My collection of vintage books was started for me by my beloved Great Aunt Liz. While my parents certainly encouraged my love of reading, it was GAL {for that was what we all called her} that truly nurtured it. Her passion for literature {and art and music and history} was contagious.
I awaited birthday and Christmas presents from Liz with excited anticipation. I knew there would be another aging volume for me to pore over, another world to get lost in, always with a brief dedication on the inside cover. Since Liz passed away a couple of years ago the sight of her almost illegible handwriting on those antique pages has become even more precious to me.
The first module I took when I embarked on my English MA a few years ago was called ‘Transatlantic Childhoods: Literature and the Child Study Movement 1880-1920’. The class examined ‘tensions in attitudes to, and representations of, children in the nineteenth-century, when emergent sciences, especially evolutionary theory and psychology, raised significant theoretical challenges to previously cherished “Romantic” assumptions about children’s innocence, malleability, and intuitive, spiritual creativity’.
It sounded interesting on paper, and I can’t deny the reading list was delightful, but when it came to it, I hated it. The lecturer was an intimidating woman, who seemed to have little sympathy for me as I struggled with both a new discipline and the challenges of post-graduate study. I left every seminar feeling like the most stupid person in the room.
When I was presented with a less than favourable mark for my final assessment, I had a good cry and contemplated giving it all up. Perhaps I wasn’t cut out for literature after all? Of course, it all turned out alright in the end, but I certainly don’t have fond memories of that first module.
The thing about university is, sometimes what we take away from the experience, what we absorb from a class, the things we really learn and appreciate, isn’t the stuff on the curriculum. Although I never truly grasped the link between the work of Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Child Study movement, I did learn the simple pleasure of reading children’s literature as an adult.
Returning to the books that permeated my childhood has given me no end of pleasure. Not only am I drawn in by the story and its characters, but I am also able to immerse myself in memories from the time I originally read the novel. It is literature and nostalgia rolled into one. Looking at things anew, through the lens of adulthood, and contemplating just how much of the person I am today is down to the books I read way back when, is fascinating.
So it is that my little girl and I are sharing a library more and more these days. As ever, I can’t resist filling the shelves with beautiful volumes and inviting texts. Izzy has almost finished this copy of The Secret Garden which features whimsical illustrations by Lauren Child of Charlie and Lola fame.
I also find the range of Vintage Children’s Classics, with their beautifully illustrated covers, pretty irresistible. I re-read A Little Princess towards the end of last year. Such an enchanting tale. I’m certain that as a child I must have aspired to an imagination as vivid and colourful as that which Burnett bestows upon Sara Crewe. 
Next on my reading list is this beauty. I could stroke the yellowed, aging pages all day. I can’t wait to get re-acquainted with Jo and the girls. 
I should add, there’s nothing to say you have to be re-reading a children’s book. Maybe you missed some of the classics as a youngster? I’ve heard great things about I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith, but it somehow passed me by all those years ago. It’s on my reading list now though. Here are a few other suggestions for you to peruse….
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Little House Collection by Laura Ingles Wilder
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery {and the subsequent books in the series}
- Anything by Roald Dahl. Obviously.
What books would you add to the list? Which stories from your childhood stand out the most?
Love Audrey xxx
Love this post. Have to contribute.
1. I came to hate that module too, and I’m pretty sure you *can’t* have been the least intelligent person in that class, because that’s precisely how I felt!
2. Little Women… Oh, how I adore those books. The film adaptation is my go-to film when I want to have a good cry.
3. I remember reading all my Mum’s battered collection of Enid Blytons when I was younger, inspiring her to reread them again. I say you’re never too old for those classics from your childhood!
All that matters is we survived Kate! It was a very challenging module 😉
I was thinking about the film adaptation of Little Women as I took these pictures. I’m going to head straight to Amazon and order a copy! Haven’t watched it in years.
I agree about never being too old. It was reading ‘The Twits’ to Izzy that reminded me how much I had loved Roald Dahl’s books. I’d forgotten the magic of them.
xxx
Really lovely post!
My favourites were;
Little Women
The Wind in the Willows
The Secret Garden (very jealous of your copy, it’s beautiful!)
Might have to re-read them – I hardly make time to read anymore and it’s one of my favourite things to do!
Oh I completely forgot about every single one of the Chronicles of Narnia books. Loved them!
I loved all of these too, although I never actually read the Narnia books. I was obsessed with the BBC adaptation though and used to pretend I was Lucy all the time. There’s another series to add to my reading list.
xxx
Oh definitely read I Capture the Castle! (I am a big fan…it inspired my blog name!) I would add The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett, The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks, and Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild to that list. I am a huge children’s book fan and have a worryingly huge collection!x
I had completely forgoteen about Lynn Reid Banks! Thank you for jogging my memory.
I loved Noel Streatfield’s books too. I have a beautiful hardback copy of Ballet Shoes. I cannot wait for Izzy to pick that one from the shelf.
xxx
I’d completely forgotten about I Capture The Castle so it must be the perfect time to re-read it. The Silver Crown by Robert O’Brien was the first book that I picked out for myself and a story that’s stuck with me over the years. The Chronicles of Narnia would also have to be on my list x Becky
I’ve never heard of The Silver Crown. Off to google it now…
xxx
I read this post and smiled, all my young childhood memories came flooding back…I just had to share with you 🙂
1) Little Women…my absolute favourite, followed by Good Wives and Jo’s Boys.
2) Heidi – story about an orphaned Swiss girl who at the age of five is left in the care of her reclusive, widowed grandfather.
I’ve kept my 40+ year old books hoping that one day my daughter will be keen to read.
Thank you Roz, I’m glad the post resonated with you 🙂
Although I know the story, I’ve never read Heidi. I must rectify this! Passing on favourites your favourites to children is so special. I love watching Izzy fall in love with a book just as I did.
xxx
Fabulous post! I too would recommend “I Capture The Castle”.
My personal favourites are “Ballet Shoes” by Noel Streatfield, which I took with me when I ran away aged 9, and “The Children of Primrose Lane” by the same author.
“A Traveller In Time” by Alison Uttley, “What Katy Did” by Susan Coolidge, And all the Laura Ingalls Wilder and Barbara Sleigh books.
As a small freckled child with red plaits Anne Shirley was a combination of friend and alter ego ….. and remains so to this day… though it took me a while to find my Gilbert!
Happy reading. xx
I must read ‘What Katy Did’. That’s another I missed ‘first time round’!
xxx
So true! It’s interesting re-reading books you read when you were young, I’ve re-read books and come across things I never picked up on when I was younger. Little Women is probably the book I’ve read the most. The Secret Garden I’ve read many times too. I had a set of Beatrix Potter books which I read a lot… And lots of Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton…
I love Beatrix Potter! The children have my collection from when I was little and they adore them too. Did you see Emma Thompson took up the story in ‘The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit’. A wonderful read 🙂
xxx
Dr. Doolittle! xx