Pure nostalgia: Enid Blyton

I cannot imagine my childhood without Enid Blyton. I started with Noddy, then moved on to The Secret Seven, and later to The Famous Five. These books absorbed me completely and became a constant part of my early life. They instilled in me a love of reading.

Fascinating facts about Enid Blyton

• She is one of the most prolific writers in history, having written over 700 books and thousands of short stories, poems, and articles.
• Her books have sold over 600 million copies worldwide, making her one of the best-selling authors of all time, translated into more than 90 languages.
• Blyton claimed she could write 5,000–10,000 words a day, often completing a full book in under a week.
• She said she did not consciously plan her stories, describing the process as one where ideas “came through” her, almost as if dictated.
• Despite her popularity, she was heavily criticised by literary critics, educators, and librarians during her lifetime for simple language, repetition, and moralising.
• For years, the BBC refused to broadcast adaptations of her work, considering them “unliterary” and unsuitable—while children adored them.
• Her most famous series include The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Noddy, Malory Towers, and St Clare’s.
• She had a deep interest in nature, which strongly influenced the outdoor adventures, countryside settings, and seasonal rhythms in her stories.
• Blyton kept a strict daily writing routine, starting early in the morning and treating writing as disciplined work rather than inspiration-driven art.
• She was personally complex and controversial: acquaintances often described her as difficult, emotionally distant, and highly controlling, especially in family relationships.
• Her daughter later wrote a memoir portraying Blyton as cold and emotionally unavailable, sharply contrasting with the warmth of her fictional worlds.
• Many of her books have been edited, revised, or bowdlerised in later decades to remove outdated language, stereotypes, or corporal punishment.
• She rarely interacted with children directly, yet had an uncanny intuition for what children wanted to read.
• Blyton was once the most borrowed author in British libraries, a position she held for decades.
• She died in 1968, just before a major critical reassessment began recognising her cultural impact and storytelling genius, if not her literary elegance.

Pure nostalgia: Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

After Enid Blyton, my reading naturally shifted to American mystery series—The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I loved the mystery and suspense these books offered. It later manifested as a love for movies with suspense, mystery and twists.

Fascinating facts about The Hardy Boys

• First published in 1927, making them one of the longest-running series in children’s literature.
• Written under the house pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon** by multiple authors.
• Originally created to appeal specifically to boys, as a counterpart to Nancy Drew.
• Early editions were substantially revised in the 1950s–60s to modernise language, shorten stories, and remove racial stereotypes.
• Frank and Joe Hardy were deliberately written as complements: Frank logical and serious, Joe impulsive and intuitive.
• The series helped popularise the amateur detective genre for young readers.
• Over 600 titles have been published worldwide across spin-offs and reboots.

Fascinating facts about Nancy Drew

• Debuted in 1930, during a time when few fictional girls were portrayed as independent or adventurous.
• Created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer, and written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.
• Early Nancy was notably bold, assertive, and fearless, even by modern standards.
• Like the Hardy Boys, many early books were rewritten mid-century to soften language and update social norms.
• Nancy Drew became an unexpected feminist icon, inspiring generations of girls to see themselves as capable and intelligent.
• The character influenced later pop-culture detectives, from TV to YA fiction.
• More than 500 million copies of Nancy Drew books have been sold globally.

 

The adventures of Tintin

As a child, I loved reading Tintin and getting swept up in his thrilling adventures with the fiery but lovable Captain Haddock. As a dog lover, I had a soft spot for Snowy — brave, clever, and always at Tintin’s side. Created by Belgian artist Hergé in 1929, The Adventures of Tintin became one of the most beloved comic series in the world, translated into more than 70 languages. With its exotic locations, daring escapes, and sense of curiosity about the world, the series may well have sparked my own lifelong love of travel and exploration. Hergé was known for his meticulous research, often spending months studying the culture, geography, and history of the places Tintin would visit — all before the internet — which gave the stories a vivid sense of realism and depth.  

The llama incident

At the London Zoo once, I got a little too close to a llama. Thinking I could connect with it the same way you can with a horse — by gently breathing into its nose — I leaned in with all the calm and goodwill I could muster. It promptly spat in my face. In retrospect, I really should have seen it coming. I’d read Tintin as a child, after all — and the exact same thing happened to Captain Haddock! As you can see from the scene below, I was in good (and very soggy) company.

Fiction books read (2009)

• The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
• The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follet)
• World Without End (Ken Follet)
• The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)
• The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
• The Shell Seekers (Rosamunde Pilcher)
• I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
• Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
• Dances with Wolves (Michael Blake)
• Gaurds, Gaurds! (Terry Pratchett)
• Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
• The Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

Fiction books read (2008)

• The Wire in the Blood (Val McDerend)
• Retribution (Jullianne Hoffman)
• Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) 
• The Last Don (Mario Puzo) 
• Monsoon (Wilbur Smith)
• A Time to Die (Wilbur Smith)
• The Blue Horizon (Wilbur Smith)
• The Genesis Code (John Case)
• The Count Of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
• The Partner (John Grisham)
• Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
• Prey (Michael Crichton)
• About a Boy (Nick Hornsby)
• Self Defense (Jonathon Kellerman)
• Nick Hornsby (A Long Way Down)
• The Last Temptation (Val Mc Dermid)

Books: Jack Reacher (Lee Childs)

Another of my recent addictions is Jack Reacher. I'd go as far as saying I have a bit of a "school boy" crush on him. He's the invention of Lee Child and the protagonist of 12 books all of which I have now voraciously read.

So who is Jack Reacher? Here are some facts about Reacher for your interest and enrichment…

• Jack Reacher is the modern day equivalent of the enigmatic stranger who rides into town to sort everything out with fist and gun.
• He was born on October 29th, 1960 on an Army base in Berlin. His father is a Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. As kids, Jack and his family moved non-stop from one military base to another.
• Reacher mustered out of the army with the rank of Major in 1997 when defence budget cuts made him "lose interest".
• Since leaving the army in 1997, Reacher has been a drifter. He travels around the United States, exploring the one country he never got to see in his childhood. He is always on the move.
• Reacher owns nothing except the clothes he is wearing. He wears his clothes 4 days or so, then throws them away and buys more clothes. He is weighed down by nothing.
• Reacher makes money by doing odd jobs. He also tends to pocket the money he takes from thugs.
• Reacher has blue eyes and fair hair. He is a giant of a man, standing at 1.96m tall with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 100-115kg. He is exceptionally strong. He is also crack shot.
• Reacher has a knack for finding and tackling trouble where ever he goes. As well as helping people in distress.
• Reacher has no doubts about his objective: to rid the world of bad guys. And nobody does it better. However, Reacher is also that rare kind of action hero who always takes the trouble to think things through and solve the puzzles (using his brilliant investigative skills) before sorting the bad guys. He thus combines brute force and brilliant deduction.
• Reacher capitalises on his past career as a Military Policeman. He served for 13 years. He is a hell of a good investigator. Maybe the best the army ever had.
• Some of the baddies he comes across are real heavy weight nasties who have a penchant for cutting peoples' balls off.
• Reacher has the uncanny ability to know what time it is, at any time of the day, without referring to a timepiece.
• He has the ability to take on multiple thugs at once and he generally comes out unscathed.
• He has a fascination with mathematics and a love for blues music.
• He is addicted to coffee.
• He has a passion for pretty women (particularly if they are in distress) and tends to bed at least one per book (surprise, surprise!).

So there you go. Welcome to one of the truly memorable tough guys in modern fiction. Don’t let it be said I don’t try to enrich my readers through my blog…

Top 100 BBC Reads

Ally and I both decided that it would be great to read the Top 100 BBC Reads - a list of the 100 favourite books voted for by the readers of ww.bbc.com. Needless to say it's turning out to be a whole lot of reading!! I've now read 29 of the 100, Ally being a more voracious reader is at around 40...

The two most recent books I have read are The Count Of Monte Cristo (yes, all 1241 pages of it!) and Anne of Green Gables (what an unexpectedly delightful book). Both books were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Next I'll be tackling Catch 22 and Pride and Predjudice. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just catch the movies (just about all the books have been made into movies at one time or another) - but I suppose that would be cheating!

Fiction books read (2007)

• Abduction (Robin Cook)
• Derailed (James Siegel)
• Echo Burning (Lee Child)
• The Hard Way (Lee Child)
• Bad Luck and Trouble (Lee Child)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling) 
• Obsession (Karen Robards)
• A Memory of Demons (David Ambrose) 
• Cider House Rules (John Irving)
• The Big Picture (Douglas Kennedy)
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Louis de Bernières)