The thing was, I went from hating the boys' adventure stories that my parents would give me, straight to devouring their adult books, leaving out a huge swathe of classic children's literature along the way. It's only relatively recently that I've tried to go back and find out what I missed.

Thanks for those ideas. I don't think I'd realised just how keen everyone round here was! It sounds as though I should maybe read Ballet Shoes, and then I'll go on to White Boots after that.