Books we loved when we were young

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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’.

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. 🤔

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.

North and South, Catherine Cookson, Daphne Du Maurier, The Coral Island, Robinson Crusoe, Moonfleet, The Woman in White, The Secret Garden, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie.

When I was a teenager I really loved all the Dennis Wheatley books. He had three main protagonists: the Duc de Richelieu who, with his friends, fought against satanists: Gregory Sallust who was a secret agent during the Second World War and Roger Brook , another secret agent but during the Napoleonic wars. All were really exciting and many based on his own experiences in the First World War. He wrote many others but these were the ones I enjoyed most. I could never understand why none of the Gregory Sallust books were ever made into films as they would have been rivals to James Bond. As far as I know the only film of his books ever made was the ‘Devil Rides Out’ which wad absolutely awful. Just before he died DW killed off all three of his main characters as I think he wanted them to die with him.
Did anyone else enjoy these books?

As a teen we all read Forever Amber which is a really good roller coaster of a historical novel set in the 16th century. However, it was considered the dirty book of our day. I recently re-read it, and it is still a very good read but there is absolutely NO sex in it. People kiss and the chapter ends. Before that, I loved the Lorna Hill books about ballet and rich people living in castles in Northumbria. Nothing could have been further from my own life.

Oh and The Princess and the Goblin.

Luckygirl3

The Princess and Curdie - loved that book as a child.

And my all-time favourite as an adult is The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien.

I also loved that book as a child Luckygirl. I have a very vivid memory of coming across it on one of my weekly visits to the library, sitting in the window seat and reading the first chapter to see if I liked it. I took it home with me then and borrowed it several times afterwards.

Brown Mouse by Frank Jennens

Also loved the Noel Streatfeild vicarage family books.

Yes, GreyKnitter, I read the Bobbsey Twins books at my cousin’s house when I stayed there. Anyone remember a series of books about the Cherry family? Also ones about a family called Barton, I seem to remember.

Nanny27

Having enjoyed the recent thread about Jilly Cooper books, I started thinking about books I loved as a teenager and maybe in my twenties. Harold Robbins who wrote The Carpet baggers and Jacqueline Suzanne's Valley of the Dolls. Did any other Grans read these?

I read both of those as a teen! My grandma was horrified to see me reading The Pirate by Harold Robbins when I was 13 We were on holiday and I'd picked it up from the small library in the hotel

I read the Jackie Collins books as well. My literary taste was somewhat dubious, according to my father.

Sorry l took the title at face value and skimmed the blurb. I read all those between 7-10.

The Last of the Mohicans
Biggles
Cherry Ames Student Nurse
Robin Hood
Boys' Own Handbook - full of fascinating information about officers' ranks, identifying flags and semaphore, how to make a pea shooter etc
Black Beauty
Just William

Always loved reading and have been a voracious reader starting at 6 with The Silver Curlew by Eleanor Farjeon, Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease, The Miracle of Marcellino, Pollyanna, What Katy Did, Treasure Island, Black Beauty and all the others in a set my Nan used to buy us at Christmas every year - wasn't keen on 20,000 leagues under the Sea -A cold wind in August that I hand bound in wallpaper and titled it bedtime stories for girls, Wind in the Willows, all the early Jilly Cooper girls as an older teenager, Georgette Heyer, even Barbara Cartland when there was nothing else, The Lancashire Witches, The Manchester Man - "th'art a boggart in't cellar" - anything by Enid Blyton, Rebecca.....tons more I've loved and enjoyed in my early years that I can't bring to mind.
I'm sure I'm not on my own being described as "always got her head in a book"

Nanny27

Haha Jax. Yes us too. I really began this thread to reference teenage and early adult reading as lots of earlier threads focused on children's books

The thread title doesn’t make that clear, only your own posts keep returning to the theme!

Agatha Christie, followed by all of PG Woodhouse and all the Herriot ‘Vet’ books. My mum then introduced me to F Scott Fitzgerald and Laurie Lee. I’m forever grateful that she passed on her love of reading to me.

Did anyone else read The Bobbsey Twins books by Laura Lee Hope?

I'm getting confused, the book I read that was a series that starred Nick Nolte was Rich Man, Poor Man. I did seem to read books back then before they were filmed Another I read that was televised, Alex Haley's Roots.

As a young person, leaving childhood behind, I ploughed through Lord of the Rings, I must have been on something, I don't know what, I was under the impression I enjoyed it Far better, a book called Captains and The Kings which was turned into a mini series and launched the career of Nick Nolte and The Thorn Birds. Mid teens I was reading Gone with the Wind, lots of Jean Plaidy, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and a good dose of misery from Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders and Tess of the d'Ubervilles. Plus loads of Agatha Christie. There were others buried in the recesses of my brain plus a lot of magazines such as Petticoat.