We all have our favourite reads, the ones we go back to time and time again, like a comfort blanket but made of our favourite Blyton reads. I have decided to share my top three with you. Be warned, you won’t find variety in them, mostly because when I was younger I only really knew the Famous Five and Malory Towers. Here they are anyway!

3. Five Go Off to Camp

I had this as a set of four dramatised audio books and what I loved the most about this was Jock’s Scottish accent and the way he said “Aye, I’m a ninny”. I think Fiona has mentioned this as one of her favourite lines and it is just classic.

There is something about the spook trains in this, and the imagery of running around those empty tunnels after smugglers and spook trains as well as camping on the moors, that always seemed like a fun thing to do, to just go off and camp in a beautiful English summer with gorgeous food and everything.

The reason this is nostalgic for me is because I used to listen to it at bedtime and especially when I was ill. These adventures were my company and my comfort blanket and for that I’ll never really forget the story.

2. In the Fifth at Malory Towers

My first interaction with this story was again on cassette tape. I borrowed it from the library and I loved it so much I didn’t want to give it back, my mother had to keep on renewing it.

The fact that the girls get to produce their own pantomime and the fact that we had a case of Gwendoline getting a taste of her own medicine and just the way the story flows and how old all the girls seem. I really wanted to be in that class and having all that fun. It really was a magical story when I was going to sleep and listening to all the fun going on a Malory Towers. One of my all time favourite reads, especially when I grew up and bit and read the whole book, it really came alive for me in a way some of the books didn’t.

1. Five go to Demon’s Rocks

I got given this book for a birthday present and I loved the magical idea that you could live in a lighthouse and having Tinker and Mischief there was an added bonus. The action was a huge part of that book as well, the caves and the storm where Julian almost get knocked out of the lighthouse because he’s trying to hang the bell. It really is a kind of thrilling read that makes the book so fertile for the imagination when you’re six or seven.

I also loved the story that old Jeramiah Boogle told the children about the wreckers and the adventure into the caves to find the gold. Its a very imaginative book, and I’m very glad that Enid Blyton came up with the idea.

What are your favourite nostalgic reads?