A Retired Rector's Reflections

Sorting out some of my books (a lovely and recommended self created task) I recently came across a book which made a wonderful impression on me as a child, and it still remains strong in my memory. The book isn’t particularly well known, and so the impact must have been personal, and partly due to the circumstances in which I read it. It fed my imagination and inspired games I played.

This led me to ask friends about a childhood book they particularly remember as having made a significant impression upon them. The answers I heard were fascinating. Joyce Lankester Brisley’s Milly, Molly, Mandy series featured often – amazingly the first appeared in 1928. Enid Blyton also was popular, especially The Famous Five and the Mallory Towers series. Other favourites were any by Noel Streatfield, the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, Ian Seraillier’s The Silver Sword, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Tanglewood Tales. Hawthorne’s book, is of course, 19th century, it dates from 1853. Lewis Carroll’s Alice books were popular as were The Wind in the Willows, Black Beauty, and the Katy series.

Some choices were more personal and sometimes unusual. The reason for the choice itself carried a story too. I decided to share a few of these in this and future blog posts.

One friend told me his choice: The Secret Garden by Phyllis Briggs, which belonged to his sister but he borrowed it for himself and read it when he was about seven or eight. It is about children starting and managing a zoo.

My friend remarked: “It was about children starting and managing a zoo. They were given an elephant. They decided to spank a monkey with a hairbrush. A marquee collapsed but the elephant pulled up the canvas and saved the day. It was implausible, but like many children’s books it was about children acting autonomously. It chimed with my fascination with animals. I have forgotten when we disposed of the childhood copy, but later in life I felt a wish to own a copy again and re-read it. Locating a copy was difficult because people thought I meant Frances Hodgson Burnett’s work of the same title., but finally I found one and bought it.”

“I do also remember the Famous Five or Jennings books, but Phyllis Briggs’ work made a much greater impression than those books, so I suspect I either reread it, although it may in fact it may have been the significant impact it made.”

With this post I’m begining an occasional series of blog posts and welcome other examples of books which made a great impact in childhood which may not be well known now. You may like to tell about a book in the comments to this post.