The Animals of Farthing Wood

What was your favourite book as a child?

Mine was The Animals of Farthing Wood. It was the first book I ever bought myself - and at £3.99 it was a month's worth of pocket money. I knew it was worth it though. My teacher had already read it to the class and he would let us watch the BBC TV series to coincide with the chapter we had just read. The magazine Farthing Wood Friends was out then as well and he would buy the magazine and bring it into school, lining them up along the chalk shelf on the black board and we were allowed to read through and play with the sticker board whenever we had free time.

I loved The Animals of Farthing Wood and Mole was my favourite because he was so cute in the cartoon. Now Adder is my favourite because he's sarcastic and a bit evil.

I've read TAOFW many times over the years, usually every year or two. When The Jellyfish was a baby, I bought an omnibus of books of White Deer Park (where the animals journey to) and waited seven years to read it with her.

Before that, we obviously read the original, starting with an illustrated, condensed version I'd bought when she was around five. A year later we read the proper version, reading a chapter each night before bed.

I still love TAOFW as much now as I did as a ten year old and I loved sharing the story with my daughter. I've also become a bit obsessed. Remember the magazines I mentioned? A couple of years ago I started collecting them from eBay and have most of them now. A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of 100+ stickers from eBay and am considering bidding on a jigsaw.

It's a great story and the best £3.99 I've ever spent.