I'd definitely say it's worth the time.

Swipe left for the next trending thread