When I was ten, my favourite books were… Guest Blog by Mel Greenwood

My guest blog today is by Mel Greenwood from one of my favourite bookshops, Drake The Bookshop in Stockton on Tees.


Black Beauty by Anna Sewell  
Like lots of young girls I was completely obsessed with horses, and would continually badger my mum to let me take horse riding lessons. Unfortunately the money to pay for lessons was not immediately forthcoming, so until such times I read everything I could about horses, so that I could be fully prepared for a life filled with horse riding excellence once I was able to display my hidden horse riding talents.
The book is written in the voice of the horse Black Beauty and tells of his life as a youngster in the countryside and then as a badly treated work horse in the city, pulling a carriage. I remember feeling really strongly about his mistreatment and hard life. It strengthened my resolve to become a brilliant horse-women. I did eventually get my wish to start riding lessons, but unfortunately my riding skills fell somewhat short and I was not singled out for horse-riding superstardom. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy bumbling along every Saturday on the fattest pony in the stables.


Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dhal
This story features a young boy, Danny and his dad, who live in a caravan and hatch a plan to foil the local rich land-owner’s plans to host a massive pheasant shooting event. The plans go dreadfully wrong and Danny has to drive his Dad’s car in the middle of the night to come to the rescue.
This book continues to be my favourite Roald Dhal story. There are no magic, or wizards or talking animals, it’s just a warm-hearted story of a man and his son taking on the bad guys and winning. When I was ten, it felt like the sort of adventure that could happen to anyone. That’s what sparked my imagination – as a family we spent all our holidays in a caravan and I could see it as the sort of adventure that was definitely waiting just around the corner, especially if you were living in a caravan.


Drake The Bookshop is the regional winner of the Independent Bookshop of the Year 2019 Awards. Find out more about our award-winning local bookshop at www.drakethebookshop.co.uk.