George would love it - their lock down would go on and on! Timmy would keep anybody from getting too close. Uncle Quentin would be in the 'at risk' category but maybe he would find the cure and save the whole world.

You would still have a wide angles shot but with only three or four in it all very well scattered! I wonder how the Famous Five would have dealt with it - perhaps they would have self isolated as a group on Kirrin Island.

Dear Katharine

That is interesting - measles was very serious and we were certainly not allowed anywhere near children who had been exposed to it. yes of course Enid used it quite a few times as a plot device - a few cases where children were kept away from school to 'build them up'.

Yes you could not imagine us all standing 6 feet apart and queuing to enter the venue and only 20 being allowed into the building at any one time!

An interesting aspect of Enid's books is how often the children and even parents go into lock down due to having an infectious disease. This was the England of the 1940s and even the 1950s when every illness could lead to very serious complications. I remember the very real fear we had of Polio and ...

Happy Birthday and may the year ahead be happier still.

I think I have seen Camp Coffee in Waitrose, Pete, although the retired British Indian Army Officers who buy it are now very ancient and vulnerable and get first entry in the queue, so you might find it has sold out!

The latest news from my local corner shop (Waitrose) is that the staff were bored yesterday as only 20 people were in the shop at any one time. Must be the safest place to go for a walk!

I hope she realised she was talking to Lord Peter of Blyton!

Thank you for all the welcomes and wishes from dear forumites. Izzy and I are safe and well - with Waitrose 3 minutes walk away we are privileged. I know the security guard well now and in the first hour I sometimes tell him who to let in! I do get to chat to some of the people in the queue and joke...

Thanks Pete and best wishes and safety to you and all your family and also to all the forumites and their families.

The only consolation to all this is that I get to chat to people as I wait to get into Waitrose every morning! It really is my 'corner shop' as it is a few hundred yards away. I go most days as I buy mainly fresh food and only a few items. I notice that the range of products is very limited now and ...

It's amazing how many 1950s English films appear on this channel. I watched 'Double Confession' which was packed full of scenes from Hastings and Bexhill probably from the long hot summer of 1949. Must have been interesting for the local inhabitants seeing Peter Lorre!

Dear Chrissie You won't be disappointed in Rye or the Mermaid Inn. As for ghosts, about 20 years ago a group of us on a course stayed in a very old inn in Peterborough and a young New Zealand lady reported the next morning that she had seen the ghost of a young woman. The owners of the Inn then told...

Thank you Chrissie. Hope you are planning another foray in the UK soon!

I enjoyed the 'Gay Dolphin' especially the secret passage although the castle (Camber Castle) was not up to Enid's standard. You must visit Rye, Chrissie and perhaps stay at the Mermaid Inn.