UKC

This should test the ukc hive mind - I remember reading a book in primary school that I would like to read to my daughter. I read it aged 10ish so that's 1975. It was a fantasy novel and very reminiscent of The Hobbit. I remember more about the physical form of the book - it seemed prodigiously thick to me at that tender age, it had a cover illustration that was grey and I think it had the word grey in the title though even that could be wrong. I remember being very proud to have read such a big book (and it did captivate my youthful imagination).
This question is not easily googleable, which I quite like.

In reply to pasbury:

Little Grey Men?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Grey_Men

In reply to pasbury:

can you remember anything about what happened in it...?

In reply to JJL:

that's the one I was about to suggest

In reply to pasbury:

The Grey King? (Susan Cooper)

It was published in 1975, though it is part of a series so maybe not one you'd read as a standalone book.

In reply to JJL:

It's not that - though it looks interesting

In reply to Alyson:
I don't think it's the Grey King as I don't recall the idea of it being part of a series. I believe it's a really obscure book that has been forgotten.

Also I think more likely to have been published before 1975.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I can't!

All I can really remember is the sheer physical size of the thing - I think I decided to read it as a 9 or 10 yr old just to prove I could read a 'big' book. But I really enjoyed it too.

In reply to pasbury:
Fafhrd And The Gray Mouser? Fritz Leiber.

There were a whole series of these, but there were a couple of very thick omnibus editions published in the early 70s incorporating 2 or 3 books into 1, IIRC, and I think these were sub-titled "Tales of Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser" or similar.

In reply to Rob Naylor:

Cover of one of them:

http://www.stormbringer.net/images/mouser/FafhrdGreyMouser1.gif

In reply to Rob Naylor:

The Wierdstone of Brisingamen ?

In reply to pasbury:

A wizard of earthsea?

In reply to pasbury:


Was it in the Restricted Section?

In reply to Kean:


Ah, there's a memory. Must read that again.

In reply to Kean:


Neither this nor Wierdstone are obscure or very thick! That Graymouser sounds more likely

I'm presuming it want The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

In reply to pasbury:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grey-Mane-Morning-Joy-Chant/dp/0553012002

In reply to pasbury:

Found it yet?

In reply to pasbury:

I had the Puffin Post from 1970-1975. The back cover of these used to show the front covers of a dozen forthcoming titles. I've just gone along memory lane (remember Flat Stanley? the Swallows and Amazons books, the John Christopher titles etc?) and looked at all my surviving copies, but I can't see anything that quite fits your bill.

Might it have been a compendium of Grimm's Fairy Tales? I bought a thick, grey Routledge paperback of this in 1984. or something on a Norse/Greek legends theme by Roger Lancelyn Green/C. Walter Hodges/Rosemary Sutcliff?

Or might it even have been one of the volumes of the Lord of the Rings? Have a look at images of Pauline Baynes illustrations to see if any of them jog your memory.

In reply to Rob Naylor:

No in spite of some excellent suggestions - I'm beginning to doubt my own memory and wondering if it actually was the Hobbit! But I really think I would recognise the cover and it doesn't match any 1970's Hobbit covers.
My memory of the cover is of a grey caped figure e.g. probably a wizard in front of a grey landscape. The size if my memory isn't totally defective is of a hardback about 2 inches thick.

In reply to pasbury:

It's not the prequel to 50 shades of Grey where a young Christian finds a dog lead and tube of KY in his mothers bedside drawer whilst looking for fairies is it?

In reply to pasbury:

Lloyd Alexander - The Book of Three?

It's (I guess) a bit like the Hobbit, the age would be right and it was a big award winner in the 60's and 70's.

Very good it was too from what I remember.