Your fav author from childhood

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.

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

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. ?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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....!
?

The Chalet School series ElinorM BrentDyer . I so wanted to be Jo. What Katy Did books, can’t remember the author. Little Women/Good Wives/Jo’s Boys Louisa M Alcott. I also read all the Enid Blyton school books but my favourites of hers were Shadow the Sheepdog and The Boy next Door. Very exciting I thought at the time and I cried when Shadow hurt his eyes

Does nobody else remember the Cherry family where the father made up adventures for his children and friends. I was so enamoured with, them although they are out of print, my DiL has been getting them second hand for me. There were only 16 in total but I found them magical.

I used to read all the time and my best Christmas presents were books. I am told it is because I was an only child.

Apart from all the Enid Blyton books which I adored, I was completely obsessed with Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie when I was young and lived in Neverland in my head for a long time.
When a little older it was Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott.
I longed to be part of the March family.

dragongfly46 Does nobody else remember the Cherry family where the father made up adventures for his children and friends.
Yes! I think those are the books I was trying to remember! (See previous post). I didn't read as many as I would have liked but I did love anything where the children had adventures which is why I loved Enid Blyton. Thanks for posting that, you have solved a long held mystery!

Oh dear, the Cherrys are very hard to come by. There's one book for sale for £65 ? so I'm having second thoughts about buying one.

I had a lovely illustrated book of The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley; it certainly wasn't new when I was given it and I wish I still had it.
I also had a pop up book of a zoo

And More Adventures of A Teddy Bear by, I think, Mrs H C Craddock.

I don't remember reading the Little Women series until I was about 12 or 13, certainly not when I was avidly reading at 6 or 7.

Enid Blyton for me, I was always reading as a child and she paved the way for my love of books.

Loved all the End Blyton books. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty one of my favourite books , and any stories about boarding school. I always dreamed of being a posh girl and going to boarding school ?

If I had to pick only one author, I would choose Elizabeth Goudge for The Little White Horse. If you have never read it, then do - it's a wonderful book.

Also loved Pookie, and many others mentioned. Specially Mary Norton for The Borrowers and Frances Hodgson Burnett for A Little Princess.

I read all the Nancy Drew mysteries as a child and still love a good whodunit. The Faraway Tree series I read to my children, magical.

Am I the only one who read almost no Enid Blyton?
I saved up to buy books at my local newsagent which had a tiny bookshop in the back and the owner would “put them by” but I don’t honestly remember any Blyton - unless maybe the 2 or 3 Brumby books were hers? I think they might have been...

I wonder if my school library perhaps didn’t stock them?

Notspaghetti I read very little EB. Malory Towers were the only ones I recall. Our library didn’t stock EB as they were not considered suitable (trash fiction??) and we weren’t well-enough off to buy many books.

One of my sons loved the Famous Five & Secret Seven books, most of which we bought secondhand or at jumble sales.

This has brought back loads of memories of books I read.
A lot of Enid Blyton loved all those boarding school stories of Malory Towers and St Clare's. We used to play Secret Seven in one of the garden sheds and loved all those adventures of the Famous Five and the Adventure series. Fatty (I think) of the Five Find Outers, was always going to tea shops and having sophisticated treats like meringues and madeleines, as far as I remember.We only had jam tarts and fairycakes at home!!

The Magic Faraway Tree I loved too. We had a lovely coloured version of it.

My favourite books of all were Anne of Green Gables, Heidi and the Katy Carr books, sometimes very poignant as when Katy fell off the swing. I reread those several times.

Also the Chalet School series, I borrowed from the library each week till I got to the end of them.

Someone mentioned Lorna Hill books. I loved those set in Northumberland I think and always full of people (was it Guy) riding horses. I wanted a pony myself, I thought we might have room in the old wood shed in the garden!

I remember the Pamela Brown books was it the Stage Door, about children and a theatre company.

Also Noel Streatfield and The Children of Primrose Lane. She wrote other books too but none as good as that.

Collins books were good. I read a lovely one about Anna Pavlova ( I cannot remember the name) which introduced me to Fokine, Nijnksy and Diagalev (?) and Isadora Duncan.

Also the Jennings Books made me laugh and most of all the William Books, which I borrowed from the library. I still read one of those bedtime occasionally, if I want light reading.

And Milly Molly Mandy - I loved those books. Also loved Little Women reread several times but not the sequels so much. I know I have my childhood copy of Little Women in this house somewhere.

A lovely thread.

Always Enid Blyton for me too, loved the Secret Seven, Mallory Towers (wanted desperately to be sent to boarding school!!) Famous Five and loads others I can't remember now.