Growing up with the Supernatural

Last night in bed I was thinking how it was inevitable that if I ever wrote it would be about the supernatural. I've always been entranced by the idea of other-worldly beings. The books from my childhood that stand out as favourites confirm that.

The earliest books I can remember my mum reading with me were Enid Blyton's 'Enchanted Wood' series. A fabulous trio of books about 3 children who have adventures in a magical world at the top of the tallest tree in a magical wood, which is inhabited by fairies, bad tempered pixies, evil goblins and elves! I love these books and still have the originals which I read to my 6yr old daughter who now loves them as much as me!

A year or so later I remember loving Jill Murphy's 'The Worst Witch' series. These fun books are about a girl called Mildred Hubble who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. Mildred is clumsy and unlucky and 'things' always go wrong for her, leading her into troublesome adventures.

I also loved all the girls boarding school stories of course; the likes of Malory Towers, St Clares & The Chalet School books but if given the choice I would have always chosen witch school over regular boarding school adventures!

Of course a year or so later I found Roah Dahl and my new favourite books were The BFG and 'The Witches', which is actually rather terrifying! For those who haven't read the somewhat disturbing delights of Roah Dahl the BFG stands for the Big Friendly Giant, who is the only giant in 'giantland' that doesn't eat children for dinner; and who with the help of a little girl who rides around in his ear, plot to stop the other giant's terrifying antics!

'The Witches' is a terrifying tale of witches who disguise there disgusting club feet, claw-like fingers and bald scabby heads and disguise themselves as nice ladies. The tale is about a boy and his grandmother who discover the witches at a convention where they are plotting to kill all children!

                                                     
The last childhood books that stick in my memory are Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and C.S.Lewis' 'Chronicals of Narnia' series, and as a teenager I adored Christopher Pike's YA supernatural horror stories! So you can see that even from an early age my reading was very much stuck in the fantastical, supernatural and imaginative. The worst offense on any of my school reports was pretty much always the same, 'too much daydreaming'!