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

My mother thought comics were a waste of money so they were bought for us for long train journeys only.
Books however, I loved anything by Enid Blyton
The One End Street books
Noddy
The Katy books
The Incredible Journey
Black Beauty made me cry
And lots lots more.

As a young child ie 7 years until about 13-14 I spent a couple of weeks each summer with a great aunt, as my mother worked and it gave Gran a break from having me, my brothers and my cousin under her feet. As my great aunt was a retired school teacher and didn’t have anyone children of her own she treated us like pupils, geography lessons were done when gardening, history was out walking viewing museums etc. we did have time to ourselves it wasn’t all work and no play, except when it rained then came the english and math lessons. This left me with a love of reading especially the classics books for young girls Anne of Green Gables, Little Women etc. my gran used to say I’d read the cereal box if nothing else was available.

My early childhood magazine was Robin, then later on Fab(ulous) 208 - a Radio Luxenberg related magazine.
Books were Lassie Come Home (Not Disney!) and Heidi.

My first one was The Beano, then Jackie and finally Honey, which I loved.

White boots,the swish of the curtain,ballet shoes,the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

The Hundred and One Dalmatians
Lassie Come Home
The Call of The Wild
Black Beauty
Jill’s Gymkhana (but no other Jill books)
Three Ponies and Shannan
Riding With The Lyntons
Phantom Horse (but no other PH books)
A Pony and His Partner
The Famous Five (first one only…)

Riding magazine
Judy
Jackie
Valentine
(then moved on to Cosmopolitan!)

Bunty,Judy,Jackie as a teenager. Books as a child... Famous Five,Secret Seven,Hobbies Twins as a teenager was big into Denis Wheatley...scared myself silly or historical fiction. Still enjoy historical fiction CJ Sansom in particular,Peter May Blackhouse Trilogy , Shetland novels Anne Cleves,Rebus series by Ian Rankin plus Biographies one of the best is Vera Atkins... A life in Secrets

Did anyone read The Borrowers books by Mary Norton?
They were my favourite. We didn’t really have books at home but were allowed to go to the library every Saturday.

My mother read to me from a very early age right up to mid teens, my step father loved to be read to as well!!! All the usual ones mentioned, (we cried over Black Beauty!) Just William, Enid Blyton, 'The Far away Tree, Mallory Towers, Famous Five and so on.' Comics were Chicks Own, Tiny Tots, Swift, Girl, and finally The Young Elizabethan. Later on we read Dickens, Jane Austen until reading finally stopped, and I read on my own.

Beano Dandy Topper then Aunty's and Jackie. Then I went on to Superman and Fantastic Four.

I loved the Borrowers books Yorklady
I also loved the Secret Garden, The Railway Children and the Secret Seven - although I wasn't that keen on Enid Blyton's other books.
When I was about 7 someone gave me a book of short stories by Eleanor Farjeon - an author that you never hear of nowadays. I still have the book and I can almost quote word for word from my favourite stories in it.

I had Princess comic and was always terribly excited by the free gift that usually came with it!

The Beano, my dad loved it and started buying it when I, the eldest, was one. I was his excuse. All four children read it, all our childhoods, my brother is 10 years younger than me, so I was still reading it by the time I left home - it was delivered every week for at least 25 years. My favourite book as a child was When We Were Very Young (I can still remember Disobedience - James James Morrison Morrison etc. word for word) , and when I was older it was Around the World in Eighty Days

At about 12 I was heavily into the ‘Whiteoaks’ series, by Mazo de la Roche. And Georgette Heyer.

Before that, it was the Famous Five, all the William books, Dr Doolittle, What Katy Did, etc., and there’s a book nobody else ever seems to have heard of - Chalky, by Howard L. Apps.

A brilliant adventure story, quite funny in places, set in the 50s, much of it in the Essex marshes. I still re-read it now and then.

I loved Milly Molly Mandy. I read it to my DD’s, and one of my Gds. I even read it to my Primary one class, and had a competition to see if anyone could guess the name of Milly Molly Mandy’s friend’s new baby sister. It was Doris, if I recall. O one guessed it. A great favourite was Anne of Green Gables. I still have the copy - it was a school prize of my mother’s in 1939. I read most of Enid Blyton’s books. When I was about eleven, a favourite author was Mabel Esther Allen. I liked the Bunty comic, and wish that I’d kept the very first issue. I also liked the School Friend.

Magenta8

I want this to be a lighthearted thread away from the more serious doom and gloom threads.

I had very conventional tastes. I liked "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". Later I read"The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" and I loved it. I also read "The Hobbit" and didn't like it.

I read "Grimm's Fairy Tales", Hans Christian Andersen and Aesop's fables. All pretty much what children in the 1950s and early 60s usually read.

I liked "Beano" and "Dandy" but I was not supposed to read either. "Girl", "Eagle" and "Swift" were more acceptable or "Look and Learn".

Oh no! Magenta8 Look And Learn 🥱 could a newspaper/magazine for children have been more boring or less appealing than that one.
It was delivered for years, my dad ordered it!
What a waste of paper …and money.

The Lorna Hill ballet books were such a favourite of mine, A Dream Of Sadlers Wells, Rosanna At The Wells, No Castanets At The Wells......loved them all!

I loved The Secret Seven, Noël Streatfield books, What Katy Did and Next. Mallory Towers, Susan Rushed’s in. All the Fairy Tales.
Comics were Girl ( with lots of positive female role models ), School Friend, Girls Crystal and later, Bunty and Judy. I wasn’t above Dandy, Beano, Beezer, The Broons, Oor Wullie!
Then Fab teenage magazine with all the pinups !

I didn't like reading until the class teacher started reading The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe to us at the end each day for 10 mins. My mum was so pleased that I was interested in a book she bought me the box set. I read The Lone Pine books, Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Joe's Boys, Jane Eyre, Skylark in Space, Lord of the Rings and all the Jane Austin books. I also started my Dennis Wheatley journey with The Ka of Gifford Hilary though I was in my mind terms when I read it.

Oops! Should read mid teens. Comic's were the usual to start then as I got older Diana followed by Lois Lane, Superman and X men .

Granmarderby10

Magenta8

I want this to be a lighthearted thread away from the more serious doom and gloom threads.

I had very conventional tastes. I liked "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". Later I read"The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" and I loved it. I also read "The Hobbit" and didn't like it.

I read "Grimm's Fairy Tales", Hans Christian Andersen and Aesop's fables. All pretty much what children in the 1950s and early 60s usually read.

I liked "Beano" and "Dandy" but I was not supposed to read either. "Girl", "Eagle" and "Swift" were more acceptable or "Look and Learn".

Oh no! Magenta8 Look And Learn 🥱 could a newspaper/magazine for children have been more boring or less appealing than that one.
It was delivered for years, my dad ordered it!
What a waste of paper …and money.

I agree Granmarderby10 I don't remember ever reading it but I had to collect it from the newsagent on the corner when my mum sent me out to buy ten Craven A.

I liked the little Observer books. My favourites were horses, cats and dogs; I still have a good basic knowledge of the various breeds. I also liked the BBC nature magazines and books and I regularly used to go up to the Natural History Museum in London. I once went to a lecture about birds given by Peter Scott.

Magazines - as a child in the 1950s I took Collins Magazine, where you could send in poems and book reviews for publication. I got 10/6 for a poem or a book review. Riches!

A bit later I had Dance and Dancers, Dancing Times and Ballet Today. My brother had Aeromodeller.

Aeromodeller still exists, but I don’t think the others do.

June and Princess Tina comics.
Books were What Katy Did and Black Beauty. Oh, and an old pre WW1 medical book and home doctor book. Learned a lot from them about human anatomy and biology

Loved "What Katy Did" and the sequels, also the Famous Five books. I used to get The Girl comic and swap with a friend who got School Friend.

I read anything when I was young eg Enid Blyton and anything else I could get hold of. The library in my area was really good and I used to spend a lot of time in the school library [my dad was a head teacher and I used to go to his school library in the holidays whilst he worked] but I also liked to own them - and I've still kept some though my grandchildren aren't particularly interested unfortunately - too busy looking at screens!