I really don't think Julian or Dick would at all have been the kind of boy to bully you, or other "swotty" types - they were just too decent and fair to be like that - even though they may have talked like that on occasion, as in that dialogue you cited. You know how boys talk big at time...

Sporty infers Dick is into sports Possibly the description was aiming for a broader kind of differentiation, perhaps "sporty vs. bookish", the type of differentiation clearly implied by the following passage from Chapter 1 of FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER: "I never liked Willis or Johnson ...

I am very intrigued by the below statements, taken together: Daisy: My copy is the eleventh edition 1954. [I am presuming that by "edition", Daisy means "impression".] Daisy: I made a special note of watching out for James/Alf when reading the book this time. After using James on...

Re: the Alf/James conundrum. Back in September, I asked if anyone had an edition of FOATI where "Alf" is called "James" in Chapter 3. Nobody was familiar with such an edition at the time. If I understand correctly, two of you (MJE, Daisy) have stated in this thread that "Alf...

I forgot there might actually be one or two readers of Icelandic here, so there you are: http://notendur.hi.is/~eybjorn/blyton/ff01_ice.html This is basically a comparison of the original Icelandic translation (1957) and the "modernized" one (2005). Nothing drastic - in most cases I agree ...

This may be of interest regarding text changes: http://notendur.hi.is/~eybjorn/blyton/ff01_eng.html It's only the first 4 pages (or so) but gives a good idea of what (and how much) has been changed. Left column: Text from 1964 edition, which I'm assuming is identical to the first edition (if not, I'...

Yes, Anita, indeed! The only question I can think of asking is: Does anyone here own a first printing of the first edition of the book? And if they do, could they do me the huge favour of checking Chapter 3, just to make sure "Alf" is mentioned by that name, and no other? It's about 2 page...

Anita, thanks for the reply. It now turns out that the problem is even odder than I thought. In the Icelandic translation, the character of Alf is only called "Jimmi" when first mentioned, in Chapter 3. Next time he is mentioned by name is Chapter 8, where he mysteriously becomes "Álf...

Obviously, I must be quite unable to express myself in English, because my letter has been thoroughly misunderstood. As far as I know, I did not make any comments about the name change as such - as far as I'm concerned, EB could have changed the names of all her characters as often as she wanted, it...

To all and sundry: As is well known, the character Alf (in Five on a Treasure Island, 1940) changes his name to James five books later. I'm studying the Icelandic translation of FoaTI (1957), and I'm 100% sure it is based on the original edition, or an edition which is identical for all practical pu...

MJE: If you're not looking for absolute first editions, you can sometimes find some quite decent stuff on Amazon.co.uk. I recently bought a very decent copy (with dust jacket) of THE FAMOUS FIVE BIG BOOK (containing the full text, with illustrations, of the first three FF books) for 15 pounds. This ...

Dear all, I am not qualified to join this hello/hiya discussion, but you might be interested to know that Young-Un/Young 'Un/Young Un (in the Rilloby Fair Mystery) says: "Hiya! Come to watch my hair being singed?" He also says "Garn!" and "Naw!" and "Aw shucks!&quo...

Eysteinn wrote: All italics have been systematically removed from the text - in the 9 chapters I've compared I only found one case where they were kept, and suspect this was simply an oversight. Michael: No excuse - professional editors shouldn't do something like this by oversight. Don't they have...

Michael: Don't *do* that (italics removed - represented here by asterisks according to plain-text convention) All italics have been systematically removed from the text - in the 9 chapters I've compared I only found one case where they were kept, and suspect this was simply an oversight. As EB is V...

Anita: I'd certainly be interested to have a look at that, Eysteinn. Here you are, Anita: http://notendur.hi.is/eybjorn/blyton/rilloby_preview.html This is from the first 9 chapters of the book only. Please keep in mind this is a job in progress, so it is a bit rough. If something isn't clear to yo...