Your favourite book as a child
Discussion
Hub said:
I was a big Roald Dahl fan - probably George's Marvellous Medicine.
This for me too.Other one that I've recently rediscovered thanks to my two year old - Richard Scarry. Amazed how vividly I remember many of the stories and illustrations from books I've not seen for almost 30 years.
I was in the bottom class in English, never did my homework and got into fights every day with the boys who were bullying me. Nearly all the teachers treated me as a lazy oaf who couldn't do anything right.
At home i 'borrowed' my dad's collection of Readers Digest classic adventures and took heaps of books from my local library.
My favourites:
The War of The Worlds/The Invisible Man by HG Wells.
The Jungle Book and Kim by Kipling
The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare by Alistair Maclean. ( i probably read all his novels by the time i was 13/14!!!)
All the Ian Fleming James Bond novels.
The Man in the Iron Mask.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins.
Raise The Titanic by Clice Cussler.
The Dambusters.
The Longest Day/À Bridge To Far by Cornelius Ryan.
Around The World in 80 Days/Voyage to the centre of the earth by Jules Verne. ( in fact i think i read all his books!!!!)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan ( the first thriller i read at 11).
The Woman in White.
Tarzan and John Carter.
The Lost World.
I wrote short stories in my bed at night and during lessons day dreamed up exotic and dangerous adventures for my heroes!!!!
When my English teacher asked me to explain why i was reading loads of 'sensational poorly written and trashy ( in her opinion) novels' i replied that i enjoyed them because they were such fantastic stories.
She tried to 'beat' this out of me by forcing me to rewrite whole chapters from the Brontes and put me in detention for a week. My dad also found out what i doing at night and ripped up my stories.
I was extremely stubborn si refused to work at home/school and continued to sneak off to the library to 'borrow' books.
At home i 'borrowed' my dad's collection of Readers Digest classic adventures and took heaps of books from my local library.
My favourites:
The War of The Worlds/The Invisible Man by HG Wells.
The Jungle Book and Kim by Kipling
The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare by Alistair Maclean. ( i probably read all his novels by the time i was 13/14!!!)
All the Ian Fleming James Bond novels.
The Man in the Iron Mask.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins.
Raise The Titanic by Clice Cussler.
The Dambusters.
The Longest Day/À Bridge To Far by Cornelius Ryan.
Around The World in 80 Days/Voyage to the centre of the earth by Jules Verne. ( in fact i think i read all his books!!!!)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan ( the first thriller i read at 11).
The Woman in White.
Tarzan and John Carter.
The Lost World.
I wrote short stories in my bed at night and during lessons day dreamed up exotic and dangerous adventures for my heroes!!!!
When my English teacher asked me to explain why i was reading loads of 'sensational poorly written and trashy ( in her opinion) novels' i replied that i enjoyed them because they were such fantastic stories.
She tried to 'beat' this out of me by forcing me to rewrite whole chapters from the Brontes and put me in detention for a week. My dad also found out what i doing at night and ripped up my stories.
I was extremely stubborn si refused to work at home/school and continued to sneak off to the library to 'borrow' books.
Edited by rosbif77 on Sunday 7th August 20:32
Edited by rosbif77 on Sunday 7th August 20:41
Edited by rosbif77 on Sunday 7th August 20:48
Biggles by capt w.e.johns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._Johns
I used to have most of the series in hard back as a child
"On 1 April 1918, Johns was appointed flying instructor at Marske-by-the-Sea in Cleveland. Aircraft were very unreliable in those days and he wrote off three planes in three days through engine failure – crashing into the sea, then the sand, and then through a fellow officer’s back door"
that must have made his fellow offices eyes water a tad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._Johns
I used to have most of the series in hard back as a child
"On 1 April 1918, Johns was appointed flying instructor at Marske-by-the-Sea in Cleveland. Aircraft were very unreliable in those days and he wrote off three planes in three days through engine failure – crashing into the sea, then the sand, and then through a fellow officer’s back door"
that must have made his fellow offices eyes water a tad
Edited by citizensm1th on Sunday 7th August 20:45
neenaw said:
The Machine Gunners. Absolutely loved that book and I must've read it a dozen times as a child.
Wow I'd forgotten all about that one, it was a brilliant book.I don't have A Favourite, but many:
Secret Seven & Famous Five books, Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Three Investigators' series and everything by Roald Dahl, although his Tales of the Unexpected series and Danny the Champion of The World being favourites.
Very easy, Spacebase 2000 at the tender age of six. The paintings captured my imagination like nothing else has ever done, leading to a collection of sci-fi/fantasy artbooks totalling over £3K (with some rare ones in there), same again in my Amazon wishlist, a subscription to Imagine FX and me taking the better part of a decade tracking down the original books that Spacebase 2000 came from. The stories a fair bit later.
227bhp said:
Secret Seven & Famous Five books, Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Three Investigators' series and everything by Roald Dahl, although his Tales of the Unexpected series and Danny the Champion of The World being favourites.
Very similar here likes here; for some reason I loved the Three Investigators books, I so wanted an uncle with a junkyard.Also when I was small, I read The Children of Cherry Tree Farm by Enid Blyton which I must have re-read a dozen times over the years.
I'm reading through the Roald Dahl books with my 5 year old at bedtime at the moment, my wife and I are enjoying them just as much 30 years on as we did originally.
The Secret Island by Enid Blyton. I think I must have been about 9 years old when I read it. It was a school library book and I have never read it since, but I recall it being excellent. Quite tempted to read it again now! There is something alluring about having your own secret place, especially at that age.
As a child?
Enid Blyton - Famous 5 & Secret 7
Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine series
The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew
Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse (do not watch the recent film!!) I have a first edition of this that was given to Mum as a child
@ 10 I discovered Wilbur Smith & Peter Straub, then Stephen King & James Herbert - hidden in the lift by my Dad as he didn't think they were suitable for a 'child' I'd sneak up there get a book & read it with a torch under the blankets
Enid Blyton - Famous 5 & Secret 7
Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine series
The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew
Elizabeth Goudge's Little White Horse (do not watch the recent film!!) I have a first edition of this that was given to Mum as a child
@ 10 I discovered Wilbur Smith & Peter Straub, then Stephen King & James Herbert - hidden in the lift by my Dad as he didn't think they were suitable for a 'child' I'd sneak up there get a book & read it with a torch under the blankets
As a child, Famous Five and Animal Farm were up there, as well as the Narnia chronicles.
I spent too much time reading the Goosebumps and Animorphs series, just used to go through all of them at the local library.
Then a bit older the Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, Sabriel and Wind Singer series were faves of mine. As well as Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.
And through all of this the Harry Potter series as every book came out, first one was released when I was 6, read the first 4 books over 20 times, joys of being an only child!
I spent too much time reading the Goosebumps and Animorphs series, just used to go through all of them at the local library.
Then a bit older the Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, Sabriel and Wind Singer series were faves of mine. As well as Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.
And through all of this the Harry Potter series as every book came out, first one was released when I was 6, read the first 4 books over 20 times, joys of being an only child!
AlexC1981 said:
The Secret Island by Enid Blyton. I think I must have been about 9 years old when I read it. It was a school library book and I have never read it since, but I recall it being excellent. Quite tempted to read it again now! There is something alluring about having your own secret place, especially at that age.
I remember reading that one, as well. I'd forgotten about that. While I enjoyed the Famous Five books, I never read any of the Secret Seven. It's interesting just how many Enid Blyton characters would now have names that are seen as, shall we say, inappropriate. Mr Twiddle is one I recall, though I don't remember reading the book, and I hadn't heard of Mr Pinkwhistle but that's definitely one.
ali_kat said:
@ 10 I discovered Wilbur Smith & Peter Straub, then Stephen King & James Herbert - hidden in the lift by my Dad as he didn't think they were suitable for a 'child' I'd sneak up there get a book & read it with a torch under the blankets
Oh, get him, having his own lift. But I also started on stuff my Dad had read and left in the bookcase - Wilbur Smith, Clive Cussler and the James Bond books. Can't remember what age, though, probably 12-13.Edited by droopsnoot on Saturday 13th August 18:25
neenaw said:
The Machine Gunners. Absolutely loved that book and I must've read it a dozen times as a child.
Me too, have even read it a couple of times during my adult life too, takes me right back to being a kid again - I was also a massive fan of The Folk of the Faraway Tree (must've read it hundreds of times when I was little), so bought the series for my daughter so I could read them to her and see what the other 2 books in the series were like Shame they toned down Dame Slapminiman said:
I loved Blyton, Dahl; Boy/Going Solo were my favourites. Westall was great too Machine Gunners, Fathom 5 .. But my absolute favourite of Westall's was Futuretrack 5, a story decades ahead of its time, and still a good read now.Edited by essayer on Sunday 14th August 18:59
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