Favourite childhood books

[Archie_tect]

Picked this up a while ago. Seems amazing to think that at some point we may even be able to set foot on the moon! View attachment 55945

Not much space in that capsule, good job he's sitting on the toilet.

 

[Archeress]

I remember a book by Enid Blyton, Tales of Brave Adventure. It had two stories: King Arthur and Robin Hood. I also recall reading and adoring Swallows and Amazons

Archeress x

 

[Ganymede]

I'm afraid I'm guilty of getting you wrong too? (and I ride recumbent, sometimes...)

Yay! Tricky in a skirt though, eh? So I don't use mine for commuting if I have to dress up, whereas I will occasionally brave the hybrid in a frock.

 

[Ganymede]

Back to the subject... I was one of those weird kids who read everything in the children's section of the library (I presume most people actually remember libraries back when they had books in them...) before I was 10 and was given a special (secret) adult library card... so I was reading all kinds of things pretty young. I got in trouble for ordering the Marquis de Sade from the school bookshop when I was 13, but in the end they still let me have it - all I can say is, if you think James Bond was eye-opening...

So when I think of kids' books, much of what I'm really thinking of (and indeed what's already been mentioned here) would now be called Young Adult books... I loved Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, Lloyd Alexander and Alan Garner (already mentioned), Leon Garfield, John Christopher... Peter Dickinson was a major favourite - I loved The Changes sequence, Tulku and others - he's still writing, apparently - Tolkein and Lewis natch, Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books, which she has continued to write sporadically and which have grown up with her audience - the last book, The Other Wind is a beautifully moving adult work, but it is still absolutely and unequivocally Earthsea. I also loved the bits and pieces that I came across from other places - one of my favourite books was a kid's novel from New Zealand, The Boys of Puhawai, which just seemed incredibly exotic but also very real indeed. I read lots of mythology too, from Norse myths to Chinese tales... I could go one forever. I still get lost in books. My wife only really read non-fiction. I don't get it.

You are me AICMFP!!!

 

[Fnaar]

I read a book called "Haunted Summer" by Anne Edwards when I was 13. Bought on a whim in a bookshop while on hols somewhere near Selsey. The bits about opium and sex kinda passed me by at that age. I loved it though. It's about the writing of Frankenstein, Shelley, Byron et al. I still have my paperback copy of it.

 

[Saluki]

[QUOTE 3274882, member: 259"]Torchy the Battery Boy was terrifying!

[/QUOTE]
Wasn't he just. not quite so scary in book form. I found the first episode of Torchy on youtube a couple of years ago and was glad that I hadn't watched him as a kid. I'd have had nightmares.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

and

 

[fimm]

Ah yes, I remember the Willard Price books as well. (Am I right in thinking that's 3 women who remember enjoying them? Interesting, given that you'd think they were more "boy's books" (not of course that one should describe books thus, but hopefully you know what I mean.))

That Agatha Christie book mentioned above - the title is about a rhyme that all the murders are associated with; it is offensive because the word is now offensive; it isn't any more racist than any other of her books (which I suspect show similar unthinking attitudes to those described in the Biggles books, which I've never read). Am I going to get flamed for saying this?

 

[Tail End Charlie]

I loved Sherlock Holmes stories. I recently bought the whole Arthur Conan Doyle omnibus (princely sum of 77p) on my kindle and have been re-reading them. They are like old friends and things occurred to me which I didn't get as a teenager, such as Doctor Watson talking about charging his patients as they see him and charging for whatever drug he prescribed. Also areas mentioned which are now in the sprawl of London whereas the way the stories are written, they are clearly in the middle of the countryside. And the different names for all the horse drawn carriages. I could go on.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Oh and anything by Henry Treece, especially "The Bombard", which I still have.

 

[Spinney]

Objection!

I put it to the court that teenage boys (but not me) draw phalluses, not those things. Specifically, in Physics textbooks. More specifically, on the cartoon of Archimedes streaking out of the bath, if my school is a typical example...

As an author of physics textbooks, we (the publishers and I) have been known to select illustrations and photos so that they lend themselves as little as possible to such 'decorations' (as in 'we can't use that one, they'll just draw a willy on it!)

 

[Spinney]

You are me AICMFP!!!

He's me too, I think - except I haven't read the Marquis de Sade...

 

[Markymark]

As an author of physics textbooks, we (the publishers and I) have been known to select illustrations and photos so that they lend themselves as little as possible to such 'decorations' (as in 'we can't use that one, they'll just draw a willy on it!)

Sorry, thread derail.

Are you having to make the questions easier over the years or is it just a tabloid scare story? I get these aren't exam papers but presumably you're working with the school curriculum?

 

[Spinney]

Sorry, thread derail.

Are you having to make the questions easier over the years or is it just a tabloid scare story? I get these aren't exam papers but presumably you're working with the school curriculum?

Not much change since I started writing (about 15 years), but the questions do seem easier than I remember from my O levels. But I don't think my memory is to be trusted in this case to make an accurate assessment!
I do manage to get some quite hard questions in (and no, it's not exams, but is aimed at the National Curriculum).

 

[Paulus]

The first book that I can remember having an effect on me was called Hector the Helicopter, written by Arthur W. Baldwin first published in 1964. It was copied badly by Fergie, the duchess of York and called something different, Budgie, if I remember correctly.