I’ve already shown you most of my Blyton collection, as well as my Harry Potter books and some other stuff. So here are the last of my Blytons and then some other vintage children’s book.

The last of the Blytons

These fall into two main categories: school series, and stand-alone titles. Most of the stand-alones are family titles though some are young family and others are for older children. Then at the end are some random non-Blytons.

From the left;

Shadow the Sheep Dog (because it is tall…) then three Naughtiest Girl books, the six Malory Towers titles and the six St Clare’s books, plus Mischief at St Rollos which although a Mary Pollock title is also set in a school.

Younger family type stand alones are Snowball the Pony, Four in a Family, Run About’s Holiday (which should probably be shelved with the fantasy books), Four in a Family, The Very Big Secret and The Boy Who Wanted a Dog.

Then stand alone family books for older children, Holiday House (arguably a bit more of an adventure title than a family one), The Put-Em-Rights, The Six Bad Boys, The Family at Red Roofs, House-at-the-Corner, Hollow Tree House, Those Dreadful Children, The Happy House Children (probably for younger children.)

I have a spreadsheet to track my Blytons, organised by general genre (adventure, family, farm, school etc). There are lots of series, so those books are easy to categorise but with the stand-alones I use the categories in the Cave of Books. I’ve noticed, though, that my shelves don’t match the spreadsheet, as book shelving has more factors than just categories. Book depth and height are important as they affect the way the shelves look, too tall or too deep and a book can hide its neighbour. Thickness is less important but I think books look better when they’re roughly the same size.

Space on a shelf is also a factor, as you don’t want a series split across two shelves. Then there’s colour, spine style, dustjackets… it’s a bookish minefield!

Anyway, the non-Blytons on this shelf are;

The Prince and the Goblin by George MacDonald (one of Blyton’s favourite childhood books), The Nursery Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne, Kristie at College and Dangerous Deadline by Mildred Benson (one of the first writers of the Nancy Drew books).

On the front of the shelf are;

A cassette tape of The Sound of Music soundtrack. I’ve never listened to this, actually, as I don’t have a tape player! I got this when my great uncle died and I helped to clear out his house. I just thought it was a nice cover, I love the film, and when I see it on my shelf I remember him.

A copy of Hello Mary Mouse, my first picture strip book which my mum bought in a local antiques shop for me.

A canvas of a stag’s head made by my mother in law. It rather obscures the books behind it, but it’s one of those items that gets moved around regularly as Brodie is forever knocking it down.

On top of the books ar four slim volumes;

Santa Claus Gets Busy (A Wheaton musical play for juniors), The Enchanted Village (about Bekonscot), and two Adventures in Reading by the Oxford University Press. These are on top as they are such slim paperbacks they would get lost otherwise.

A mostly Malcolm Saville shelf

At least two thirds of this shelf are Malcolm Saville books, followed by some random titles by various authors from a similar time period.

Here is the full Lone Pine series by Malcolm Saville. Most of them are original harbacks, but two of the later ones are Girls Gone By reprints, and the last one is an Armada paperback as that was the first edition. Then there are the radio play scripts of the first three books (in the wrong order, I now notice.) Next to those is a stand alone title The Master of Maryknoll.

Then there are two of the Cherry Ames nursing series by Helen Wells, and The Hidden Valley Mystery by the same author.

Next is Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne (another of Blyton’s favourite childhood books).

Lastly a few school books by two famous authors in the genre – The School on the Moor and An Exciting Term by Angela Brazil, and Song of the Abbey by Elsie J. Oxenham.

In front of the books are;

A postcard showing Ingles Farm, and a lone pine cone picked up by Brodie somewhere.

Next time I will show you the rest of my children’s books.