Nostalgia over my Sixth Form years

I have kept two pages, torn from a Desk Diary, of a long list of Books read during (from January) my first Year Sixth (now Y12) and up to December of my second Year Sixth (Y13). Whether I read them all or not I am not sure; but nearly all of them have a tick besides their title.

Some I remember well (I have many of the books now); of others only a dim recollection remains.

1.   Tess of the D’Urbervilles (sad, V,G.)                 Thomas Hardy  

2.   Voss  (didn’t like it)                                            Patrick White       

3.   The Abbot                                                           Sir Walter Scott   

4.   Inspector West Cries Wolf  (Good)                     John Creasey       

5.   The Splendid Fairing  (Good)                             Constance Holme   

6.   Taras Bulba                                                          Nikolai Gogol       

7.   The Betrothed  (V. Good)                                    Alessandro Manzoni  
8.   Persuasion                                                            Jane Austen         

9.   The Old Road From Spain                                   Constance Holme  

10. A Farewell to Arms (Good)                                 Ernest Hemingway 

11. Inspector West Alone  (Good)                             John Creasey       

12. The Infamous Army  (Good)                               Georgette Heyer    

13. The Lost King  (Good)                                         Rafael Sabatini     

14. Sir Francis Drake                                                  J.A. Williamson       

15. The Private Life of Charles II                               Barbara Cartland                

16. Local Government                                                L. Golding              

17. The Reluctant Widow  (Good)                             Georgette Heyer

18. The Hermit of Ivry  (Fairly Good)                        M.R. H---                

19. Kenilworth                                                            Sir Walter Scott   

20. The Bright Sword  (Good)                                    Donald Chidsay   

21. Leopards and Lilies  (Very Good)                        Alfred Duggan     

22. John Burnet of Barns  (V.V. Good)                       John Buchan         

23. The Lady For Ransom  (Good)                             Alfred Duggan     

24. Flight to Arras  (Complex)                                    A de St. Exupery              

25. The Abbess of Vlaye                                             Stanley Weyman    

26. Geoffrey the Lollard                                              Frances Eastwood  

27. A Gentleman of France                                         Stanley Weyman    

28. Knight with Armour                                              Alfred Duggan  

29. Gentlemen in Black  (Poor)                                   Stanley Weyman

30. Katherine  (Extremely Good)                                Anya Seton

31. The Silver Chalice  (Very Good)                           Thomas Costain

32. A Prince for Inspector West                                   John Creasey

33. Ninety-three  (Good)                                              Victor Hugo

34. To Let  (Dull but Good)                                          John Galsworthy

35. Loving                                                                     Henry Greene

36. Cranmer & the Eng. Reformation                           F. Hutchinson

37. A Scholar of Lindisfarne                                         Gertrude Hollis

38. The Bishop’s Jaegers                                              Thorne Smith

39. John Knox                                                               Edwin Muir

40. My Lady Rotha                                                       Stanley Weyman

41. Under the Red Robe                                               Stanley Weyman

42. St. George For England                                          G.A. Henty

43. Diamonds are Forever                                             Ian Fleming

44. Richelieu                                                                 Richard Lodge

45. Gustavus Adolphus                                                 Cyril Fletcher

46. Long Will                                                                Florence Converse

47. Frenchman’s Creek                                                 Daphne du Maurier

48. The King’s General                                                 Daphne du Maurier

49. Barchester Towers                                                  Anthony Trollope

50. Hard Times                                                             Charles Dickens

51. Wuthering Heights                                                  Emily Brontë

52. Fortune’s Fool                                                         Rafael Sabatini

53. Midwinter                                                                John Buchan

54. The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell                         Maurice Ashley

55. Hatter’s Castle                                                         A.J. Cronin

56. Montrose                                                                 C.V. Wedgwood

John Creasey and Georgette Heyer were still regulars; Sir Walter Scott, Constance Holme, Alfred Duggan, Stanley Weyman and John Buchan were later to become authors I would collect in earnest.  I remember I hated Voss and found Galsworthy tedious. 

  

I shall be blogging about several of them during this year (Hard Times already). Others I have re-read in the last couple of years are the two Constance Holme novels The Splendid Fairing and The Old Road from Spain; Manzoni's The Betrothed;  Trollope's Barchester Towers; and John Buchan's Midwinter.