Who is your favourite author except Enid?

[Susie]

I do like Paddington bear
And I have just started to get into the chalet school. I have just got books one, it's really good so far what with the mix up with Heisse wasser and heliger wasser (You have to read it to know what I am talking about.)

[Lucky Star]

I've never read the books but those terms translate as Hot Water and Holy Water if I'm right.

I've just picked up a copy of The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford in a charity shop. I used to love the Tv series and this is the book that inspired it. I'll snuggle up with that some wintry night.

[Petermax]

Paddington Bear! That takes me back a bit, my staple reading back in 1975 somewhere
between The Secret Seven and Jennings! Michael Bond was a very clever author who
appealed to different age groups within the same book, similar I suppose to Richmal
Crompton. I just loved the Mister Curry character.

I've just picked up a copy of The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford in a charity shop. I used to love the Tv series and this is the book that inspired it.

Another spin-off from the Womble books was the pop group of the same name who were very big in the mid 1970s. Here’s a clip, watch if you dare.The Wombles 1975

[dsr]

Children's Authors:
Antonia Forest, first by a long way;
Nancy Breary
Robert Westall
Anthony Buckerige
Arthur Ransome

Adults' authors:
P.G. Wodehouse
John Wyndham
Bernard Cornwell
Dorothy L. Sayers
Colin Dexter

I have to admit a liking for Jeffrey Archer's early books as well. Certainly not classic literature, but an entertaining tale. (I've always thought of him as a sort of Enid Blyton for grown-ups.)

[Kate Mary]

I remember Nancy Breary. I must have borrowed her books because I don't have any now. They had rather dippy titles like "The Fourth was fun for Philippa" and "The Snackboat sails at noon". I was wandering around Winchelsea in East Sussex a couple of years ago when I discovered a memorial bench in the churchyard to Nancy. I think her sister Gretchen was her illustrator. Thanks for stirring up some memories!

Kate.

[Tony Summerfield]

Gretchen Breary also illustrated Malcolm Saville's first book, Mystery at Witchend, but it was a short-lived affair as Bertram Prance replaced her in reprints and subsequent books. She also did a considerable amount of illustrating for Enid Blyton in Sunny Stories - I know whilst compiling the Magazine listing that I have typed the name G.E. Breary a number of times!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Have you read a lot of Robert Westall, dsr? I read a few of his books when I was in my early twenties and loved The Kingdom by the Sea. I was utterly captivated by the boy's journey, and stunned by the ending.

Anita

[dsr]

I've read most of his books, although new ones keep coming out now and then - quite surprsing since he died some years ago, but I can only assume he left quite a bit of work behind. (I don't think they're doing a Virginia Andrews!)

"Kingdom by the Sea" is one of my favourites, and one of the few books where the characters make enough of an impact on me, that I feel regret after finishing the books that they didn't do things differently. (No spoilers there !) "Watch House" and "Wind Eye" are especially good as well, as are "Machine Gunners" and its sequel. Of the shorter stories, I liked "The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral", and the one in "Ghosts and Journeys" where a hitchhiker finds herself by accident at Lord Mulberry's hunt ball.

[Rob Houghton]

I have read 'Northern Lights' and 'Subtle Knife' but can't seem to get going with the Amber Spyglass despite having had it for two years waiting to be read.

I am looking forward to the film, and wonder how much of the religious aspect of the book will be kept in...

[dsr]

I much preferred Pullman's "Tiger in the Smoke" series. Particularly the last one "The Tin Princess" (which is not really a sequel, more a spin-off) which is a Prisoner-of-Zenda-like yarn and highly entertaining.

[manzanita]

Out of the blue, I've just remembered I liked Colin Dann. I've not read his books in a looooong time, but I thought the Farthing Wood series was great. "King of The Vagabonds" and "The City Cats" were also great, and "The City Cats" made me cry when I was younger.

Manzy

[Petermax]

This thread has awakened memories of a book that I last read when I was eleven. Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is a very old story first published in 1886 and is probably familiar to many on this forum via various saccharine film and television adaptations. The book itself as I recall was somewhat more down to earth and a great read despite the taunts of my siblings!

[Tweenid]

I absolutely adore Frances Hodgson Burnett.One of my prize possessions is an 1888 edition of "Little Lord Fauntleroy",beautifully illustrated by Reginald Birch.The author is credited on the front as "Mrs F.H.Burnett" which always made me smile.
Its a thrilling book,though I still think "The Secret Garden" is better on the whole.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess are both beautiful, stirring stories. The 1990s film version of A Little Princess made a real hash of the story, though . I believe there were earlier films/TV series as well, including one starring Shirley Temple, but I don't know whether those were any better. I did like the sumptuous 1990s film of The Secret Garden, starring Kate Maberly. That stuck much more closely to the book, although there were a few minor alterations.

Anita

[Susie]

I believe there were earlier films/TV series as well, including one starring Shirley Temple, but I don't know whether those were any better.
Anita

Here is a bit of a review scrol down a bit. Shirley Temple looks adorable on the front cover.. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031580/" target="_blank
(I'm not sure how condense this url.)