http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/04/24/looking_back.html

Mine would simply have to be Carbonel: The King of Cats by Barbara Sleigh. This trilogy of books enthralled me as a kid, but you don't often hear about them today.

"You may call me Carbonel. That is my name."

Exceptional stuff. Thanks for reminding me, I'm off to buy them!

JB

Yes, lovely stuff, Carbonel, I remember it well. In fact, I've just this morning put a black, blue-eyed cat in the current chapter, and was thinking of him...

She's come up before, but Antonia Forest is shamefully neglected, though Puffin (or OUP?) have just brought Autumn Term out as a Classic. It's the first, but it's not the best.

E H Young is an author who's not as well known now as she should be. Miss Mole is one of my all-time favourite books, and I'm terrified of losing my Virago reprint copy, in case I can't replace it.

Anyone reading this who shares my taste for Young and other such writers from between the wars (Elizabeth Bowen, Margaret Kennedy, Vita Sackville-West, E Arnot Robinson, F Tennyson Jesse) would enjoy a terrific book about them by Nicola Humble: The Feminine Middlebrow Novel 1920s-1950s, pub. OUP I think. I've lent it to my mother, or I'd do the reference properly. Good criticism, both close-reading and putting them in their social context, and - miracle of miracles for modern lit. crit. - really well-written.

Emma

I'd like to add to this The Weirdstone of Brisengamen and other various books by Alan Garner. Favourites when I were a lad...

JB

So many of Muriel Spark's books are neglected, while everyone bangs on about The Prime of Miss JB - look at James Wood's 'tribute' to Spark in the Guardian, he's clearly read practically nothing else of hers. A good part of this so-called tribute is devoted to Nabokov! What about Memento Mori, Loitering with Intent (thank you, Fredegonde!), Symposium, etc, etc?

Frances

p.s. Carbonel - I remember Carbonel!

Ruby M Ferguson's books about Jill and her ponies. Laugh- out-loud funny at times and a must for any horse-mad child, though I still dip into them myself at times (my unpublished book is a sort of updated, true-life Jill affair) - likewise the wonderful Jennings, though perhaps he hardly counts as an unsung hero as he is still seen on many a shelf.

I do read the odd adult book as well - Betty MacDonald's Onions in the Stew and Anybody can do Anything are humour classics as well as a wonderful picture of post-war family life in Seattle and Vashon Island, which they have given me a lifelong desire to visit.

I also loved the Weirdstone of B when I were a lassie, though the chapter where they are crawling on their backs, sometimes downhill, through a narrow crack in the earth for miles on end, makes pretty uncomfortable reading for anyone claustrophobic (if you aren't before you read it, you probably will be afterwards.)

Marianne Dreams, by Catherine Storr

A Dog So Small, by Philippa Pearce

F

Marianne Dreams is a great book. Who can forget the Watchers - shudder.

It had a less well-known follow-up, Marianne and Mark, much less other-wordly but I still enjoyed it.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer(?)

Also Penelope Lively: The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, The Driftway, The House in Norham Gardens. Brilliantly controlled not-quite-fantasy. And her grown-up Booker winner Moon Tiger is wonderful, as long as you've got several hankies to hand.

Emma

Marianne Dreams is a great book. Who can forget the Watchers - shudder.

Yes, the huge stones (with eyes drawn by Marianne) crushing the bicycles - and then the lighthouse beam coming round and the stones crying 'Not the light! Not the light!'

I would add Elizabeth Taylor and Alison Lurie to the list.

Interesting how many of these are children's books.

Another unfairly unknown author is Olivia Manning. You could make a case for her Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy being one of the great neglected series of 20th Century novels, though the quite good TV series did revive interest a bit.

Emma

Might I venture Henry Miller? I was captivated by his Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy when at uni - his novels had so much raw energy, and I was fascinated by his biography. The Oranges of Hyronemous (sp?) Bosch is one of the best travel books written, to my mind.

I've come to read Henry Miller a couple of times but somehow it never happened. I mean, I had Tropic of Cancer but never even turned the cover. Maybe I should.

I got my Weirdstone of Brisengamen copy today. Although it wasn't the 'available' edition I ordered, it actually arrived, mysteriously, as the very edition I read in school. The memories were overwhelming. I think I remembered a whole year of my twelve year old self that I had completely forgotten, so thanks Alan Garner, for that.

JB

Howard Spring, particularly My Son, My Son and Rachel Rosing