It wasn't long before I made the steep climb up the attic stairs to see what treasures I could find, and I quickly spotted a handful of 1970s paperback editions of Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven series.

My eight-year-old is devouring these page turners so quickly that I'm almost tempted to tell him to slow down, but I'm sure my advice would be rejected.

Once you have started these tales, they become rather addictive as I discovered myself, all those years ago.

One of the books I laid my hands on dated back a lot further than the 1970s. One Snowy Night by Emily S Holt was published in 1896 and the pencil inscription on the title page showed that it once belonged to my grandmother, when she was growing up in Preston Park, Brighton. There was a rather attractive floral illustration on the hard cover and the pages were gilt-edged, so I thought it would be worth rebinding.

Languishing on the bookshelf in my old bedroom I spotted one of my old favourites, Papillon by Henri Charriere.

This prisoner's escape story intrigued me when I was a kid, so I thought I would give it another go.

The intro to the 1974 reprint of the 1970 Panther blockbuster was written by the story's translator, Patrick O'Brian, who I presume to be the author of Master and Commander.

O'Brian was the uncle of Count Nicolai Tolstoy, who wrote O'Brian's biography, and lives in Southmoor, near Abingdon. I wonder if the Count has any of the original exercise books that Charriere wrote his gripping story in, and I am tempted to ring him up and ask him.

In Hereford's specialist Oxfam bookshop I spotted a modern edition of Papillon, with the sequel Banco tacked on the end, but I shall wait until I find a separatePanther edition of Banco before I buy the sequel.

There are plenty of good old-fashioned potboilers on the shelves back in Hereford and I selected a trashy-looking 1961 Four Square paperback of Winston Graham's post-war novel Night Without Stars.

The story is set in France and written from the point of view of Giles Gordon, whose eyesight was severely damaged by an exploding shell in the Second World War. It's a good yarn, even if the dialogue now sounds a little dated.

Finally, I have also been enjoying Michael Parkinson's autobiography Parky, despite all the stuff about cricket.

Amazing to think that he was a journalist back in the days of the Suez Crisis.