I'm looking for some classic English children's books.

My fiancé says that there is very little that she knows about my background or England and wants to collect some classical British children's books. (My father took all of the photos of us a kids when my mum divorced him and my step mother burnt them all, so there are no pictures of me as a child left,)

A friend of hers had the "Wind in the Willows" and she loved that, so we bought that, the Secret Garden and Peter Rabbit.

Other books I can think of are:
Thomas the Tank Engine, although over here it is only know through the diabolical tv series)
The little train that could
Gumdrop
The Famous Five
The Secret Seven
Roald Dahl's books
Rupert the bear
Winnie the Pooh
Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons series

Those are the ones that come to mind, but can anyone else suggest British children's books that were popular in the 70s and early 80s?

I always preferred Enid Blyton's Adventure series when I was a child.

Do Asterix books count?
Watership Down.
The Hobbit

Obviously there were lots of one off books that aren't famous too.

The immediate one that springs to mind is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but that comes under Ronald Dahl.

Also the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe & Narnia Chronicles

Little Women was also popular when I was young.

Anne of Green Gables
Railway Children
Black Beauty
Treasure Island
Peter Pan
The Secret Garden
Jungle Book
Aesop's Fables
Swallows and Amazons
Water Babies
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Charles Dickens
Robinson Crusoe

How about the Hobbit and LOTR?
Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.
When I was a kid my parents had lots of books and I would read anything I could get my hands on, I suppose these are for teenagers really but i read the Hobbit when I was 8. Myths and legends is always a good read.

I liked books by Dick King Smith as a child too, Foxbusters being my favourite.

Asterix doesn't count, as it was French, but some great suggestions there. Thanks

I forgot about Stig. I'd already told her about Narnia, but forgot to put it in the list.

The Hobbit is certainly in, but I have that already. Lotr is probably more adult as child, I certainly never managed to get all the way through it as a child.

I guess none of my suggestions were useful then lol

Doch doch. Some very good suggestions. I hadn't thought of Black Beauty or Peter Pan, for example. Water Babies and Treasure Island as well.

I never read the book Waterbabies, but as I child I thought the film was excellent.

The 'Stay excatly where you are......' line is still one of my Mum's favourite film quotes.;

Wind In The Willows? I definitely read that when I was a child. *poop-poop*

Swallows and Amazons
TinTin

Tintin. Not "TinTin" or "Tin Tin".

The Molesworth books - as any fule kno.

Tin Tin is not English.