Interesting, Splodj. When I have time I'll follow that up.

Thanks for the password advice, Pete. From now on it will be FATTYBURNTCOTTAGE. Then when I forget it I will go onto FATTYDISAPPEARINGCAT. And so on... :D That is the correct edition. Brilliant cover. See the marvellous list of authors' names that Santa is holding. I expect I am on their somewhere. 8)

Thanks, Pete. I had got myself locked out of the Forums through a password mix-up. So I wasn't able to draw attention to a letter in support of Enid Blyton's originality that can be found on p.65 of the Christmas edition of The Spectator. It's a letter that I'm proud of! No plans to dig into other E...

Recent Enid Blyton Society member Chindu Sreedharan has been in Bourne End on trail of the Find Outers. He reports back on what is an interesting Twitter thread. It can be found at @Chindu While I'm at it, can I put out a shout for my own Twitter handle @duncan_mclaren I use this mostly for Evelyn W...

Russell Calvert, who wrote to me last week suggesting that Holmer Green was the real world inspiration for Wilmer Green in Mystery of the Burnt Cottage , has written to me again, this time about a far more fundamental piece of Blyton geography. He has a fascinating theory about where the action of M...

How are you going to achieve that outstanding journey time on Goon's bicycle, Pete? Oh, I see, you're getting a lift in the back of Inspector Jenks's car. Will you and the Find-Outers all fit in? I guess so, with Larry up front with the Chief and Fatty in the boot, disguised as a picnic basket.

Earlier this week a reader emailed me about something I'd missed in Mystery of the Burnt Cottage. Concerning the village of Holmer Green being Wilmer Green in chapter ten. Anyway, if you scroll down-down-down my page to the postscript, you'll see Russell's mail in full: http://enidblyton.me.uk/style...

This reminds me that during my first phase of Enid Blyton reading (mid-1960s) one went to the library for red hardback editions of Famous Five while the bookshop for the colourful paperback covers of Malory Towers, Secret series and Mystery books. This was the first phase of paperbacks for children ...

All true, Irene Malory Towers! I should read the bit about Goon and the babies again. I think I read it too quickly in order to summarise what was going on. Anita, I see what you mean. But Enid gave the scenario a lot of attention. The first scene taking place in Fatty's shed and then the reprise as...

Eddie, it's interesting that this was your intro to the Find-Outers, but sad if - as I think is the case - the series never quite reached the same heights of hilarity again. I wonder how important is the order in which we read Enid Blyton books. And whether we read them in our childhoods or later. I...

This was my favourite Find-Outers book, because of the humour. Have now gone through it with a fine-tooth comb, and its true that colonialist attitudes and class prejudice are present. What a superb book though! The imagery and the complexity and the buzz! (The pram, the button and the State Umbrell...

Have added a chapter-by-chapter summary of this lovely book to my essay. https://bit.ly/3hMRf9T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Have also added historical illustrations from the hardback and paperback editions. But the highlight might be the tribute to Goon at the end. After...

Stanley Spencer often painted the river that runs between Bourne End (Peterswood) and Cookham. This one shows how the Larkins liked to treat swans! Don't know if you can see, but the swans have been tied up so that they can't fly. https://i.imgur.com/me9kKaw.jpg That's Mrs Larkin on the footbridge t...

Thanks Boodi and Lenoir. I might add another 'outro' to this essay. (It's got three already, might as well have a fourth.) So if any reader who is a dog-owner has anything to say about the essay or about the Tally-Ho book, maybe coming from their perspective as a dog lover, then please send me a pho...

Thanks as ever, Eddie...It's now January, Lenoir!...Good to read your personal associations, timv. Odd that Mary Gernat was commissioned to design a cover in 1965 then again just 4 years later. They are both evocative but neither features a little white dog, or a tree-house, two crucial ingredients ...