December Meme: Childhood books

dine asked me to talk about my favourite books from childhood.

I read all the time when I was a child. I was never one for running about and there's only one tree I remember climbing (it was really easy, and had somehow grown with steps in the trunk), but I devoured books at a fantastic rate.

There were the obvious ones, of course, the Chronicles of Narnia, Beatrice Potter, George MacDonald, Roger Lancelyn Green's books of myth (Norse, Greek, and I think there were a couple of others), Paddington, Noel Streatfield, E Nesbit, fairy tales and Arthurian romances, the Famous Five and a panoply of School stories from the Chalet School to St Clare's to… whatever else there was. I also discovered a Biggles omnibus at my Nana's house, which set me off on a Biggles kick. Science fiction—Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, mercifully I missed out on E E 'Doc' Smith—came in my teens, along with Austen, Heyer, Tolkein, Jean Plaidy and a selection of other historicals. Many, many more.

My favourites, though, must be the Winnie the Pooh books. These are the ones I bought when I was pregnant with Bun, and which I still read, occasionally, even though she is twenty-eight (!!wtf!). I can recite the story of how Pooh gets into a Tight Place, not quite verbatim, but with extra glee at "How long does getting thin take?" "About a week, I should think." And Beast and I use "Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" on relevant occasions, usually accompanied by an admonishing eyebrow. I love that story so much. It's inaccessible behind the sofa at the moment, so I can't re-read it right now.

I read the Pooh stories to my children. My parents used to read them to me. My mother made a particularly good Piglet with a little, squeaky voice. My father was then and will always be the True Voice of Winnie the Pooh, deep bass and grumbly. Think Christopher Lee. Somewhere, I may still have an ancient cassette with recordings of stories read by both of them, which is nice, since they're both long dead.

Disney-the-Pooh is an abomination. Do not speak of it to me. Ugh.


A few dates still available if you want to set me a task here.