When I was little

I was Nancy Drew, girl detective.

I really loved Enid Blyton, but was shocked when some words and illustrations from one of her books were shown on the TV the other day. They were so racist. I believe the books contained an awful lot of snobbery as well. I can understand why there is a reluctance to let children read them, at least in the form they were originally published.

There was not "rascism" in the days when they were written .

My DG still love them , they merely see them as a jolly good read .
Still I suppose they have to be "carefully taught "

Quoting "south Pacific " for the avoidance of doubt .

Just got in after a superb day with our "youngest " she put on a lovely lunch , reckon she gets her cooking skills from her Mum

Nonu I agree that British people may not have perceived certain things as racist in those days, but they most certainly were. Foreigners were frequently portrayed as crafty and untrustworthy. The particular illustration I saw on the TV was a shockingly crude caricature of a black man.

We have Famous Five on CD for long car journeys ......silence!

LullyDully my GD has Famous Five short stories on her player at bedtime. She loves Enid Blyton and adventure stories.

Nowadays they graduate from Enid Blyton to Jacqueline Wilson - more challenging and gritty.

One could say like Agatha Christie , some things are just timeless .

"Old School Values " should maybe be adhered to .

I started with Robin and then moved on through Swift to Girl. But I also read Topper every week, my parents both loved the adventures of poor Foxy and the centre spread was always something educational. I still remember that a golden eagle has a nine foot wingspan because I read it in Topper. Was I the only person who enjoyed Look and Learn? I always found it useful for schoolwork.

Apart from Arthur Ransome I spent most of my childhood reading every pony book known to man. I completely missed out on Enid Blyton because my mother thought the books were badly written, although for some reason I was allowed to have Sunny Stories every week.

Oh it was so nice reading all your posts, they were all kind and made me feel why not, which was very refreshing. I don't feel as silly as I did THANK YOU

I don't see the problem, what does it matter what other people might think, if you want to buy a girls magazine buy it.

I bought my roller boots when I was in my 50s and didn't give a hoot to the laughter from my children. I love roller skating and would skate regularly if there was a rink local.
I ice skate in the winter when a rink is set up in the centre for Christmas, it's brilliant. What's it matter if I'm years older than anyone else, life is for living not worrying about what other people might think.

There's a 'Little Me' inside all of us, cathy and it's good to hold her hand and attend to her childhood needs every now and again. I have lots of children's books here in my house, some that I think are ideal for my grandchildren, and lots that I fondly remember and want to have nearby

I still have my roller skates and boots and just need to find a hall I can hire to practise, as I have lost some of my confidence - my ex husband and I were dance-skaters. I took most of my grandchildren skating when I was in my 50s, to the local leisure centre in Folkestone - they were very impressed that I could go backwards and spin!

I think Heidi was probably the reason I ended up living in the Alps - the mountains still exert a fascination for me.

We were a very 'bookish' and unsporting family, and apart from the usual Angela Brazil school stories, we also read Dickens, Hardy and Austen (from the library, there was no money for books). It is amusing with the benefit of an adult, possibly cynical, perspective, to read about those girls with 'crushes' on the gym teacher or the Head Girl, who was always beautiful, clever and good at sports. Hm.......

I re-read John Buchan a few years ago, and was amazed that the blatant racism had not struck me the first time round. One line I remember was 'He is the whitest Jew since St. Paul'. TinTin, of course, has had to be reprinted to take out the worst of the racism.

In my teens I avidly read the Fu Manchu series of crime novels.
Written by Sax Rohmer (who I believe was an Irish Catholic) they presented Chinese/Oriental people as evil and sinister.

Grimms Fairy Tales, I read them over and over, and The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge is still on my shelf.
Little Women fell apart as did Gone with the Wind.

Of course, in a lot of American films made recently, the baddie is always an Englishman! Cunning devils, the lot of us!

My sister and I have quite a collection of 'Chalet School' books between us. Why someone thought these were the perfect books to give as prizes to relatively poor girls at a village school I'll never know. Much preferred the 'Anne of Green Gables' series and Dickens which I got in Primaries 6 & 7. The 'comics' we had were also full of stories about posh girls at boarding schools - anyone remember the Four Marys? Only Oor Wullie and The Broons seemed like normal people.

We also were only allowed 'good sweets' e.g. Cadbury's Chocolate, so I now unashamedly buy forbidden Sherbert Fountains, liquorous whirls and sherbert lemons all for myself - thankfully the DGC don't like them.

I loved the Anne of Green Gables series and it was very well done on TV too.
I used to try to get my grandchildren to enjoy the books I had loved, like The Wind in the Willows, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, The Water Babies and Just William, but then I discovered that there are lots of very good modern writers for children. And perhaps all the children they write about do not live in houses with cooks and go on holiday to Sandy Bay every year. (Down with Enid Blyton!)

I loved the Chalet School books and stories about boarding school high jinx because that lifestyle was so different from my own. I longed to be at boarding school....

Same with Heidi and Anne of Green Gables - it was another world!

And me! But I hated my boarding school. I also enjoyed the Abbey Girls series.

The majority of the books I had were from the Library. very few were bought.

Enid Blyton Famous Five & her "Adventure" series. Malcolm Saville, Lone Pine Books. Horsey Books! Jill and her ponies etc. Pat Smyths horsey books The Three Jays. School stories. Biggles of course never read the books about the female "would be Biggles." Someone will remember her name.

I was late finding the Secret Garden. I loved the Silver Sword and I still have a copy which makes me cry every time. I discovered the William Brown books in my teens. The tapes of those have been in the car on long journeys with our children. Martin Jarvis reading for preference.

I had the School Friend magazine long after I was too old for it. I remember the Silent 3 and the Four Marys though I am not sure they were both in School Friend?

Yes lots of these stories were horribly anti foreigner.

One of my earliest memories of Books was my Dad reading The Water Babies to my sister (4yrs older) and I. He also used to make up some wonderfully silly stories to tell us while we would snuggle into bed on a Saturday morning while my poor mum was cooking his full English Breakfast. Happy times though.

I enjoyed the Katy books and I was surprised and delighted to hear that my 10-year-old GD - otherwise a Harry Potter fanatic - was reading them now.