Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-famous-five"
First Books
Do you remember the first books you read or had read to you?
I can't honestly say I do though the Reader's Digest Collection of Classic Fairytales does rank very highly in this list. I still have this two volume set, though the spines are "taped up" thanks to years of use!
The illustrations in these books are lovely and I spent many a happy hour poring over them as a kid. The stories are the originals from Grimm, Perrault, Andersen etc.
I do remember collecting the Famous Five series. Southern TV, as it was then in our ITV region, had adapted the series and paperbacks were reissued to link in with this. Have no idea what happened to those books. Do know they're not with me now. I recall going to our local newsagent to buy the paperbacks (in the days when you did have independent newsagents!).
The first books I chose for my home after getting married came to me via the old Odhams collections. You paid a subscription and received one new book every month. I collected Agatha Christie novels (and collections of short stories), which I still have.
What is important though is those first books were never last books!!
I can't honestly say I do though the Reader's Digest Collection of Classic Fairytales does rank very highly in this list. I still have this two volume set, though the spines are "taped up" thanks to years of use!
The illustrations in these books are lovely and I spent many a happy hour poring over them as a kid. The stories are the originals from Grimm, Perrault, Andersen etc.
I do remember collecting the Famous Five series. Southern TV, as it was then in our ITV region, had adapted the series and paperbacks were reissued to link in with this. Have no idea what happened to those books. Do know they're not with me now. I recall going to our local newsagent to buy the paperbacks (in the days when you did have independent newsagents!).
The first books I chose for my home after getting married came to me via the old Odhams collections. You paid a subscription and received one new book every month. I collected Agatha Christie novels (and collections of short stories), which I still have.
What is important though is those first books were never last books!!
Family Stories
What do you think about stories based around families? I loved the Little Women series based on the March family from Louisa May Alcott and still have a very soft spot indeed for Jo.
I still have the books (bought from a local newsagent back in the days when they would often stock popular titles. Indeed the Little Women series was part of a “Deans Classic” collection).
I also adored Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series (and again still have a very soft spot for George).
But the novel which always “got” to me was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. I loved the whole idea of a story told by the horse and the Gordon family I thought were lovely.
(That idea was explored further in the old Southern TV series which was based on the novel and ran with the basic idea while remaining faithful to the spirit of it, not an easy balance to get right, when it was a popular weekend teatime serial and more stories were wanted once they’d finished with the novel itself!).
I don’t specifically seek out family stories though it is funny how many of my childhood favourites are based on them (another one was Heidi).
Mind you, some of the classic fairytales show families which are far from ideal - check out Snow White and Cinderella to name but two!
I still have the books (bought from a local newsagent back in the days when they would often stock popular titles. Indeed the Little Women series was part of a “Deans Classic” collection).
I also adored Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series (and again still have a very soft spot for George).
But the novel which always “got” to me was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. I loved the whole idea of a story told by the horse and the Gordon family I thought were lovely.
(That idea was explored further in the old Southern TV series which was based on the novel and ran with the basic idea while remaining faithful to the spirit of it, not an easy balance to get right, when it was a popular weekend teatime serial and more stories were wanted once they’d finished with the novel itself!).
I don’t specifically seek out family stories though it is funny how many of my childhood favourites are based on them (another one was Heidi).
Mind you, some of the classic fairytales show families which are far from ideal - check out Snow White and Cinderella to name but two!
New Books and Old Books
I expect, like me, you have a good mixture of books on your shelves. I have new books, old books, classics, contemporaries, and, what is especially nice, books written by friends of mine (and signed for me too). I treasure them all.
I have books inherited from my late mother, who was a tremendous reader and encouraged me so much here.
I have my own collections of books. The first series I went for, as an adult, was the Odhams Agatha Christie collection. Lovely red and gold hardback books. Fabulous stories, as you know.
Prior to that I collected the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton as these used to be on sale at my local newsagent, back in the days when many of those had a reasonable book selection you could buy. I miss those days!
A new edition of the series had been brought out to tie in with Southern TV’s adaptation of the series for their Sunday teatime slot. That only stopped when Southern lost their franchise. (A big mistake but there you go and at least it got me reading the books!).
I do believe it is a great idea to have a health “reading diet” and for me that has always included contemporary as well as classic books.
A great story is a great story whenever it came out after all.
I have books inherited from my late mother, who was a tremendous reader and encouraged me so much here.
I have my own collections of books. The first series I went for, as an adult, was the Odhams Agatha Christie collection. Lovely red and gold hardback books. Fabulous stories, as you know.
Prior to that I collected the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton as these used to be on sale at my local newsagent, back in the days when many of those had a reasonable book selection you could buy. I miss those days!
A new edition of the series had been brought out to tie in with Southern TV’s adaptation of the series for their Sunday teatime slot. That only stopped when Southern lost their franchise. (A big mistake but there you go and at least it got me reading the books!).
I do believe it is a great idea to have a health “reading diet” and for me that has always included contemporary as well as classic books.
A great story is a great story whenever it came out after all.
