My favourite book as a kid - Tintin: The Shooting Star by Hergé
(The Guardian Books Blog)

Despite some dodgy politics, this is an ingenious riff on international rivalry and has an inspiring friendship at its coreThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolationAs a kid I read two kinds of books: cheap, paperback science fiction novels with covers festooned with spaceships and robots, and Hergé´s Adventures of Tintin. How I adored Hergé! Best of all were those Tintin adventures that combined my two passions: The Shooting Star (1941-42), Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon (1950-53) and Flight 714 to Sydney (1966-67).Child-me pored over on these books and their wonderful ligne claire images. Captain Haddock was, I think, the first fictional character I genuinely loved. To this day I maintain that there is real genius in his characterisation, the way his grumpiness and slapstick reinforce rather than erode his splendid courage and comradeship, and the way his character grows, from the cowardly booze-hound we first meet in The Crab With the Golden Claws into something approaching noble. Related: Tintin: Hergé`s masterpiece - in pictures Continue reading...