We hope you enjoyed the three-day summer and got enough sunshine before the autumnal weather arrived at the start of this week.

Don’t worry if the forecast for outside is gloomy, you could strap yourself in for a summer of adventure by lining up a list of classic novels featuring plenty of excitement and escapades.

If derring-do is your thing, then we have plenty of suggestions.

Where better to start than in the 12th century, the setting for Sir Walter Scott’s epic Ivanhoe? This novel has everything, from romance, to medieval jousting to a cameo appearance from Robin Hood, and it blazed a trail for many more adventure novels to follow.

The Three Musketeers is among the greatest of all such adventure novels. The Alexander Dumas classic, which has been adapted into countless TV and movie versions, follows the adventures of D’Artagnan in 17th century France. Library users of a certain age will no doubt also remember the animated canine version, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds!

Speaking of matters canine, Jack London’s Call of the Wild is a great read.

Whatever the temperature outside, you’ll be tempted to wrap up warm as you read the adventures of an enslaved sled dog.

Robert Louis Stevenson, when he wasn’t giving us classic horror, was rather good at adventure novels.

Treasure Island, another that has seen multiple adaptations for the screen, is one of the greatest ever pirate stories, but Kidnapped is also worth a look.

There was a time when Saturday mornings meant black and white television and classic Tarzan films.

Why not check out the original Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and transport yourself into a life where all you need are some friendly apes and a strategically placed piece of cloth?

As we live in a seafaring nation, we should include some naval adventure in this list, so what about Horatio Hornblower? C. S. Forester tracks the career of our hero over 11 rollicking novels, that begin with Lieutenant Hornblower.

One of the masters of more modern adventure has to be Alistair MacLean.

The Guns of Navarone is based on true events and set a new template for war-based adventure, featuring mis-matched teams battling against the odds and at the mercy of betrayal.

No list of adventure classics is complete without mentioning Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe, the British soldier who could have won the Napoleonic Wars on his own. The intricate detail of battles throughout the series of Sharpe novels will appeal to many, while the good old-fashioned stories of bravery, betrayal, love and war, tick all the boxes.

The books were transformed into a hugely successful television series, featuring Sean Bean.

And, of course, for a completely opposite but no less entertaining character, look no further than Flashman, who featured in a series of books by the late George McDonald Fraser, popping up at all sorts of familiar events for acts of, cunning, cowardice, treachery and lechery.

The Family Library is next to the children’s playground in Westmoreland Road, Douglas.

It operates as a charity and also runs the Mobile Family Library and a Schools Service.

To find out more about the services, check out the Family Library page on Facebook, call the library on 640650 or visit familylibrary.im.

by The Family Library

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