I was quite an avid reader as a child, I have early memories of reading Welsh story books while listening to audio versions when I was in the infant class at our school; Sali Mali and Spot the Dog being my strongest memories, but we also read stories about a little witch that I enjoyed.
I remember receiving my first Roald Dahl – The BFG – at around the age of seven. By then, my mum had already read me Danny the Champion of the world and Fantastic Mr Fox (and of course Charlie’s adventures); we had travelled Narnia and shared story time listening to The Secret Garden and other such children’s classics.
I was intending to write about m favourite book from my childhood, but choosing one would be impossible, so I think I will tell you about a few of my favourites and what I found special about them all.
Almost all of the books on this list involve magic, certainly all contain an element of adventure, as may be evident from the books / authors listed above.
The Narnia series is a good place to start – as a child I really enjoyed the idea that I could enter a magical world through a wardrobe (we used to pretend to do so with a wardrobe full of old coats we had – it had a missing panel from the back so we used to go in the front, climb out the back and then either hide there or wriggle out underneath – it stood on sturdy legs and had enough room under it for a small, determined person to shimmy through. I loved hiding in the hidey hole at the back thinking about Lucy’s visits to Mr Tumnus, and imagine I was going to emerge and be invited to tea with a fawn myself.
One of my favourites was ‘The wolves of Willoughby chase’ by Joan Aiken – as a child I didn’t recognise it was set in an alternative England – I just got swept along by the mood of the story the mystery and the excitement of the wolf chase. I always thought of it as a classic, due in part to the setting I think – I just sort of grouped it with ‘Little Women’, ‘The Little Princess’ and ‘The Secret Garden’ – but the alternate history setting, and the publishing date put it far more contemporary than I had imagined.
I think close to the top of the list would be ‘The Children of Green Knowe’ – this tells the story of Toseland (called Tolly) who goes to spend Christmas with his previously unmet Great-Grandmother in the family estate of Green Knowe near the fictional village of Penny Soaky. During his stay he gets to know his grandmother, explores his family home and history and also encounters the ghosts of some long-dead ancestors. My favourite parts of the book where occasions when Tolly spent time with his ancestors and the ghostly spirit of a horse (called Feste), I also loved reading all about Tolly and Granny opening an old chest containing relics of their family history; and all the scenes relating to Christmas.
Like the Father Christmas scene in The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ I always find there is something magical about Christmas scenes – I love reading about thoughtful gifts, or those with magical properties.
I was given the second book the Christmas (or my birthday) I was 12 or 13 years old, a few years after I read the first. I know these dates as I wrote my name and age in the front cover, and gifts such as books were reserved for special occasions; I had both copies for a long time.
As I got older I latched onto Blyton, we were read The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair, but I bypassed the secret seven and went straight for The Famous five. I read these over and over, probably from around age 9 to age 12. The older I got the more I wanted to set off on my own five-esque adventure. My parents never would let us go off on our own – the closest we got was to camp in the garden and occasionally go for a walk unsupervised.
I can remember packing a lunch, an easel and sketch pad and setting off one morning to wander around the country roads near our rural home, searching for a good place for a picnic and to sit and draw.
I can’t remember actually finding anywhere – I guess we must have just given up and eaten sitting on the grass covered wall that separated the roads from the farmers’ fields – we knew very well not to go into the fields in search of a drawing spot. My main recollection of the day was feeling annoyed at how heavy and clumsy the easel was (it was only a small one), and how tired we were really on in our little adventure. My conclusion is that I would not have been cut out for a proper five adventure – it makes me wonder how much experience of long walking trips Blyton actually had. Critique of her works suggest that she created a very idealised presentation of the rural landscape, and the idea that children could wander so freely and unsupervised is obviously not practical – in this day and age, such a thing would herald a visit from social services, I’m sure. There also remains to consider the memoir of Imogen Smallwood who wrote that while Blyton wrote of an ideal and cosy family setting in most of her works, her home life was in fact very different.
That knowledge has left me feeling like I want to distance myself more from Blyton’s works than I have from other childhood favourites.
I still adore the children of Green Knowe and frequently re-read when it is approaching the festive season.
Another Christmassy book I love to read at that time of year, one from my childhood – Is ‘The Box of Delights’ it has all the ingredients of a favourite of mine – wolves, magic, Christmas and gifts, mystery and adventure.
Again, my favourite scenes involve Christmas parties and gift giving. Although I did enjoy the part of the story where the children use the box to 'go very small' so that they can escape the villains on a toy boat, travelling down river on the little thing.
I likes that this story featured the same characters from another of Masefield's books 'The Midnight Folk' it being the sequel to that novel.
For those of you with children, while many of these books were truly wonderful reads - several of them have very 'of the era' themes and should be accompanied by a conversation about some of the attitudes and values portrayed.