Children's Day: Indian writers on the books they grew up with

Anita Nair is the author of Living Next Door To Alise and Adventures of Nonu the Skating Squirrel among other worksBooks by Enid Blyton Richmal Compton Louisa M Alcott Susan Coolidge Hans Christian Andersen Brothers Grimm Mali Madhavan Nair Premchand Vishnu Sharma RK Narayan among many others remain my favourites Fables of Fun and Fancy by Mali Madhavan Nair is another favourite It is a book I must have read every few I would never tire of itMy earliest memories of reading are of me as an eightyearold girl in pigtails and soda bottle glasses holding a book so close to her nose that she could sniff the old sweet smell of pages A spell is cast by words and pictures of the book The Coral Island Somewhere beyond the suburb she lived in a little military township the fantastic world of the island was waiting for herKhyrunnisa A created the popular comic character Butterfingers for the childrenrsquos magazine Tinkle She has written two childrenrsquos novels Howzzat Butterfingers and Goal ButterfingersEnid Blyton is a favourite because her books were all over the place and of course because they were exciting and interesting Richmal Crompton and her funfilled William series Jerome K Jerome Gerald Durrell PG Wodehouse and Angela Brazilrsquos school books also rate high Abridged classics were also much loved There were others too like Louisa M Alcott Susan Coolidge Edith Nesbit mdash the list is long I enjoyed Jeromersquos Three Men in a Boat and read it repeatedly PG Wodehousersquos A Prefectrsquos Uncle was another favourite as was E Nesbitrsquos The Railway ChildrenI come from a large family I am the youngest of eight children seven of them girls Having so many older sisters all of whom loved reading meant I would get a book only after the others had finished it But that didnrsquot stop us from fighting to keep possession of a book with books tearing in the process mdash very helpful for then we could share the partsJane De Suza is the author of Super Zero and The Spy Who Lost Her HeadAny animal book and of course the William series by Richmal Crompton which became a favourite I also enjoyed The Call of the Wild by Jack LondonI loved wildlife books and enacted the stories out to my dog So there I was a kid and there he was mdash a dragon a wolf or a stallion Most oftesn he just fell asleep in the middle of my dramaRanjit Lal is the author of Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet and Other Stories When Banshee Kissed Bimbo and Other Bird Stories among other worksSome of my memorable books not in order of preference include The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy The William series by Richmal Crompton The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens The Malgudi Swamy stories by RK Narayan and Gerald Durrellrsquos booksI enjoyed Enid Blytonrsquos adventure and mystery series too but couldnrsquot stop wondering why she went on and on about sunny days and potted meat sandwichesSamit Basu is the author of the series The Adventures Of Stoob and Turbulence among other worksAlice in Wonderland Sukumar Rayrsquos work and The Lord of the Rings Each of these books made me want to read more and write myself and were a fundamental part of the lifelong ambition of being a writerThe ability of books to get inside your brain and make it fizz is unparalleled