Alice, who is sitting on a riverbank bored of her sister who is reading a book,sees a white rabbit running past carrying a watch and wearing a coat, and follows it down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world, and here her adventures begin.
She drinks potions and eats cakes and mushrooms growing smaller and larger throughout her adventures as she goes on to meet peculiar talking creatures, is invited to a mad hatters tea party, and plays a game of croquet with flamingoes, hedgehogs and a stack of playing cards !!
I could tell you more, but I'm sure you all know the story, and for those of you who don't ( I can't imagine anyone not knowing ) well I wouldn't want to spoil it for you !
And in the words of Alice .. " it gets curiouser and curiouser ".
(Wonderland - a marvelous imaginary place)
My other favourite author when I was young was Enid Blyton.
I spent hours reading her books, enjoying the stories of The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Brer Rabbit, The St Clare's series, Malory Towers, The Naughtiest Girl series and The Adventures Of The Wishing Chair.
But mostly .. my most favourite Enid Blyton books were, and I would read them over and over again, lost in the words and illustrations and it was almost like I was there (I think I probably was actually) were the series of The Magic Faraway Tree.
WOW these were the best books ever!!
In a magical enchanted forest, there was a magical tree .. The Faraway Tree.
I just loved being up that Magic Tree where there are small houses carved into the big thick trunk, and branches that grow up into the clouds.
In these houses live, amongst others, The Saucepan Man who is covered in saucepans and can't hear properly, Dame Washalot who constantly throws her dirty wash water down the tree, Silky the Fairy with her long golden hair, an angry Pixie, Mr Whatzisname, and not forgetting Moonface, who's face looks like a moon. He lives at the top of the tree and has a slide in his house that runs all the way down to the bottom of the tree !!
And at the top of the tree there is a ladder which has different magical lands on each of our visits !! (ok..the characters visits).
Sometimes these lands are not allways pleasant, like the Land Of Dame Slap who is an aggressive school teacher (In new reprints of these books, she is now called Dame Snap and just shouts at her students, very loudly !! )
Sometimes the lands are very enjoyable, The Land Of Birthdays or The Nursery Rhyme Land.
I always liked the Land of Enchantments, a land of strange lights,colours and shadows, nothing stays the same for a moment because everything shines and moves! Its a beautiful place with little shops where the witches and goblins are selling all sorts of queer and exciting things, like magic cloaks that makes you invisable and silver wands full of magic.
But, you mustn't stay too long else the land will move on taking you with it, and who knows how long it will be before it returns.
Anyway, Jo, Bessie and Fanny discover the tree and it's inhabitants and go on to discover it's magic and have loads of adventures in this series of four books.
So these days I like to read the likes of Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Paul Saul, etc
I've also read, more than once and have still got the series of books, Flowers In The Attic, written by Virgina Andrews. Another of my favourite authors now.
I know, I go from one extreme to the other, I also like to read books that are not fictional, I like to read books that are based on the real life exprencies of the authors.
I might just have to have a dig around in my loft, because I'm sure that somewhere up there I still have my Magic Faraway Tree books, how I used to love getting lost in those, I think it's time to get lost in these again sometime soon, lost in a land of dreams..
