Minxes' Favourite Childhood Books - Part 1

We all have books and stories that we adored as children and may even now have passed on to or be reading to our own children.

Today, the Minxes want to share with you the books that shaped us into the readers we are today. One or two may surprise you ;)

Romy Sommer: Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading me to sleep every night as a kid. She read me all the Enid Blytons. I know I don't need to list them here. I bet you grew up on them too!

As I grew older I developed a love for girls' boarding school books. To this day my favourites are Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School books. These stories not only had all the usual schoolgirl pranks and dramas, but they also had exotic locations (Austria, Wales, Switzerland) and spanned several decades. I'm still collecting these books today - for my daughters, of course!

In my teens the 'Sweet Valley High' books were my first taste of romance, but the first Alpha hero I ever fell in love was Patrick Pennington, the bad boy musical prodigy in KM Peyton's Pennington's Seventeenth Summer. My brother brought the book home from school as required reading. If he ever wants the book back, he just needs to search my bookshelves - it's still there, alongside all its sequels!


Sally Clements: I read everything I could get my hands on, as a kid. And it hasn't changed much! My favorites were the Nancy Drew series - and honestly, who couldn't love a clever girl tracking down a mystery? Other faves were She and Ayesha by H Ryder Haggard, and Kon-Tiki and the Ra expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl, the descriptions of sailing in an ancient craft grabbed me from the start! I also spent a good few years reading P G Wodehouse & all the James Bond books and by the time I'd turned 13 was devouring Papillon by Henri Charriere. So I guess I was a sucker for mysteries, and stories where people faced challenges - and won!

Lorraine Wilson: I used to spend all my pocket money on books and still have all my original Enid Blytons. My favourites were the Adventure series although I still have a secret penchant for the Faraway Tree and used to climb trees when I was little, hoping to find another world at the top!

When I grew a little older I devoured everything by L.M. Montgomery - once I'd finished the Anne series I moved on to Emily and beyond. I also loved anything by E. Nesbit, Noel Streatfield and the Flambard series by K.M. Peyton but as I could go on forever I'll end my part here...



Maya Blake: Having two older brothers and a very tom-boyish older sister meant that as a child I had to ride with the gang or lead a very lonely existence.

This spilled over into my reading life and one of my earliest memories was of waiting patiently for my turn to read the latest Hardy Boys.

After many lame nursery books, discovering the adventure within these novels was very exhilarating. So much so that I pleaded with my mother to take me to the "grown-up" section of the library, whereupon I discovered my second love: Nancy Drew.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories dominated my life from ages 9 to 12! I gobbled up all the stories I could get my hands on, reading them over and over and over again. My mother had serious reservations about my wellbeing when I would forgo food just so I could read these books.

Of course, by the time I turned 13, my sister, having shunned her tom-boyish ways, was very much into a new series called Mills & Boon. I borrowed a book by one Anne Mather, and the rest, as they say, is history...

Come back next Monday for the second part of the Minxes Favourite Childhood Books.

Before that, though, we'd love to hear what your favourite books were as a child, so dish!