Books we loved when we were young

When I was 11 I loved the books about the Cherry Family by Will Scott. I used to get them from the library. I have never met anyone else who has read them but recently I managed to track some down and have them on my bookshelf.

As a teenager I usually had my head stuck in anything by Daphne du Maurier, Jean Plaidy and Anya Seyton. I didn’t like Georgette Heyer’s books though. I considered them too girly.
Forever Amber was the first saucy book I read. Loved it! 😂
I have no doubt that romantic historical novels enriched our education. I could rattle off the family trees of monarchs, dates of battles, plagues, executions…you name it. 😂😂
Social and economic history at school couldn’t have been more boring by comparison. 🤔

Sadgrandma I was also a huge fan of Dennis Wheatley’s books as a teenager. I remember bringing ‘The Devil Rides Out’ home from the library and my father being outraged because they were all about black magic. I also read all of Fred Hoyle’s science fiction books, one of which - ‘A for Andromeda’ was made into a tv drama. Other teenage favourites were Alistair Maclean’s ‘Campbells Kingdom’ and For ‘Whom the Bell Tolls’, and John Buchan’ books.

As a child I loved ‘Tanglewood Tales’ and The Famous Five, and most of the standard children’s classics, but for some reason couldn’t get on with ‘The Water Babies’.

I also read ‘Rebecca’ for the first time as a teenager and it has remained one of my very favourite books ever since.

Oh yes.! To the Devil, a daughter, and The Haunting of Toby Jugg. Read all Dennis Wheatley I could get. We often went to Boscombe on holiday and there were heaps of second hand book shops. Spent many a morning in those.

My mum read Dennis Wheatley and I remember how creepy the dust jackets were

My dad loved H Rider Haggard and when I was at junior school, I remember him bringing King Solomon’s Mines home from the library. I was fascinated with the title and in the end persuaded him to read to me what he was reading. Then one evening, he picked it up and I said to him “Oh we’re not on that page anymore…..”. He gave me the book and let me get on with it!

There’s a children’s book (supposedly a boys’ adventure story) I loved so much, I found a 2nd hand copy online, since the original was getting a bit dog-eared. And one more for a sibling!

It’s entitled Chalky, by Howard L Apps, published in the 50s and set in that era, but doesn’t really read ‘dated’. Very funny in places, it’s the story of two very ordinary boys who go in search of a very valuable diamond, lost many years ago by a now-poor and reclusive old lady neighbour.

The search takes them into the Essex marshes and into real danger.
It’s a cracking read - I still revisit it now and then!

Nobody else ever seems to have heard of it, but IMO it would have made a brilliant film.