Riding a broomstick was no easy matter, as I have mentioned before. First, you ordered the stick to hover, and it hovered lengthways above the ground. Then you sat on it, gave it a sharp tap, and away you flew. Once in the air you could make the stick do almost anything by saying, 'Right! Left! Stop! Down a bit!' and so on. The difficult part was balancing, for if you leaned a little too far to one side you could easily overbalance, in which case you would either fall off or find yourself hanging upside-down and then you'd have to hold on with your skirt over your head until a friend came to your rescue.

From 'The Worst Witch' by Jill Murphy. Text copyright © Jill Murphy 1974.
Published in Puffin Books 1978.