Books that I read in 1963

In 1963 I started keeping my first diary, a tiny one with little space per day. In late March I turned 9 years old, and in late September I went to boarding school for the first time, upon which I stopped keeping a diary, and didn’t restart until 1967.

In my diary, I sometimes noted the titles of books that I was reading, and here they are below in alphabetical order by author. The list is incomplete: sometimes I just noted “Books”, or something vague such as “Hornblower” or “Gerald Durrell”. If I noted a book, I presumably started reading it, but didn’t necessarily finish it in all cases.

Some of the books probably belonged to my mother, others came from a library or may have been bought for me. There’s some fantasy here, but no science fiction: a taste I developed a bit later.

AuthorTitleDate
AdamsonBorn free1960
AdamsonElsa1961
AldousThe Tendrills in Australia1959
AllinghamSweet danger**1933
AtkinsonGreyfriars Bobby1912
BattenThe singing forest1958
BrownThe swish of the curtain1941
BuchanGreenmantle1916
BuchanHuntingtower**1922
BurnettThe secret garden1911
BurnfordThe incredible journey1960
CuleBarfield’s blazer and other school stories1900
DefoeRobinson Crusoe1719
DurrellThe Bafut Beagles1954
DurrellThe drunken forest1956
FalknerMoonfleet1898
ForesterThe happy return**1937
ForesterThe commodore**1945
GreenThe saga of Asgard1960
HaggardAyesha1905
HughesTom Brown’s schooldays1857
Hull & WhitlockCrowns1947
KiplingAll the Mowgli stories**1895
KiplingStalky & Co.**1899
LewisThe magician’s nephew1955
LloydFell farm campers1960
LoftingDoctor Dolittle’s circus1924
MacDougallMacadam and Eve1950 play
MainwaringMurder in pastiche1955
MasefieldThe midnight folk**1927
MaxwellRing of bright water1960
OrczyThe Scarlet Pimpernel1905
PowerRedcap runs away1952
RansomeSwallowdale**1931
RansomeWe didn’t mean to go to sea**1937
RansomeMissee Lee*1941
RansomeThe Picts and the Martyrs**1943
ShakespeareHamlet*1601 play
StreatfeildTennis shoes1937
StreatfeildCurtain up1944
StreatfeildParty frock1945
SwiftGulliver’s travels1726
UstinovThe love of four colonels1951 play
UttleyThe country child1931
VerneyFriday’s tunnel1959
WhiteMistress Masham’s Repose*1946
WilliamsElephant Bill1950
WyssThe Swiss family Robinson1812

* I have the book now on paper

** I have the book now on Kindle