#TheBooksOfMyYoungerShelf – Our favourite childhood books!

This Christmas, the staff at Miles Kelly are thinking about the types of books they liked when they were children, and how their adult tastes have developed over the years from their favourite childhood books.

Here's what some of the staff at Miles Kelly said when thinking about #TheBooksofMyYoungerShelf...

I liked children’s adventure books, especially anything written by Enid Blyton because I was a bit of a tomboy when I was young. Sandra, Sales Manager 

Well I had literally hundreds of books as a child, my Dad was a bookbinder, so we got blank dummies and my sisters and I wrote our own stories. The most beautiful book which I still have is Alice in Wonderland, the illustrations are beautiful and I love the binding – however I never liked the story – it freaked me out! So my favourite storybook was There was an old woman who swallowed a Fly. All my nieces and nephews have received this book from me because I loved it so much, and they do too! Liz, Production Manager

I loved picture books because I was always copying the illustrations as I loved drawing. Joe, Design Manager 

When I was really young I liked basic rhyming books and ones that I could easily memorise! One of my favourite books was When the Sun Rose because the illustrations were so beautiful, even now that always comes to mind when I think of my favourite children’s book. When I was a child, I always liked stories about children going off and having adventures, I think I’ve taken that through to adulthood with my love of travelling. Caroline, Assistant Production Manager

I liked a mixture of books when I was younger, I liked to read lots of fact books as well as classic stories and fairytales. This has gone into adulthood when reading classic fiction at university, although I have to admit that any non-fiction reading is just done on the internet now but if I want to know something, I have to know immediately! Katie, Marketing Assistant

#TheBooksofMyYoungerShelf were a complete jumble of everything, but my sister and I especially liked stories about children getting into trouble – Just William, The Worst Witch and What Katy Did were all read and re-read many times. I was a terribly well-behaved bookworm-type, so these books probably offered me what all good books offer: escapism! Rosie, Editorial Director

I grew up reading Peter and Jane books when I was at school. For some reason the book Danger Men has always stuck in my mind. Like most children, I’m guessing, I liked the idea that when I grew up I would be spending most of my time doing loads of dangerous and crazy things. Steph, Reprographics Manager

I always remember one time though that my Dad went to Blackpool on a Pub Trip and brought me back a book of Sherlock Holmes stories. I still have it somewhere as I would never throw it out. That book had pride of place on my shelf although I never read it. About 4 years later I watched and enjoyed a Sherlock Holmes film on the telly. This prompted me to get the book down from the shelf. Over the course of the Summer holidays one year I read the whole book. I would've been about 12 or 13 at the time. I loved it so much. I still love Sherlock Holmes stories. That book got me started in reading. Our local council used to sell off all the old library books at a sale every year. I used to go down with an old Crisp box to buy as many as I could (they were 10p a paperback). By the time I left home a few years later I had hundreds of books in my room. It is only recently (20 years later) that my Mum has twisted my arm to have a clear out. Every night before I sleep I read for half an hour, and I try to read a full book a week. Ross, Sales Consultant

I liked books about young children, and some of my favourites were Matilda, The Secret Garden and Goodnight Mr Tom. I also loved books with magic and mystery. Maybe this is what inspired my adult obsession with the Harry Potter books. I also loved animal stories, and even now I love natural history books and documentaries. Sarah, Senior Editor

I always loved the Brothers Grimm stories when I was little because my Dad would read a story a night to me before I went to sleep and I always loved being read to. I will always remember looking at the pictures that accompanied each story, trying to imagine these stories coming to life. As a result, all through my childhood and into adult life I have loved reading books and being able to step into some other imaginary, or not so imaginary world, for five minutes to an hour. Sean, Foreign Rights Executive

I used to read a lot of Famous Five and Secret Seven stories – I think I liked the idea of being part of a crime-busting gang! My friends and I even had a club house and secret passwords, and we were always inventing adventures and mysteries to solve. Perhaps I should’ve been a policewoman, but crime fiction (and crime TV drama) is definitely still my guilty pleasure! Fran, Editor