What were your favourite books or comics when you were a child?

Noddy. Rupert Bear. Alison Uttley books.
Beano. Dandy. Bunty.
Bobby Brewster books. Bobbsey Twins.
Famous Five. Secret Seven.
Katy series. Heidi books. Little Women.
Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn.
Jennings and Darbishire series. Billy Bunter.
My favourite of all: William books, Richmal Crompton.

Always been a bookworm, in school holidays I could take out and read 3 books a day from the library, returning for more the next day. I still read a book a week at least.

When I was a teenager I read Sherlock Holmes stories, Brave New World, Animal Farm and 1984. I don't remember there being any specifically teen fiction around then.

My favorite books were by Enid Blyton.
The Famous Five and
The Secret 7.
I still have most of these books.
As soon as my grandaughters could read well(by aged 9) i offered them my Enid Blyton collection.
Was told thankyou but they arent the books children read now .
Its all Harry Potter etc.
My first comic was The Bunty i loved cutting out the clothes on the back page.
Then i moved onto the Jackie .

Books , books and more books !
I think that they became the bane of my mother's life .
I believe that I had most of the aforementioned books and once opened couldn't be put down .
Then , there was the library as well !
I used to read under the bed clothes with a torch .
At the moment , I'm wading through a huge collection of books and trying to thin them out .
I'm finding it extremely difficult if not painful !

One of my early memories being taken to the library and choosing my books, at that very early age it was Alison Uttley I think, I do remember a bit later Milly Molly Mandy and Noddy. Junior school years, my favourites were all the Enid Blytons, Secret Seven, Famous Five, The Adventure series, Mallory Towers. I ordered a lot of Blytons from the library to keep me occupied during the school holidays if I didn't have anything else to do. They were interspersed by Wind in the Willows, What Katie Did, Heidi, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass a lot of my favourites as was The Water Babies, I loved that book, I remember many of those latter ones because they tended to be keeps in the form of birthday and Christmas presents rather than library books.

I remember getting Bunty my brother had The Beano and The Dandy, so I read those too. Later on it was Jackie and Petticoat.

I could read before I went to school and read anything and everything. I read all the standard children's books and worked through the children's section in the library by the age of ten. My favourites were Mallory Towers and The Chalet School series. However I loved a book called When Marnie was There by Joan Robinson. I moved onto Agatha Christie at the age of nine or ten, then the Katy books, Wind in the willows etc. The children's librarian gave me an adult ticket when I was ten which I used.

George was a Lesbian ? Enid Blyton was well ahead of the game , 1950's ...

George was a tomboy. She might have been a lesbian or not. Many wee girls were tomboys in the 50s and 60s. Boys seemed to have more freedom and girls often resented the structures of being well behaved. I was a tomboy until I went to secondary school and started puberty. George was a role models for all us girls who didn't like chores and housework like her cousin Ann.

Strictures not structures

Grandmabatty

I could read before I went to school and read anything and everything. I read all the standard children's books and worked through the children's section in the library by the age of ten. My favourites were Mallory Towers and The Chalet School series. However I loved a book called When Marnie was There by Joan Robinson. I moved onto Agatha Christie at the age of nine or ten, then the Katy books, Wind in the willows etc. The children's librarian gave me an adult ticket when I was ten which I used.

A bit older than 9, but I think there was a small gap between the Blytons tailing off and starting on Agatha Christie early teens, interspersed with Gone with the Wind, moaning to my mother one long school holiday "I'm bored" she disappeared upstairs and came back with that book with "read this" I was captivated and quite bereft when I finished it. Teen years also saw me reading quite a bit of Jean Plaidy as well as classics like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Aged 18 I embarked on Lord of the Rings which I enjoyed then, but certainly wouldn't now!

Suzieque66

George was a Lesbian ? Enid Blyton was well ahead of the game , 1950's ...

I think of late she was well ahead of the game, George would be trans imo

The Magic Faraway Tree, The Famous 5 and Brer Rabbit by Enid.

The Phoenix and the Carpet and 5 Children and It by E Nesbitt.

These were the books that took me into another world, and then there were so many more. As I got to 12ish it was Agatha Christie, then I loved Jeeves and Wooster and the James Herriot stories.

I loved Arthur Ransome and E.Nesbit. I devoured all the pony books I could get hold of, especially Monica Edwards. I used to read Girl and Eagle, and sometimes Schoolfriend. I like Topper as well. The cartoon strips were very funny and they had some really interesting stuff on the centre pages.

I read all the Mallory Towers series aged about 10 I think and some of The Famous Five.

In primary school at story time, the teachers read us Worzel Gummidge, still love that, Milo and the Phantom Tollbooth(a bit surreal) and Stig of The Dump.

One friend was into her comics so had a phase with those -the one with The Bash Street Kids in made us laugh

At senior school the first book we all had to read was by Alison Uttley: A Traveller In Time and I loved that too.

After that it all descended into a dark place with Jaws, The Omen and others of the same ilk, oh and Denis Wheatley The Devil Rides Out😅

I couldn’t be doing with Teen Mags like Jackie etc though, but did share some with friends. Then went straight onto the Glossy Mags, loads of them.

I loved the Diana comics and the annual at Christmas. Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers. I have the full set my daughter bought me and read them all. Also loved Ladybird books.

Oh yes Moonwatcher Ladybird books were so clever and those illustrations were iconic, and we learned to read with those at infants school. Happy happy days🥹

As a child I enjoyed the famous five and later on as I’m from Scotland I loved the Broons and oor Wullie they were so much fun.
While at secondary school the first adult book in paperback was Lady Chaterlys lover, oh so raunchy it was handed secretly around the classroom to the tittering goings on behind our desks 😂😂James Herriot books were so good too

I was an avid reader, an only child, so books were my friends
Enid Blyton set me on my reading trail and I read all her books Magic Faraway tree series I absolutely loved then secret 7 famous 5 then all the boarding school one
Noel Stretfiekd books and the just William ones too Little women and What Katy did Alice in wonderland
I had lots of comic favourites Girl, Bunty, Dandy Beano girls crystal

Magic Far Away Tree has been made into a film I think it’s coming out next year anyone want to come with me?

I forgot to add The Faraway Tree to my list, another great favourite.

What a lovely thread! So many memories come back reading all these classics. I think we were lucky that however boring life was we could always lose ourselves in a good book.

I will echo the shout out for Alan Garner- I read them all and recently read his new one- something like, Treacle Walker?

Another book that made an immense impression on me as a young teenager was Boris- by Jap Ter Haar. It was about a boy living through the siege of Leningrad. Oh I wish I could get my hands on another copy...

I was, and remain, a bookworm, starting with Milly Molly Mandy ( a map in the front of the book, how wonderful), through Noel Streatfeild and The Family from One End Street - does anyone remember them?
However, controversially, I loathed Enid Blyton as a child, and did not read her books to my children .
Several of my grandchildren are loving her, currently!

Anything Enid Blyton, but Aurthur Ransom was my absolute favourite, I so much wanted to be an Amazon, I received the first one as a school prize, and then saved all my pocket money for the rest.

When I was about twelve my dad gave me Far from the Madding Crowd to read, that became my next obsession, followed by an obsession for Jean Plaidy, and Anya Seyton.

As a very small child I loved my Mabel Lucie Atwell annual, every year my grandmother bought me a Rupert annual, but I never liked them at all.

I loved Misty and Look-In magazines; I'd buy them each and every week and every copy!

I watched my first horror movies when I was 5 .... OMG that was 55 years ago! - It was The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr, 1941, and I have loved horror ever since and psycho things.

I had a huge collection of that genre as a kid, and I still do now! I've seen all kinds of horror/psycho films over the years!

Shaun Hutson and Guy N. Smith are two of my favourite authors!

Many of these books and authors mentioned in this thread, including Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time which was a particular favourite. I also remember a book set in the Scilly Isles about a young girl who goes on holiday there one Summer. She somehow travels back in time and meets a young Spanish princess - Infanta. The name of the book escapes me but I loved it then.