Gransnet forums

Chat

Your fav author from childhood

(312 Posts)
TrendyNannie6 Mon 17-Feb-20 19:22:12

Mine will always be the lovely Enid Blyton , had so many of her books especially the famous five

Urmstongran Tue 18-Feb-20 09:47:24

Oops! (blushing furiously)
It was you first Witzend but as our posts were only a minute apart I think our posts crossed - I couldn’t have seen your post when I started to type. That’s why when I posted I thought I was first.

I must strive to be less competitive....!
?

Urmstongran Tue 18-Feb-20 09:43:32

Erm... credit where credit’s due here...
I was the first poster to recall the Milly Molly Mandy books!
?

BlueSky Tue 18-Feb-20 09:19:11

It's got to be Louisa May Alcott. Little Women was the first book I read, followed by Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys. I've seen the various film versions and waiting to buy the latest on DVD!

Lins1066 Tue 18-Feb-20 09:12:57

All Enid Blyton books especially the Famous Five and the 'R' mysteries - Rat A Tat, Rilloby Fair etc. I too wanted to be Daryl at Malory Towers.
We had a story read to us at the end of the day at Junior School - The Water Babies, Treasure Island and Kidnapped - I suspect the (male) teacher's favourites.
The Classics came later but I do remember reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's ' Uncle Tom's Cabin' and R.D. Blackmoor's Lorna Doone.

Grandma70s Tue 18-Feb-20 09:01:48

Just remembered another one - Pamela Brown. The Swish of the Curtain, Blue Door Venture.

I read children’s books in parallel with adult books. I was reading the plays of Bernard Shaw at the same time as The Bell Family by Noel Streatfeild.

harrigran Tue 18-Feb-20 08:54:32

Never read Enid Blyton but loved Noel Streatfield and Monica Dickens.
By the time I was twelve I was reading adult books because I thought they were much more exciting. Agathe Christie and Ngaio Marsh.

Bathsheba Tue 18-Feb-20 08:43:00

Laura Lee Hope. I read every single one of her Bobbsey Twins books, and some of them more than once! Also Enid Blyton, of course. Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley was another favourite series - thanks Witzend for mentioning that one.

Johanna Spyri's Heidi - oh how I dreamed of sleeping in the hayloft in her grandfather's mountain home! Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children, Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. Oh so many I loved!

shandi6570 Tue 18-Feb-20 08:06:51

The Dimsie Goes to School series was my favourite, by Dorita Fairlie Bruce. For some reason I never read the Malory books, they were my best friends' choice and we never swopped. Seems strange not to have done now I look back.

Nortsat46 Tue 18-Feb-20 08:05:44

Enid Blyton - I used to spend my pocket money each week on a new paperback.
I loved (same as many other GNs) the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and Mallory Towers.

Noddy and Big Ears when I was small. Then the Magic Far Away Tree was my utter favourite.

juilia my sister and I loved Pookie, when we were small. Many years later, when we were in our 30’s, she found a copy of Pookie in a bookshop and bought it for me. It was such a lovely surprise when it arrived in the post.
Sadly my sister died in 2003, but I have still got Pookie. ?

TerriBull Tue 18-Feb-20 08:00:56

Forgot about Milly, Molly, Mandy, those too were an early favourite.

TerriBull Tue 18-Feb-20 07:58:02

Enid Blyton, started on Faraway Tree, Noddy and on to Famous Five and all the other Adventure series she wrote, finishing off on Mallory Towers. I think I had a little gap before I went on to Agatha Christie in my teens. I did also read classics, loved the Alice books, another favourite The Water Babies, What Katie Did, Heidi, Wind in the Willows. I loved my books and got a real thrill out of getting new ones at Christmas. During the school holidays I ordered my Enid Blytons from the library, so excited when the card arrived to say such and such a book had arrived for collection.

Sara65 Tue 18-Feb-20 06:44:41

I received Heidi as a Sunday school prize, and loved it, and Swallows and Amazons as a school prize, which got me hooked on Arthur Ransom. When I was about twelve my dad gave me Far from the Madding Crowd, and I was off in another direction again.

NotSpaghetti Tue 18-Feb-20 01:05:55

And Frances Hodgeson Burnett "The Secret Garden".
Fabulous - though did read it much later and was less impressed.

NotSpaghetti Tue 18-Feb-20 01:03:09

Oooh. Yes, and some of the Narnia books, Dodie Smith, Philippa Pearce...

NotSpaghetti Tue 18-Feb-20 00:59:03

Callistemon, "BB" was the pseudonym that the naturalist Denis Watkins-Pitchford wrote under. He did all his own illustrations. He was certainly writing in the 40s if not before as he had won prizes by the time I discovered him in the school library.

Alan Garner wrote The Wierdstone of Brisingamen (which was published in 1960) and lots of others. His work is mostly based on local myths and legends. All my children without exception found his books compelling. He was from Manchester and, if I remember correctly, taught near Alderley Edge.

As well as these two I loved Ursula la Guin (who wrote the Earthsea books). I loved her books for their combined excitement and moral challenges!

Another must-read of my childhood were the Susan Cooper novels - especially "The Dark is Rising" series. I think these were published after the others but were in my school library.

A mention for Joan Aiken wouldn't go amiss and finally, what young girl would not have romped her way through Georgette Heyer I wonder?

callgirl1 Tue 18-Feb-20 00:31:41

Enid Blyton of course. I started off with Noddy and Big Ears, then progressed to The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, then when it came out I had the Enid Blyton magazine each week.

QuaintIrene Tue 18-Feb-20 00:14:51

I loved the My Little Sister books by Dorothy Edwards and Milly Molly Mandy stories.
Enid Blyton, Noel Streatfield and the ballet books by Lorna Hill.
Later I liked the Margaret Powell, Molly Weir and Betty MacDonald autobiographies.
Always an avid reader.

Callistemon Mon 17-Feb-20 23:33:26

Never, not ever

Callistemon Mon 17-Feb-20 23:33:09

I've ever heard of Alan Garner, perhaps after my time.

Who is BB NotSpaghetti?

Callistemon Mon 17-Feb-20 23:31:32

My mother used to force me out to play as well paddyanne - perhaps like mums today prising their children off their tablets!

NotSpaghetti Mon 17-Feb-20 23:29:29

Alan Garner, without a doubt.
Followed by "BB".

SparklyGrandma Mon 17-Feb-20 23:28:58

Susan Coolidge, who wrote What Katy Did and Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote The Secret Garden.

paddyanne Mon 17-Feb-20 23:26:28

The Chalet School books and the Abbey Girls ,my lovely dad would take me to the second hand book shops every Saturday and we'd swap the 4 I got the previous week for 4 "new" books.I read all the time ,my mother used to force me out to play and I'd hide a book up my jumper and sit outside the fence to read it .My christmas list when I was 10 had all the classics ,Black Beauty ,Jane Ayre,Pride and Prejudice all in all I got 20 brand new books and I was thrilled.By the time I was in 2nd year I'd read things my parents were dubious about me reading I even managed War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago .I love my books but gave my whole collection ,all except half a dozen to the local school when their library burned down .There was in the region of two and a hald thousand .Now if I could just pluck up the courage to give away my CD.s but I've not managed to do it yet.

Squiffy Mon 17-Feb-20 23:25:35

I loved Granny's Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne and all The Borrower's books by Mary Norton. I so longed to have Borrowers for company!

Callistemon Mon 17-Feb-20 23:07:02

Auntieflo I loved Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green also tales of King Arthur but I can't remember the author.