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I read nearly all her books as a child. It was Valley of Adventure that first started me off with the writing bug. The moment I finished reading it, I needed to read more of it, so I wrote some of my own stuff. Got bored with that eventually and then moved onto creating my own characters, using plot lines from TV shows like Thunderbirds. Eventually I started to write my own characters and inside my own plot lines.
But it all started with Blyton!
Damn I wish I was one of the Famous Five! Even if they do drink far too much ginger beer!
Oh me too! I loved the 'of Adventure' stories... the one I liked best was 'The Mountain of Adventure where they saw a completely new colour... I think it was that one anyway. Really fired my imagination.
Difficult to keep a secert under such circumstances... But Famous Five did it for me. Secert 7 just didn't draw me in as well, although I read them all anyway. Once I had exhausted Blyton I ended up at Just Williams school before moving on to books about two teens who went to the South Pacific and to Africa and... Damn it... What were they called? African Adventure? I can remember I bought them from a school fete, which at the time as my main source for books.
I must have looked an interesting sight. Cycling back on my Chopper, handlebars loaded down with bags of books.
Edit: African Adventure (Red Fox older fiction) by Willard Price. The other one I liked was Amazon adventure (too many snakes though) and South Pacific Adventure.
Secret Seven was what my brother read - I read Famous Five, The Adventure and Secret Series mainly (actually still have them all upstairs in boxes in the loft)
I could never get into Famous Five, Secret Seven for me. One of the first series of books I actually read, and got me into reading, and that was in year five so i was what, 10/11/?
Famous 5 for me too. Couldn't tell you what any of them were about now, but Enid Blyton was a staple of the children's section in our local library- big, old gothic decoration on the outside, and high ceiling in the main area where you checked out the books, or looked at reference works.
i'll keep that in mind neil. I've got James Frey's How to write a damn good novel, the writers complete handbook of novel writing (chapters by a variety of authors), Stephen Kings 'On writing' and how to write a novel kit which I got with the WM subscription a few months ago and haven't even touched yet. I dont know if what i have is good or bad though.
As I ventured into the world of adult writing I remember Rats and Fog by James Herbert drawing me in because of the clear characters. They got killed off pretty quickly, but the reader cared because the character had been created as a living being.
From childhood, I have vivid memories of Alan Garner's The Owl Service and Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (if you've had the misfortune to see the film, it's nothing like it in plot, character, style or substance). I still re-read The Owl Service from time to time - it's beautifully and magnetically written in a Welsh lilt - and as an adult can be read in a few hours!
Agreed! And Susan Cooper too. And Lloyd Alexander's 5-book series The Black Cauldron, the Castle of Llyr etc. and John Christopher's Tripods. I still borrow children's books sometimes from the Children's Library (you don't pay fines if you're overdue!)
I've just reviewed the book that inspired me to write crime fiction - William Bayer's SWITCH - here's the link for anyone interested:
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2009/05/book-you-have-to-read-switch-by-william.html
Me too. Alan Garner, Ursula Le Guin and Madeleine L'Engle. And... all the Alfred Hitchcock young investigator series, Biggles, Jennings, Billy Bunter, Enid Blyton (every series except Secret Seven) E Nesbit (bliss), C S Lewis, Henry Treece, Mary Norton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nina Bawden, Andre Norton, Noel Streatfield, John Wyndham...
I've still got them all.
Well, Liz, we obviously had the same overall tastes! I'd forgotten about Nina Bawden and Ursula le Guin (just bought Wizard of Earthsea in a 2nd hand bookshop!). I HATED Jo's Boys and Little Women so much that Little Men got binned before I'd read it. I loved Mary Stewart. And the Snow Spider Trilogy ... How come I can remember so many of those books and what happened and yet I've already forgotten most of White Tiger which i only read 2 weeks ago?
Eagle of the Ninth I really enjoyed.
I started early on the historical stuff and enjoyed it much more than the contemporary stories, so perhaps it did have an influence on my writing.
Carol, did you read The Silver Branch and Sword at Sunset as well - I loved all three. I hear there are two films coming out based on the disappearance of the Ninth, though I don't think either are based on the Rosemary Sutcliffe book.
Don't think I read those Susie.
I read anything and everything until I had gone through all the books in the children's library and I was allowed to start borrowing some books from the adult library.
Sorry folks, FF and SS did nothing for me. I tried but was too lazy a reader to try hard enough. All my early reading was from The Eagle comic (early Fifties), then one day I was in the library - how I got there I don't know - and was attracted to "The Purple Book of Fairy Stories" - or was it the green, or the blue. Anyway it was the fact that it was SHORT stories which did the trick; reams of Arabian Nights type of things and I worked my way through the whole lot. I think I felt I could write stories like these, but my memory at that distance isn't too hot. I certainly used to draw space ships inspired by Dan Dare.
Well, I was 11 and I really loved it! It just made me want to write. Then I moved onto James Herbert, but also enjoyed Isaac Asimov and HP Lovecraft into my early teens. (Stems from my interest in the darker side of things).
The book(s) that inspired me to write... eeeh, The 5 by Enid Blyton and Alfred Hitchcock and the .. something... detectives.... aaaand most of all C.S. Lewis and the Narnia series. I just love Narnia, it's a brilliant idea.
By the way, need I mention I was a child at the time..... :-).
Started off after reading Raymond E Feists: Magician. Started writing fantasy. I was sixteen. Then after reading that someone gave me Stephen King's IT to read and after reading a few pages I was awstruck thinking, 'You can't write things like that.' So then I tried writing horror. Page after page of just blood and swearing. Writing is like a girl getting to wear make up for the first time, there's a belief that more is better. Then you learn to tone it down.
Comments
But it all started with Blyton!
Damn I wish I was one of the Famous Five! Even if they do drink far too much ginger beer!
For me its Secret Seven, although did anyone else think they weren't really that secret?
I must have looked an interesting sight. Cycling back on my Chopper, handlebars loaded down with bags of books.
Edit: African Adventure (Red Fox older fiction) by Willard Price. The other one I liked was Amazon adventure (too many snakes though) and South Pacific Adventure.
To give me a little inspiration, i would like to read some truly great books. Can anyone recommend any that inspired them?
A good starting point, Trishie, could be the 'Oxford good fiction guide' Edited Jane Rogers. Covers a wide selection of (hate the word :)) genres.
William Bayer's SWITCH, where the killer switches the heads of two victims to taunt the cops.
More on this very soon...watch this space!!!
;)
The sex scenes were ususaly pretty good too!
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2009/05/book-you-have-to-read-switch-by-william.html
I'm so excited that I'll get to study Alan Garner in the final year of my degree.
I've still got them all.
BUT I hated Alice in Wonderland and The Water Babies.
Just started White Tiger put it down and now can't find it...
I started early on the historical stuff and enjoyed it much more than the contemporary stories, so perhaps it did have an influence on my writing.
I read anything and everything until I had gone through all the books in the children's library and I was allowed to start borrowing some books from the adult library.
You can't just leave it at that...
My cheque book
or lack of funds therin.
For long enough Dunlop made my cheque books not a paper mill , they bounced better than a space hopper.
So sad to see the never helpful banks struggling now. (sorry Stan poor attitude I know). Satisfying though :-)
By the way, need I mention I was a child at the time..... :-).