NICK SHARRATT, author and illustrator
The book from my early childhood that comes to mind is The by Janet
Charters and Michael Foreman. It was the delightful and gently told tale of
a general who decides to give up fighting to look after animals and all
things that grow. The illustrations were wonderful. There was one dazzling
picture of the general, in all his medals, sitting in a meadow of flowers
and chewing a piece of grass that’s etched on my brain. This book should be
reissued.
JONATHAN COE, author
As a child, I had many favourite books, but one that has stayed in my mind for
more than 30 years is Marianne Dreamsby Catherine Storr. It’s about
a little girl who is confined to her bed by illness, and starts drawing
nightmarish pictures that later reappear in her dreams. I was introduced to
this book by the ITV adaptation, Escape Into Night, in 1972. Would
anything as imaginative be shown today? I was pulled in by the weirdness of
the story.
NINA BAWDEN, author
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a wonderful story that
I could think myself into, given that the heroine is the sort of awkward
little girl that I thought I was. I loved the idea of a secret place where
children could be on their own.
KIRSTY YOUNG, broadcaster
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is my “current” favourite
children’s book. I reread it to my six-year-old daughter last summer and
both of us loved it – although she did require me to have a go at the full
Yorkshire accent for Dickon, which proved a little bit tricky. It has magic,
darkness, whimsy and truth and the fact that it was first published in 1909
yet still managed to enthral my 21st-century daughter is a testament to its
greatness.
MALORIE BLACKMAN, author
The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis was my “comfort” book, the story I
returned to when I was down. I liked the way that Eustace and Jill weren’t
quite as goody-goody as Eustace’s cousins in some of the other Narnia
books. They were real children with real fears. I loved that they were
given tasks and managed to mess up most of them but still triumphed. This
book had a darker edge to it than any of the other Narnia books –
and that appealed. When the Green Witch tried to convince Puddleglum,
Eustace and Jill that there was no overworld, no sun, no Aslan, it was so
menacing, yet so seductive. And Puddleglum’s physical and verbal response
struck a chord. That scene told me to believe in God, myself and whatever I
was doing. If others ridiculed or dismissed my efforts, then I shouldn’t let
that stop me. It was a message that has stayed with me.
SARAH BROWN, former executive
A great favourite of mine when I was a child was the Narnia series by
C. S. Lewis. In future years I look forward to seeing my boys enjoy the
sheer magic of all those Harry Potter books – although I think I
will have to read the final volume.
CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN, TV presenter
My favourite book as a child was Quentin Blake’s Zagazoo.
Mainly because my mum and dad loved reading it to me and I liked the idea
that I had been a bat and was turning into a dragon. It’s a fantastic tale.
Great for kids and even better for grown-ups.
MIRIAM STOPPARD, writer and broadcaster
My earliest recollection is of reading A Child’s Garden of Vers-by
Robert Louis Stevenson. They have just brought out a facsimile and I am
going to give it to all 11 of my grandchildren. I also loved The
Waterbabies by Charles Kingsley with its beautiful illustrations.
GAUTAM MALKANI, author
I am torn between Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton and Catcher in the
Rye by J. D. Salinger. Until about the age of 12 I didn’t read – I was
just into Nintendo. But, eventually, I came to books through film, which was
how I discovered Rumble Fish. After that I wanted to read more and
an English teacher suggested Catcher in the Rye, which I loved. I
keep trying to buy Rumble Fish for my nephews now to get them off
their PlayStations, but it is out of print in this country so I have to
order it from the US.
POLLY DUNBAR, children’s author and illustrator
Mister Magnolia was my favourite book. It has effortless exuberance and
joy, in words and pictures. The line “And his dinosaur! What a MAGNIFICENT
brute!” makes me laugh now as much as it did when I was little. I love the
way you can say that something is, simply is, in a picture book, for there
is the picture to prove it! Each page-turn in this book brings an energetic
surprise, often nonsensical but always believable. I remember being
fascinated and delighted that all his problems were solved by a new boot (I
thought of myself as the little girl who gives him the gift). But it is not
an ordinary brown boot to match the one he has, or a pair of new boots, it’s
one very special glamrock-style blue boot. Whoopee for Mister Magnolia!
KATE MOSSE, broadcaster and author
One of my favourite books, which my father used to read to me, was The
Richest Sparrow in the World. It was Czech, a late 1960s, overtly
communist parable, of the group being more important than the individual.
But I didn’t see that. I adored the eponymous sparrow, Rufflehead – whose
feathers stuck up in contrast to the other sleek-headed sparrows. He ended
up friendless, locked in a hangar full of grain – the richest but the
loneliest sparrow in the world. The illustrations were simple, gloriously
colourful in a chunky 1960s fashion, the paper was thick and reassuring to
the touch. In the end, Rufflehead escaped his wealthy prison – begging the
question of whether the capitalist world would ever do the same – and was
reunited with his working friends.
AXEL SCHEFFLER, illustrator
I don’t think I had one favourite book as there were not many picture-books in
our house when I was a child. I was very fond of Petzia little bear
in red dungarees with white dots. He is originally Danish and his real name
is Rasmus (created by C. & V. Hansen), I found out much later. The
adventures of Petzi and his friends, including a penguin, a turtle and a
pelican, were told in picture strips with the text underneath. I also liked
reading Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comic books and Michael Ende's Jim
Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer, but mainly I think, to be
honest, because of the TV puppet version of the story.
MICHAEL ROSEN, Children’s Laureate, novelist and poet
I’ve revisited Emil and the Detectives many times in my life.
The first time was in the 1950s, when Miss Goodall read it at my primary
school in Pinner, Middlesex – a long way from the Berlin of Weimar Germany.
Because she read it one chapter at a time, it gave us a day or so to take in
its scenes. I have a clear memory of the dry-mouth moment when Emil
discovers that he’s lost the money his mother had given him to take to
Berlin. My next visit to the feeling of the book happened when I was 16,
travelling on my own and left an anorak full of holiday money in a café in
the Gare de Lyon. I read the book to my son when he was about 9 and, if I
tried skipping his bedtime read, he’d wail “Emi-i-i-i-l” till I sat with
him. Every time I read it, I revel in its modernity, its way of celebrating
the life of the city. I admire its unsentimental way of telling us how
hard-up Emil and his mother are.
INDIA KNIGHT, author and columnist
I didn’t come to England until I was 10, so the formative books of my
childhood are in French. I was glued to the Comtesse de Ségur’s Les
Malheurs de Sophie, and its sequel Les Petites Filles Modèles,
which were about a no-more-than-usually naughty child being severely punished
– whipped, if memory serves – for minuscule misdemeanours, such as wetting
her hair so it dried curly, or eating cream. I also loved, and devoured,
Tintin and Asterix. In England, I was obsessed with Enid Blyton,
particularly the Mallory Towers and St Clare’s
series. All three of my children have passionately loved Peepoand The
Baby’s Catalogueby Allan Alhlberg, The Three Little Wolves and
the Big Bad Pig (a work of genius) by Helen Oxenbury, and Where the
Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak – among dozens of others.
TOBY JONES, actor
I can remember reading I am David when I was 9 or 10 and that having a
profound impact on me. It was a birthday gift, part of a boxset of war
stories for children. We used to hold wars most playtimes so it was a great
present. This particular edition had a very memorable cover illustration of
an emaciated David staring out at me accusingly. I was a reluctant reader of
anything but comics in those days, but something about Anne Holm’s style
kept me intrigued in David’s journey. Most people are fascinated by
concentration camps and the impact on their victims, but this story is as
much about David’s escape. It’s a mysterious book with an unpatronising tone
that I probably understood to be grown-up. A few years earlier I had
ploughed my way through hundreds of Ladybird books and many of their
excellent illustrations are forever imprinted on my imagination. My
favourite fairytale is still The Magic Porridge Pot.
LUCY YEOMANS, Editor of Harper’s Bazaar
I have vivid memories of both reading and being read to (by my The Little
Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. I found all his fairytales
incredibly evocative and can still recall the images I conjured up as a
child. The image of the little match girl lying dead in the snow, the
matches scattered around her frozen body, yet with a smile on her lips, will
never leave me.
SAMANTHA CAMERON, designer
It is so long since I read the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peak – I
was about 11 or 12 – that I can’t recall much detail. I do remember being
fascinated by the ghastly characters and by the extravagant, opulent gothic
imagery. The castle just fixed in your mind, with all these wonderful
descriptions of tunnels and secret rooms. It was so visual and everything
was exciting and unknown. None of the characters was very nice, even the
supposedly good ones were all faintly grotesque. It had a heavy fantasy
element, which I liked, taking you to a different place, combined with
distinctly Dickensian overtones. Unforgettable.
PAUL SMITH, designer
My favourite is Cars and Trucks and Things that Go by Richard Scarry
because it’s busy, like my head!
ANTHONY GRAYLING, philosopher
At the age of 7 my favourite book was Enid Blyton’s The Faraway
(all those lands and adven-tures!); at 10 it was Mary Macgre-gor’s The
Story of Greece (cracking book! It precipitated a passion for all things
ancient Greek and Roman and I was tiresomely encyclopaedic about mythology);
at 12 it was Paul Brickhill’s biography of Douglas Bader, Reach
for the Sky (I wanted to go back to 1940 and be a Spitfire pilot!); at
14 it was G. H. Lewes’s Biographical History of Philosophy.
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