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

I too loved all the boarding school books especially Mallory Towers but my absolute favourite was the Chalet School books by Elinor Brent Dyer. I had been given one by my Aunt and I just loved the whole series. It was any years later I realised it had been set and written in the 30s and painted an idyllic life in the Alps. How I wanted to go to boarding school - everything sounded so much more exciting than my life at the time. I did go on to join the Army at 17 - a similarity there I think.

The advantage of having an older brother away at boarding school was being able to raid his room during term time for his stash of Eagle comics and Biggles books.

Horrified my parents by working my way through Biggles, Treasure Island and Kings Solomon's Mines

Why were they hortified? I'm sure someone in the family bought Treasure Island and King Solomon's Mines for me, could have been an aunt. Not Biggles, though 🙂
Dennis Wheatley too?

Horrified my parents by working my way through Biggles, Treasure Island and Kings Solomon's Mines, and a raft of non-fiction, then asking for an adult library ticket when I found Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C Clark and Lords of the Rings.

How could I forget Rosemary Sutcliffe!!

Arthur Ransome (got me into sailing), Anthony Buckeridge (prepared me for going to board at prep. school aged ten), Noel Streatfeild and Rosemary Sutcliffe (got me into history).

Bluefeathet

For me it was Green Smoke (about a dragon who lived in a Cornisb cave), The O'Sullivan Twins and Wishing Chair/The Magic Faraway Tree.
If Michael Morpurgo had been around in the 1970s, he would have been my favourite autbor!

The O'Sullivan Twins and Wishing Chair/The Magic Faraway Tree.

Oh yes!! You might be pleased to know The Magic Faraway Tree is now a being made into a film, to be shown next year. Who will play Saucepan Man?

I absolutely loved Brer Rabbit and still have the books on my bookcase. My dad used to read the stories and was wonderful making all the voices. Sadly my grandchildren weren't at all interested no matter how hard I tried with the voices.

For me it was Green Smoke (about a dragon who lived in a Cornisb cave), The O'Sullivan Twins and Wishing Chair/The Magic Faraway Tree.
If Michael Morpurgo had been around in the 1970s, he would have been my favourite autbor!

Yes, I do too, Liberty

Despite that, I never wanted to join the circus, I just wanted to go to boarding school, preferably Mallory Towers or St Clare's and own a pony 😁
Or the Chalet School, forget the pony!

I do Liberty, it was Enid Blyton, and the paperback version had a yellow cover, I’m sure, I read mine so often it fell apart.

Does anyone remember the “Mr Galliano’s circus’ books? I was going to be a trapeze artist when I was about 8.i think they were written by Enid Blyton and were much loved along with the Famous Five. I thought the Secret Seven books were rather dull.

When I went to grammar school at aged 11, each year was given a long list of recommended books to read …..ones that were,no doubt,to improve us.

My weekly copy of Girl came was delivered with my father’s daily newspaper. I remember waiting for it and reading as much as I could before going off to school.

I always would read anything and everything as a child and in early teens, in the 60s and 70s. I loved anything at all and would have a go at reading whatever books came my way. I was quite poorly at one time when I was about 10 and my dad's friend got hold of a load of books for me from the publishers he worked at, a whole assortment from new books about to be published to classics. It was wonderful to own so many brand new books all of a sudden! As a teen I was a voracious reader and because there were no 'teen' books as such, I read a huge variety of books as I still do.

With comics, I loved Bunty and then Jackie.

I was an only child living in inner London and I spent a lot of time alone, there were no play areas or parks nearby so I would read any book I could get my hands on. My mother bought about 100 books from a lady she worked with whose daughter had outgrown them. I came back from staying with my gran and found them piled up in my bedroom, I was in heaven. I also had pocket money and spent that on comics. So I suppose I was very lucky regarding reading material but I would have swapped it all for a sister.

Heidi The family at One End Street & What Katy Did next I remember reading .

Nanny27

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.

Oh yes, all those too!!

Heidi books by Joanna Spyri.

Magenta8

I liked "The Borrowers" too. I sometimes like to think that they really exist when things go missing. I think the girl's name was Arrietty.

I read it again not long ago and enjoyed it all over again 😁

I Spy books - I was obsessed with ticking off things I'd seen!

At least they got me out because otherwise I'd have spent my life with my nose in a book.
Famous Five, the Lone Pine books by Malcolm Saville, St Clares, Chalet School, the Susan books by Jane Shaw, then all the pony books by various authors.

Then, by the age of about 14, I discovered Denis Wheatley, Jean Plaidy and others.

Magenta8

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.

I still have my Observers Book of Dogs and am still ticking off which breeds I have seen. It’s interesting how breeds that were common back then are now rare eg Wire Haired Fox Terriers ( I met a lady with one the other day who told me how rare they now are; I think I’ve only ever seen two).

I liked "The Borrowers" too. I sometimes like to think that they really exist when things go missing. I think the girl's name was Arrietty.

You reminded me of many more books I loved and especially about ‘The Borrowers’. I loved those stories and tried to get my parents to call me Ariadne ( not sure of the spelling). The author, Mary Norton, lived in the big house in the town near me, now a school, but I imagined Pod and co beneath those floorboards!
I remember my big sister reading ‘Alice in Wonderland ‘ to me when I was very small and loving all the characters, what an imagination. In fact to this day we will recite ‘ it was the best butter, if things do not go to plan.

I too loved ’Swish of the Curtain’. It was serialised on the radio and I still remember the words to the theme tune ‘ Hey ther you, there’s something new not bad after 70 years.

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!

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.

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

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