The Books of Your Childhood.
This is a fantastic meme from Michelle Styles for anyone who loves to talk about books, especially the books that captured you when you were a child and are still with you now.Name at least one book that you read as a child (ie 11 or under) that still exists in your memory as a perfect story. You can say why if you wish, or simply give a list -- your choice. It can be a story that you are now uncomfortable about having loved or were uncomfortable at some point and have now come back to or alternatively just one that you have always loved.
Here is my list:
1. A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. History fascinated me even as a child, as did the idea of stepping back in time. I’ve been hooked on timeslip romance ever since!
2. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. I could name just about every Alan Garner book for this list. I was totally hooked on his writing. The combination of adventure, magic and something just a little bit strange and spooky fascinated me. Plus the fact that it was children having these fabulous adventures. I wanted to have adventures like that!
3. Fell Farm Campers by Marjorie Lloyd because I lived in a city and wanted to live somewhere wild and free and for me the Fell Farm books captured a love of the country.4. The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell. Loved, loved, loved this series!
5. Cat Amongst the Pigeons by Agatha Christie. I don't know why this was the first Agatha
Christie book that I read. I think I must have picked it up second hand out of curiosity because the title grabbed me. I still have the battered green hardback now. It's an excellent mystery story that led me on to read more Christie, of course, and also writers like Jospehine Tey. I was also intrigued by the hint of romance and the sexy guy from MI5 posing as the gardener - although at the age of eleven I was only vaguely aware of these themes!6. All the books in the "wives of Henry VIII" series that Coronet brought out in a gold box. My grandmother had the set and I read my way through them. History, romance and a few executions... What more could you ask for?
What are the books of your childhood?
Comments
I must read the Alison Utley to see if I read it as a child.
My daughter had a big thing on Silver Brumby at one point. I can remember reading it aloud to her and really enjoying it.
Have you ever written a timeslip? If not, why not.
I also remember that every time I was in bed with tonsillitis (quite often, it seems, looking back!) I re-read Anne of Green Gables. Both those books took me to a rural place with so much freedom, so different from existence in the dull old borough of Hounslow.
I still have them all.
Michelle, thank you for setting the meme going - it's fascinating to hear about other people's childhood books. I've written one timeslip short story when I was in my teens. It's something I would LOVE to write one day.
Judy, your comments about Anne of Green Gables mirrored my feeling of living in Leeds and wishing that I was in the Lake District. So interesting to see us hankering after another world that's such a contrast to our urban life!
What I like about this is that I'm picking up on stuff I haven't read before but will definitely look out for, like the Romney Marsh books. Thank you, Lesley!
I Capture the Castle is another book that should be on my list too. Fabulous!
Incidentally both my grandsons were born in Concord, Mass, where Louisa May Alcott hails from.
Excuse spelling, still in Florida!
Next came The Outcast and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliffe.
I've never heard of Mara Daughter of the Nile, Jenny, but it sounds rather intriguing1
These Happy Golden Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of my first tastes of romance, actually. I'd read the whole series, beginning with Little House in the Big Woods, but this was the one that made me sigh.
Anne of Green Gables -- and not just because I'm Canadian, but because it was my mother's favourite, and being a dreamer myself I found much to relate to in Anne Shirley's character.
Little Women, because I wanted to be Jo.
The Secret Garden, because it was such a wonderful story and it made me cry.
And Beautiful Joe, by Marshall Saunders -- a Black-Beautyesque book about a dog's life told in the first person. I used to re-read and re-read it.
My favourites as a ten year old were Enid Blyton's Adventure series, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Henry Treece, Arther Ransome and the Laura Ingles Wilder books.
Anne of Green Gables
The School at the Chalet
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Secret Garden
Caddie Woodlawn
Those are just a few :)
Rhiannon, I do hope you blog about your books too. I love reading other people's lists. The overlap is fascinating and also the new stuff too.
Alison, I'm thrilled to find another Alan Garner fan. His books were so spooky. They have stayed with me so vividly that even now when I'm out walking on the Downs at sunset I half-expect the four horsemen who featured in the Moon of Gomrath to appear out of the mound of Wayland's Smithy!
So what's your favourite timeslip? I think mine is probably still Lady of Hay (and although I have a fair few of Erskine's books, this is the one that really stayed with me).
Then there's Susanna Kearsley's wonderful books (waves to Susanna!) And both Margaret James and Melinda Hammond have written timeslip books I've loved too.
My other favourite is Ferney by James Long. I could not put that book down - even when I was filling the car with petrol I was sneaking in a few pages! It is one of my all time best books. Totally riveting and also very moving, I thought.
Any other recommendations? Perhaps I'll have to blog about timeslip books separately.
I also loved Mr. Shaw's Ship Shape Shoe Shop (when I was younger) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! The idea of stepping through a wardrobe into a magical world where you could be the greatest (or worst) version of youerself...pure fantasy.