Your fav author from childhood

I forgot Milly Molly Mandy - by Joyce Lankester (sp?) Brisley, IIRC.

Enid Blyton's Circus Days Again was the book which turned me into a lifelong reader. My favourite childhood read

Definitely the ‘Milly Molly Mandy’ books. Absolutely loved them (especially the little road map of the cottages at the front) when I was in junior school. Also ‘The Borrowers’.

I was about 9y old when I read ‘Alice in Wonderland’ at home, in bed, getting over ? chickenpox. Was in my mum’s bed (a treat cos I wasn’t well) on my own. Mum had gone to work - I must have been over the worst - but still ... ? No telephone in the house. Just told ‘stay in bed till I get back’. Needs must I suppose - no grandparents.

Different times indeed.

Are we too soft nowadays?

Or was it so traumatic that’s why I remember it so vividly? I admit I was a little bit scared.

Discuss.
Oh maybe a new thread - sorry to derail this one - I’ll shut up now.

Without a doubt, Arthur Ransome. I started with Swallows and Amazons and just kept reading.

Enid Blyton for me. I envied the children in the Famous Five so much.

Anna Sewell and Black Beauty. I still have my copy of that.

Milly Molly Mandy (and little friend Susan and Billy Blunt, remember?)

Then Swallows and Amazons and We didn’t mean to go to sea.

Children of Willow Farm and the Adventure series

But my absolute, all-time favourite was Elinor M Brent Dyer’s Chalet School books which I adored and bought with any book token or birthday or Christmas money.

And all of which my mother, without my knowledge, gave to a local hospital while I was at college. It still makes me cross!

What an enjoyable thread.

Enid Blyton, W E Johns, Malcolm Saville....there must be loads more.

Oh, I forgot the Milly Molly Mandy books by Joyce Lankester Bristley. I loved the map of the village inside the cover, which reminded me of the village my grandmother lived in.

Thank you DoraMarr I couldn’t recall the name of the author. I found the MMM books really comforting.

P.s. I’ve started another thread on childhood stresses if anyone is interested?

Enid Blyton and Charles Kingsley - loved The Water Babies. Also Francis Hodgson Burnett for The Secret Garden.

I loved the Chalet School books and bought them for my daughter who loved them too. She still has some. I so wanted to be at their boarding school and to be part of that world. Any time we were playing and had to choose a name I was Allegra (one of the characters) .
How does anyone live without books?

I liked Hans Christian Anderson and Brothers Grimm.

Thank you Nottooold I’d forgotten Malcolm Saville, loved the Lone Pine books.

Aw dorramarr that was the two books I won for my English efforts. What Katy did and what Katy did next. I recently turned 60 and I bought this book as treat and a walk down memory lane! I did love Enid blyton though. All those adventures!,

Mary O'Hara, My Friend Flicka; Ruby Ferguson, Jill's Gymkhana and the rest of the Jill books; the Pullein Thompson sisters ; Henry Williamson, Greatheart and other animal stories ; Primrose Cummings, Silver Snaffles and other pony stories.

Any Enid Blyton book but the 5 Find Outers were my favourites, the Chalet School books, the Hardy Boys series the Bobbsey Twins series, the Andrew Lang books of Fairy Tales (some of these were quite dark and scary), the William books. Loved them all!

Heidi for me by Joanna Spyri. I ached for her loss when she was removed from the mountains and her grandfather. Such a sad tale upsets me now even to think of it.
Yes and What Katy did series was wonderful. Always thought if I had a daughter I would call her Clover
Thank goodness I came to my senses when my DD was born

Enid Blyton for me. I’ve still got several Famous Five and River/Island/Circus etc of Adventure books, not to mention the wonderful Faraway Tree stories. Whenever DD comes to stay she rereads the lot!

I only liked Enid Blyton’s non-fiction stuff. She did a very good book on birds, and good natural history books.

I loved the Katy books, and anything by Noel Streatfeild. The children in those books were real, living characters, as was Just William. My problem with Arthur Ransome (my brother’s favourite) was that I thought the children characterless and boring. Lorna Hill’s books managed to combine ballet and ponies, which I thought was very clever. Every middle-class little girl seemed to be obsessed with one or the other, or both.

We had Alice in Wonderland (dramatised) on a series of 78 rpm records, and I knew those before I read the books.

Milly Molly Mandy was read to us at school. I loved it, but never owned the books. When we were older, about nine or ten, a book about Marco Polo was read to us. I have no idea who wrote it and have never been able to trace it, but we all adored it. This was about 1950.

I liked Mary Plain, the Swiss bear, but can’t remember the author. Also, of course, Winnie the Pooh. I can’t bear the Disneyfication of Pooh.

I always read a lot of poetry. My mother gave me two children’s anthologies, which I still have, and I was always reading the Poetry sections of Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia. Anything from nursery rhymes to Shakespeare - I wasn’t fussy.

I could go on....
.

Loved The Chalet School, and Mallory Towers. Always wanted to be like Daryl .

Noel Streatfield. Ballet Shoes, etc

Elinor M.Brent-Dyer. Chalet School books.

Also the book " The Wide, Wide World", but can't remember the author.

I also loved all the Greek Myths and Legends.

Mazo de la Roche

After Arthur Ransome, many of the authors you mention, Grandma70s The 'Katy did' series, also, very similar 'Little Women', then Noel Streatfield, Lorna Hill, The Pullein-Thompson sisters. I too loved poetry, still do.

By 11 I was into John Buchan, DK Broster, Georgette Heyer and others that bridge the gap between childhood and adult.

I’d forgotten Milly Molly Mandy!

For a younger age group, but I loved the Teddy Robinson books. By Joan Robinson, I think? Also Blackberry Farm, when I first started reading.

Thank goodness I came to my senses when my DD was born

That just had me giggling May7!

Enid Blyton when I was very young but I also enjoyed many other authors

I loved Lorna Hill books, too, M0nica.
Susan Coolidge, Monica Edwards, Jane Shaw (the Susan books, I did empathise with Susan who was always so clumsy!), Joanna Spyri, Elinor Brent Dyer, Malcolm Saville (wonderful).