Down memory lane to visit The Famous Five

When you're young, it's a chore spring cleaning your room, but when you're past 20, it can be a joy. I moved out of home last year and mum decided she wants all of us to tidy up our wardrobes and put everything in boxes so she can take all of our crap out of her wardrobe and put it into ours. So I finally went down and spent half a day tidying and the other half of the day saying, "oh my gosh I remember this!"

So in between the Polly Pockets, baby dolls, teddy bears, princess crowns and Britney Spears CD's, I came across my eight-year-old self's answer to Diana Gabaldon: Enid Blyton, author of The Famous Five.

I remember my friend at primary school (who was a little bit kooky, and my only friend who read books as much as me) introducing me to the books, and after that I was hooked, somehow managing to collect about 15 of them, all of which I found tucked away in a box I had forgotten about.

And I never knew how old they were - can you believe they were first published in the forties?!

So for those of you not familiar, the Famous Five were a group of children, siblings Julian, Dick and Anne, and their tom-boy cousin George and her dog Timmy, who had the sort of adventures most kids dream about and solved mystery after mystery.

When I have my own house with a big enough bookcase, they will definitely be going on display. Do you think my future kids would read them one day? Not quite the same as Twilight, but you never know...

Also found these little gems: The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and The Bubblegum Tree by Alexander McCall Smith.

So what books did you read as a kid?