About a childhood of reading

I've just finished reading Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan. In it she details her life in books from the earliest days of being read to, then learning to read, and her progress through many of the classic children's stories that we've all loved.

It's a good read (and, as it happens I'm reading it at the recommendation of someone on the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read ... about which I should write at some point). It's funny too, and sad it some ways: her then young son is clearly not going to be as voracious a reader as her, despite her best efforts.

Mangan was an obsessive reader as a child - I thought I was bad but I was an amateur compared to her - and she also remembers her childhood far better than I do. I have little memory of my early years now other than when trauma occurred. So I remember being in hospital for various afflictions, I remember accidents I had (do not cycle with shopping hanging off your handlebars, this is a Bad Plan), I remember being told off by random old ladies in the street ... but of the everyday I remember very little.

Or so I thought.

It turns out that we travelled a very similar road through our early years of reading so Mangan's memories have helped stir some of mine, reminding me of books I'd just plain forgotten. So let me take you through my journey in childhood books and we'll see if you remember some of these too.

To start at the very beginning Mangan talks about being read to, and of that I still remember nothing however I can deduce one early influence from my first long lasting toy, which I still have to this day, which is Bobby Bear. I got him for my first Christmas, so he's six months younger than me and I'm pretty sure I named him after the Bobby Bear comic strip which appeared in the Daily Herald which I suspect was my father's preferred paper in those days and that he would have read the strip out to me.

But when it comes to actual reading by me my first port of call is Ladybird books which, as Mangan reminds me, is how both she and I learned to read through the Peter and Jane books (Penguin still sell a range today, now called Key Words with Peter and Jane but I suspect they're rather different as the science of how to teach children to read has changed, more than once, over the years).

Talking of science later on, through their Junior Science books, Penguin also encouraged me into science. Their books had three noun titles like Levers, Pulleys, and Engines and Magnets, Bulbs, and Batteries and they led you through experiments involving simple household items like string, cotton reels, paper clips, and 4.5V batteries. They don't seem to in print any more although you can pick up copies on eBay and you can also read them on the Internet Archive - to which I'm linking above. I'm sure there were more in this series; if you can remember what they were then do drop me a line.

And then of course there were the comics and especially Beano and Dandy (I discovered while researching this post that the titles of each was preceded by the definite article but whatever, it's not how I remember them).

I read both but Beano was the one my parents bought me and featured characters like Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and His Pals, and General Jumbo. Dandy was passed on by friends and was definitely second best although it did have Desperate Dan (and is now out of print I see, unlike Beano which still survives).

Talking of publications Mangan also reminded me of Look and Learn, the title of which definitely rings a bell and so must have read but I can't remember any more about it. Wikipedia says it was a weekly educational magazine for children and it appears to have covered history, geography and geology, art, nature, and travel so I imagine I would have lapped it up at the time.

Mangan spends quite a lot of time talking about Enid Blyton whose books, like me, she lapped up. Blyton was definitely the first author I ever seriously followed and with the aid of Fleet Library I read all of the Famous Five books, and many about the Five Find-Outers and Dog, the Secret Seven, and from the Adventure series.

As Mangan reminds us Blyton's books became unfashionable: her villains typically some combination of bearded, dark skinned, or gypsies and the likes of Anne did hold up stereotypes of how a girl should behave. "But what about George?" I hear you ask. And quite right too!

Apparently some attempts were made to "clean up" her stories for a modern age but they didn't sell well while the original unreconstructed titles continue in print to this day.

Which brings me on to Biggles which is where I and Mangan part company for a while as these stories clearly flew by without her noticing (see what I did there?). Capt. W. E. Johns churned out nearly 100 books about our hero and his friends Ginger and Algy as they flew their way through two world wars and on into the jet age.

Like Blyton, Johns was a man of his time and his works reflect that. Apparently his books - with their now unacceptable racism - were removed from the shelves of public libraries in the 1960s and 1970s but for me as a young boy they were just glorious adventures.

The third author I now remember latching on to was Richmal Crompton (who, I now discover, was a woman - at the time I thought it was a man's name) and her Just William books which I loved.

By the way is it just me that thinks Pratchett and Gaiman found inspiration for Adam Young in William Brown ... ah, I was right, they did; Wikipedia says:

According to Gaiman, he began the book as a parody of Richmal Crompton's William books, named "William the Antichrist", but it outgrew the original idea.

I could go on but this is already getting a bit long. Other books I now remember borrowing and reading include a whole series of books of "Myths and Legends" from various cultures which fascinated me and, in my later childhood years, I discovered the joys of P.G. Wodehouse (of whom I will do a post at some point as I have more books by him than any other author) and of reading volumes of Pick of Punch, the annual published by the now sadly long defunct magazine.

Meanwhile some other "classic" children's books escaped me. C.S. Lewis' Narnia chronicles didn't appeal at all (unlike for Mangan) and I never got beyond the first couple. As for Swallows and Amazons, of which I will post at some point as they're now some of my favourite books, I only discovered them in my twenties.

Anyway, in closing can I just recommend Bookworm again? If, like me, you love books then it's an amusing and satisfying read and it may stir up some memories for you too.