A book loved in childhood: do you remember?

Agree with all of those mentioned so far, especially anything by Enid Blyton, the Cherry family series and the Susan books. I taught myself to read before I started school by refusing to allow my mum to read Jack and Jill and the Friendly Badger to me more than once apparently ! Since then I’ve always been an avid reader. Also loved a book called Little John Little as a very young child. As an older child, I loved a series of books about a family called something like the Bartons but I can find no trace of them. Also the Bell family vicarage books by Noel Streatfeild. Lovely thread this.

paddyann54

A book called Pomeroys Postscript ,can’t remember the author and havetrawled through second hand bookshops whenI see them but never found another copy.

My late dad used to take me every week to exchange the second hand bookshops we had bought the week before.Sometimes I,d have read 5 or 6 books in a week .

www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?tn=pomeroys+postscript&an=mary+fitt

Thought you might be interested.

Ballet Shoes and Noel Streatfield’s other books, Black Beauty and Enid Blyton’s school stories.

I loved all The Borrowers. There are 4. Afloat, aloft and afield. The sorrow I felt at their aloneness and being a dying breed, possibly the last of their race, was very powerful and completely missing from subsequent films and series. The girl of the limberlost made a huge impression. All the regulars quoted here but I hadn't known about some of those Noel Streatfields. Adored Jennings and everything by Elizabeth Goudge. How wonderful to find our common childhood culture. These books made us and our dreams. I have been enjoying the malory towers series with my granddaughter. Was always a bit of a snob about Enid Blyton, following my mother. But see the point now. I loved identifiable characters and situations not too much wild fantasy for me.

I see The Silver Sword mentioned by many. I must hunt down a copy. I still have my The Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray Williams.

Thank you for sharing, everyone. I'm not adding any more, as you have brought back happy memories of about 90% of the titles mentioned.
How lucky we are to have such a treasury.

paddyann54

A book called Pomeroys Postscript ,can’t remember the author and havetrawled through second hand bookshops whenI see them but never found another copy.

My late dad used to take me every week to exchange the second hand bookshops we had bought the week before.Sometimes I,d have read 5 or 6 books in a week .

There are a couple for sale on World of Books and other secondhand sites might have some too.

I liked Famous Five and Secret Seven books by Enid Blyton but had to borrow them from the librry as my mum didn't think much of them. I was a big fan of a series of books by Malcolm Saville, though I can't remeber the titles now. However the book that immediately came to mind was called 'Annals of a little shop'. This was a book my mum gave me that she had as a child. I read and re-read it a number of times.

As so many said before me, Noel Streatfield and What Katy Did Next. I enjoyed Anne of Green Gables and Black Beauty as well as Hans Christian Anderson. Best of all, I passed on my love of reading to our son and he buys me many books nowadays.

NotSpaghetti

paddyann54

A book called Pomeroys Postscript ,can’t remember the author and havetrawled through second hand bookshops whenI see them but never found another copy.

My late dad used to take me every week to exchange the second hand bookshops we had bought the week before.Sometimes I,d have read 5 or 6 books in a week .

www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?tn=pomeroys+postscript&an=mary+fitt

Thought you might be interested.

Thank you ,that’s it ordered.I never thought about finding it online .

I remember the 'Twin' books very well. Does anyone remember 5 Dolls and a house? It was about the residents of a dolls' house, the doll characters were great - Vanessa, the bossy doll, Jacqueline, the paying guest, and all the rest. I read almost all of the books mentioned above, Enid Blyton's particularly.
This was indeed a lovely thread, Sofia A. Many thanks for starting it.

This thread has reminded me of a book my older sister had that I coveted but was only rarely allowed to look at it as she said I would spoil it. The book was Goblin Market, a poem by Christina Rossetti illustrated by Arthur Rackham I believe. I found the pictures very disturbing but facinating. Any one else remember it?

The Water Babies - I read it again last year and it’s a really strange story.

I have been enjoying the malory towers series with my granddaughter.

Passiflora my 8 year old granddaughter loves Mallory Towers as well.
She dressed in character for World Book Day and carried one of the books, plus a tennis racquet.
She really looked the part! 🙂

mulberry7

I remember the 'Twin' books very well. Does anyone remember 5 Dolls and a house? It was about the residents of a dolls' house, the doll characters were great - Vanessa, the bossy doll, Jacqueline, the paying guest, and all the rest. I read almost all of the books mentioned above, Enid Blyton's particularly.
This was indeed a lovely thread, Sofia A. Many thanks for starting it.

Thank you for mentioning 5 Dolls and a House. I loved this book and others in the series and was thinking about them the other day but couldn't remember the title. I really enjoyed the idea of being able to shrink into a dolls' house.

I was very slow at learning to read and was in special class taught by an older teacher, she was magic! I gained a love of books lasting all my life. Heidi Black Beauty, Scarlet Pimpernel, then Jane Eyre etc. I was caught by my mum reading under the bedcovers using a torch to see, I'm so grateful to that special teacher.

Heidi
Magic faraway tree
Mallory Towers
Famous Five
Whitby Witches
Red wall series

SofiaA

I've been chatting with an old friend about books we read in childhood that were not heard of much nowadays, and we came to discuss which made a particular impression, and why.

I loved Cynthia Harnett's book called The Wool Pack. Its about a group of children in medieval England working against smugglers. It was different because it was of a different time and about different life style. It had a lovely cover, I remeber, and I think that at first was what appealed.

Love to hear what book was special to you as a child that now may be forgotten...

I loved The Wool Pack too, and can remember the cover, like a medieval tapestry iirc.
Not many of the commentators books are as forgotten as the Harnett.
I love Antonia Forest but I’m on various Facebook discussion groups so she doesn’t seem forgotten to me.
And I like William Mayne, especially A Swarm in May and the Choir books. But, Mayne having been convicted of CSA offences, it raises the old question of do we judge art works by the morality (or not) of the author?

TerriBull

The Water Babies, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, What Katy Did, Wind in the Willows, Heidi. Practically every Enid Blyton, starting with Noddy and the Faraway Tree ending with Mallory Towers and all the various series she wrote with groups of children having scrapes and adventures.

The water babies, and I still have an original hardback.
Well read
Diane

For me it was any book by Enid Blyton. I read them all. I would go swimming on a Saturday morning on my way home go into the book shop and buy myself a book then spend the rest of the day reading it then getting disappointed that I had finished it before bedtime - happy days!!

I’m glad that a couple of people remember the Susan books too. Apart from those I must have read just about every children’s’ book there was. I loved What Katy Did and Little Women too. The highlight of my week was when the mobile library came round. I remember reading Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out when I was far too young and it gave me nightmares. I’m still an avid reader but read on my Kindle these days.

I fiound a small, grotty edition of 'The Secret Garden' in the library and loved it. I read it again and again. I was also enthralled by the Narnia books and enchanted by the bizarre wit and clever nonsense of the two 'Alice' books.

My daughter was equally obsessed by the cleverness of Lewis Carroll and her own daughter is named after the eponymous heroine.

Mine was a series of books about a young girl named Drina who attended a ballet school I think was in London, I've forgotten the name of the author. I'd love to re-read them if only I could find them. No-one else seems to know what I'm talking about but I know I'm not imagining it!

I adored The Borrowers and Stig of the dump.
I also loved Oh the Brave Music which follows the life of 7 year old Ruan up until her teenage years. Set in Yorkshire, I have read it so many times.

I remember the first book I tried to read. It was shaped like a house with doors that opened to a different room on each page. Only words I can remember were ' now who's hiding behind this door' and 'golly in the kitchen bright cooking dinner for tonight. I couldn't understand 'tonight' and pronounced it Ton gite. Oh to be a 5yr old learning to read.