I have to say no book was ever frowned on at home but Enid was banned at school. I'd have to add The Bobbsey Twins to the list if that's allowed.

OMG LYNNE! The Bobbsey Twins!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was going to love them but I couldn't. I think it was because their life in USA was too alien to me in wild wild Wales. But now you have reminded me bits of the stories are coming back. Did their Mum make Blueberry pie?

Freddie and Flossie and Nan and Bert and lashings of blueberry pie I'm sure Rhys, one can only imagine what that must have done for their digestion. I think I loved them because it was all so different to life in Sarf London.

I recommend Victor Watson's Reading Series Fiction to anyone interested in the subject. I also read the Bobbsey Twins when young but only because a girl down the road had a complete set and let me borrow them. I'd add the Lone Pine books. Malcolm Saville is one of Watson's subjects.

I missed the Bobbsey twins. Why did I ? Malcolm Savile, definitely.

Anything and absolutely everything by Malcolm Saville!! He was my real inspiration for becoming a voracious reader. Does anyone remember "The Cherries and the Pringles"? I doubt if any other child who used the Central Library in Coventry actually read it as I was always renewing it! (Remember that library, Susan?)

I used to swoop on any Malcolm Savile I ever found on the library too Walter, Lone Pine and Witchend and another one called Two Fair Plaits which I loved and still have my copy of. He has a huge adult following now, society, holidays following book trails the lot.

Oh indeed I do.. I first discovered Virginia Woolf in the small back room devoted to Eng Lit... c.1958.

I had my mother's books: all Arthur Ransome, those pony books, full of dated expressions such as "Thanks most awfully!", the Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock trilogy (ponies on Exmoor all muddled up with Sohrab and Rustum), but best of all were the M.E Atkinson books beginning with August Adventure; a girl and her two brothers having rather exciting adventures in reasonable adult-free surroundings. Fidra should have a look.

I'd add quite a few other Blytons: Naughtiest Girl, Faraway Tree, St Clare's, Six Cousins... but then I was (am) a Blyton nut.

The Chalet School, too. And Horrible Histories. And Judy Blume. Jacqueline Wilson, of course.

Ahhh, nostalgia.

Not sure I count Horrible Histories .. they`re popular but they`re not stories to sink into as Enid Blyton is/was.., too thin for one thing. They strike me more as mildly subversive joke books.
The children who love Judy Blume and Jacqueline Wilson probably gravitate straight to Misery Memoirs

I disagree, actually. I only have myself to take for an example, but, although Judy Blume got a bit too gloomy, I always found Jacqueline Wilson strangely uplifting. I'm thinking of the early ones here: Double Act, The Lottie Project, as I'd outgrown her by the time the later ones were in vogue. And I loathe Misery Memoirs.

Six Cousins on Mistletoe Farm! Quite possibly my all-time bestest most favouritest book EVER!

Re: Angela Brazil -- now there's another one who would deserve to be back in print. Perhaps something else for Long Barn to consider...?

'Dame' Angela's books are very easy to find cheaply. Girls Gone By have just brought one out in their Fun in the Fourth series. I don't know how sales went as it's an easy title. Next to Malory Towers, Brazil's school stories are my favourites.

Another M E Atkinson fan here, although I didn't read them until I was grown up. The Hull & Whitlock books are now scarce and highly collectable.

Enid Blyton was my first love especially because there were so many of her books to read - I used to go to the library on a Saturday morning, borrow 3 or 4, go straight home to read them and then return just before closing at teatime to borrow some more for Sunday! A teacher at my primary school did comment at open evening that my essay writing was too much influenced by Enid's style and I should read other things as well - which to be fair I think I did. I think I was lucky because she had not been 'banned' at that time and I believe any reading is to be encouraged.

Another favourite was a series of books about 'twins' - I recall 'The Cave Twins' and 'The Eskimo Twins'. THey were good because they contained a bit of history or geography as well as the fictional element. Does anyone else remember those? I can't remember the author.

Dawn

I certainly do remember the Twins books.. it was a huge series with Twins from all over the world. I was encouraged to borrow them from the library because they did indeed have geography/history in them, and so were deemed worthy - so I didn`t borrow many of course, I just read Blyton.
Other books which were regarded as OK were by Arthur Ransome... so I didn`t read those either. Wilful little thing.

I loved the Twins books as well - Lucy Fitch Perkins?? is that right? All the Enid Blytons of course, though I preferred the Adventure books to the famous five (Julian used to get on my nerves a bit). I haunted the library so much the librarian used to let me take out three books on each ticket as she said I would only be back later on if she didn't. There was also a series of books on the Brydon family I liked, anything by Mabel Esther Allen, Pat Smythe's books about the Three Jays and ponies (never ridden in my life) and all the Lorna Hill ballet books (at 5.9 and with huge feet I could only be a ballerina in my dreams). There was also a series of non fiction children's books about the great composers which I loved and when I look back now I realise just how much I took in from them without realising. Of course, when I reached teen years then it was Jean Plaidy etc etc and all that lovely historical background which stood me in good stead at school much to the amazement of my history teacher. Oh dear better stop now before I think of a myriad others. But all this has brought back the sheer joy of curling up with a book and no interruptions and being told 'why don't you go outside and play?'. I took a vow that I would NEVER say that to my children and I NEVER have..

Thanks Susan and emasl - I've checked on google and Lucy Fitch Perkins was the author of the twins books - one of the search results shows a book seller with an edition of the Cave Twins for £27 (dated 1919!) - so there must be a collectors market for them. I also liked Mabel Esther Allen (probably a couple of years after Enid Blyton lost her appeal) - her stories seemed oh so sophisticated with teenage girls finding themselves in exotic countries like France and Italy (in the days when Clacton on Sea was our family holiday destination) and having reasonably innocent encounters with young foreign men.

Also, was Lorna Hill ballet dancer in Bunty as well?

No-one has mentioned Anne of Green Gables which I was absolutely ADDICTED to, once I got a bit old for Malory Towers (only one "l", whoever didn't spell it correctly!) St Clare's and so on. I bought the whole series and still have them on my shelf. My mother-in-law was horrifed to know that I had read Enid Blyton because of course she was "such a poor writer"..but I don't care. She was shockingly racist, sexist and so on but I loved her books. I also rather liked Jennings by Antony Buckeridge, much more than Billy Bunter because he had a much drier sense of humour.

I was Lynne with an "e" just like Anne and she and I were kindred spirits Philippa and yes that was after I'd graduated from Malory Towers. Many years later when Offspringette had to learn vast swathes of The Lady of Shalott for school I had to get the book out again and revisit Anne's boat journey.I tried hard with Jennings but it never happened.

I don't think Lorna Hill was in Bunty but am not totally sure though I used to take that every week! I do remember Belle of the Ballet in Girl and I have a collection of old Girl annuals with her in. Elaine

If you include Nancy Drew, then The Hardy Boys have to be there too (and possibly The Three Investigators). Carolyn Keene and Franklin W Dixon, the two most prolific writing teams in the world! I can't believe I honestly thought they were real people until I was at least 21...

Enid Blyton was a top fave of course, but The Secret Seven never did it for me. Famous Five all the way - although the ...Adventure Series was also popular with my brother and I.
Island of Adventure was great, but Castle of Adventure was better.

And if we're on nostlagia, I used to love the Agaton Sax stories by Nils-Olaf Franzen. Can't get them anymore without mortgaging your house...

Enid Blyton was/is/and forever shall be my favourite children's author. I fell in love with reading, thanks to her books - Mallory Towers, St Claire, the Faraway Tree series, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Cherry Tree Farm and Willow Tree Farm (I wished then that my family lived on one!) and many more. Nancy Drew was another (not the Hardy Boys, though). Another fondly remembered book which I still have, is A Child's Garden of Verse by R.L Stevenson. Mary Poppins series was another.