• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Favourite childhood book

Mike d

Expert
Messages
7,994
Location
Australia
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
idiots who will not learn
I remember Wind in the Willows

The arrogant but completely loveable Toad, the badger with his (in my young eyes) so much wisdom, the Mole, who forever needed guidance and my favorite, Ratty. Otter and Portly touched me deeply as well.

I had the 1958 HB version my mum gave me to read when I was a very young boy (and today I just bought the same one on ebay after searching for MANY MANY years as the one from my childhood has long since gone!!) with the pen illustrations and I’d sit in bed on a cold winter’s night and immerse myself in a world where I really REALLY wanted to be.

Half a chapter would send me off to sleep and I will NEVER forget the “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, later an album title for Pink Floyd.

The warmth of the fire where Ratty and the Mole would converse in the book’s illustration still makes me long for my childhood where it conveyed a warmth of companionship (we didn't have an open fire and to this day, I still don't have one) their brave travels, their wonderful adventures, the taking of Toad Hall and the triumph of good over evil.

Simply a magnificent book. Oh for friends like that

What were yours guys?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Morning/good evening Mike

One of my favourites was Black Beauty, author Anna Sewell.
 
It's a tie: "Heidi" by Johanna Spyri or "Little House in the Big Woods" (The first of the "Little House on the Prairie" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder). I've read both about 100x and still have both.
 
Robinredbreast said:
Morning/good evening Mike

One of my favourites was Black Beauty, author Anna Sewell.
Click to expand...
Love that too RRB

Probably in my later years I guess I was 7 or 8 with WITW

Evening to you and hope you're about to embark on a GREAT day
 
Fallgal said:
It's a tie: "Heidi" by Johanna Spyri or "Little House in the Big Woods" (The first of the "Little House on the Prairie" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder). I've read both about 100x and still have both.
Click to expand...
Nice ... I LOVED that TV series. Had a big crush on Melissa Sue Anderson
 
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, read it when I was 11. Thank god I did because these days I dip in and out of books. I don't have the inclination to sit and read long books now. Oh loved Gone with the Wind too. That was a tome.
 
Enid Blyton - The Magic Faraway Tree, and The Wishing Chair. Also Swallows and Amazons. I'm a huge book worm.

These days my books tend to have vampires, werewolfs, angels, demons, fairys etc in them. As well as the classic chick lits.
 
In 1953 my dad went to London for the weekend to watch Blackpool play in the FA Cup. I was 5. He brought me back a book called Basil Bumblebee and I made him read it to me every night, over and over again. I can still see his disgruntled expression after about 30 times

I loved the Enid Blyton Malory Towers series and of course the Secret Seven and Famous Five books (with lashings of ginger beer)
 

The Bookseller (which is the Book and Publishing trade weekly magazine) used to run a regular feature where they asked an Industry notable a number of questions. One of the questions was usually "What book are you reading at the moment"? One of the people thus questioned was an ex colleague of mine called Bill Scott-Kerr, who is now the publisher of some Very Big Names Indeed.

Bill had young children at the time, and his answer went along the lines of: "I'm reading "Farmer Duck", by Martin Waddell; a stirring tale, but one that starts to lose its appeal after about the 50th reading".

My kids loved it as well, so I felt his pain.....
 
I always loved the book Conrad's War when I was a kid.

I had tried to read the various Enid Blyton books before this but always failed. Conrad's War was the first novel I managed to read through myself. I still own a copy and it's such a tiny book but was an achievement at the time.
 
My dad bless him taught me and my sisters to read at a very early age he was never too tired or busy doing something else to spend time with us reading. I miss him.

Anyway probably the earliest would be Enid blytons books

It's strange how your tastes in books like music changes over the years I find myself reading more and more history these days
 
Patricia21 said:
I loved all Enid Blyton books.
The Famous Five used to frighten me.
Click to expand...

I read all of the Enid Blyton books as a young child .
Having a real vivid imagination and loved to read a lot .
Used to wish or dream I was one of the Famous Five ...

Now I love ploughing through the Martina Cole crime novels .
Captivating crime thriller novel stories and really easy reading too .
 
Found some great books in the back of my dad's wardrobe when I was a kid that hold some VERY special memories lol........................
 
That reminds me I found Lady Chatterley's Lover in the back of my Mum's wardrobe when I was about 11, Also East of Eden and Married Love!!!! Yep, read every word.
 
My mum had a thing about Australia (maybe because he niece moved out there and would write about what they were doing/where they were going) so she used to buy me books by someone called Nan Chauncy which were stories about children in the Aussie outback. Lots of adventures and scrapes they got into. I've still got them up in the loft but I've never seen them in bookshops since then. I also loved my Grimms fairy Tales. Some of them are quite scary. I read Lord of the Rings when I was about 14, and recently re-read the Hobbit. Couldn't get on with the Silmillarian (or whatever it was).
Now I like reading crime, thrillers, and some of the classics such as Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Pride and Prejudice on my Kindle plus most of the classics are free.
 
I used to read Enid Blyton - Mallory Towers, Secret Seven and The Famous Five. More often than not sat in bed munching on cheese sandwiches and crisps until late at night as I had to keep turning those pages . . .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…