Molesworth - absolute classics and definitely not for children!

Neither is 1066 and All That.

*notes - must get another copy as last one was borrowed and not returned*

Ever wondered how nigel molesworth would have got on at Hogwarts? Wonder no more.

[www.alice.dryden.co.uk]



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Speaking of writers who were somewhat obsessed with hunting, I forgot to mention TH White (whose King Pellinore pops up in LIAGB). I've lost count of the number of times I've re-read the Once and Future King. The Book of Merlin is rather odd though.

Simon -- Richard Scarry's books were published in the late 60s/early 70s, as far as I know, though he may have carried on publishing for longer. "What Do People Do All Day?" is probably his best known -- it's designed to instill small children with the protestant work ethic, but we didn't notice and just enjoyed the illustrations anyway.

And yes Jon, the Willard Price books were total crap, but I wasn't a very discriminating reader as a child (but you knew that already, as I seem to remember confessing to reading Jeffrey Archer a couple of months back . . .)



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

*not reading everything before*

Let me see, what was available in my childhood, in portuguese?
* Enid Blyton - famous five, all the girls' schools series (they translated the names, so I'm not even attempting to guess what they were), all the other mystery books she wrote, etc - never liked the Seven though
* an american teenage detective, could it be Trixie Belden in the original?
* lots of big books, science and questions and how things work and so on...
* I loved one that had a story/poem for every day of the year, my mum used to read to my sister and me before going to bed

I remember my childhood always carrying a book (what changed? hehe), so I bet there were lots more...

I see. If Scarry's books were published then, and were intended for young children, I'd have been too old for them.

Add to my list: TH White, at least one children's version of the Morte D' Arthur, and several books about Robin Hood. And the annuals that went with various TV series by Gerry Anderson (including the one for 'Project Sword', although the relevant TV series was never actually made...).

Shockingly, in my childhood I read Harry Potter... but then techinically I'm still in it so that explains a lot!

Before then I read Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Roald Dhal, Star Trek books, What Katy Did, Did Next, Did at School, Heidi (and accompanying five sequels) Secret Garden, Little Princess, lotsa stuff.

Pretty much anything I could get my hands on really.



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

Ah! lots of things I forgot popping up here - Jennings, Professor Branestawn, Willard Price, Richard Scarry (!!!) My parents threw out my Richard Scarry books along with a bunch of others (they deny this, but it's either that or they randomly disapparated). But I have "What Do People Do All Day" and "The Big Counting Book", found in a second hand bookshop for 50p each.

Also, Charlotte's Web, and The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo.

I've never read any Molesworth. I've never *seen* any, even though they appear to be an integral part of our culture. Hmm.



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Do something pretty while you can...

I read a lot as a child, I was considered to be delicate on account of my asthma, so I had a great excuse to stay in and read whilst the rest of the family was forced to go on its daily constitutional round the park.

Richard Scarry - don't you just love the clarity of the illustrations, it's left me with a fascination for exploded diagrams. Beatrix Potter, of course. No one has so far mentioned the Ladybird Books, particularly late 60s/early 70s when they still had the illustrations opposite the text on the right, and they were richly coloured detailed pictures which could take you off on a journey of your own imagining. They had a definite house style, and if they made the wild woods look like the arboretum at Kew, I didn't mind, I loved them, and my thirst for the pictures kept me coming back to them. I also read them to my daughter, and can recite several of their Well Loved Tales series with only a little prompting.

School brought the Janet and John books, which were tedious and dated even then, and as I could already read, I felt demeaned by them. Never read Blyton as a child as my mother was a teacher and Blyton was a dirty word. Instead I feasted on all the books of mythology the junior library could supply because they were like Ladybird fairytales only better (and bloodier). Joan Aitken, Alan Garner, CS Lewis, Elisabeth Goudge, Michael bond's Paddington Bear series, E Nesbit, Noel Streatfield, Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Princess, which I almost wore out I read it so often, Anne of Green Gables, and the Katy books, and Daddy Long Legs.

And loads more, but I'll be typing all night if I try and list them all.

My top favourites, which I still read and collect are WE Johns, Biggles, Worrals and Gimlet series. I also collect the Abbey School series by EJ Oxenham. But, my most favoutite of all are the Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer, which I have read over and over since I was about eleven. I so wanted to be at the Chalet School, where everyone was so pleasant and kind, and the wonderful mountain air seed to have magical health giving properties which I felt sure would blow away my asthma in no time.

I only know two other people in the whole world who read Worrals; my friend Alice (she of the molesworth at Hogwarts skit) and a certain Mr. J. Fforde ...

Confession. Like I said, when a child I read anything, and that included all the books owned by my female cousins and things. So, er, I have read the Chalet School. And Malory Towers. And (ulp) even some pony books. But I'm not proud of it.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

From what I can recall I moved almost straight from junior-school-bookshelf-reading onto Catherine Cookson and Stephen King. Of course I read the Roald Dahl (even met him at a book fair) and Nancy Drew books, but the Enid Blytons and TH Whites of this world seem to have passed me by.

My most recent 'I'd forgotten this one!' was "Murders of the Black Museum" by Gordon Honeycomb, which I must have first read around the age of 13 and hubby dearest has just purchased for me.

I must sound really macabre.

Gary, the friend I just went to Blackpool with, also collects pony books and school books. He likes the Chalet School stories too, and Angela Brazil.

Interesting that the Famous 5 seem to be consistantly more popular than the Secret 7.

Well, nobody gets to hear of the secret seven as they're, well, secret. The famous five are the Big Brother household of the Blyton canon, with everyone trying to audition as yoof presenters when we all know by their mid-twenties they'd be stacking shelves in a supermarket.

Er, metaphorically speaking.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Oh golly! All those books I used to read. I thought I'd remembered all in my previous post, but then people started coming up with things like Willard Price (which I loved and are being re-released here in Oz), and the Chalet School books. I also liked the three Investigators, and read Trixie Belden, but only because I wanted to be able to say I'd read a GIRL'S detective book. didn't really like them. Tried Nancy Drew and couldn't stand her. The only thing I remember is at some poinbt she tripped on the hem of her dress and was about to go A over T downstairs, but then grabbed the bannister to save herslef. I was bitterly disappointed.

Oooh, I forgot, I also read a lot of the Trixie Belden stories and I loved the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries too. I also loved to read this big collection of nursery rhymes and childrens' stories. I always loved Rumplestilskin...

Has anyone written a spoof entitled 'five go off the rails' in which they srink something stornger than ginger beer, discover exactly what Uncle Quentin sticks in his pipe and make rude jokes about Fanny before burning down the local school?

Maybe they should...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Go for it, PSD!

I think the Comic Strip pretty much mined that seam out, actually.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Not entirely sure I'd want to - it'd mean rereading the bloody things...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Yeah, good point. But you do seem to have a rather frim remeberance, anyway. I'd forgotten about Fanny's existance, or that Quentin had a pipe.

I was guessing. There's a fairly good stereotype for that kind of bloke...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.