The Enid Blyton Society

happy belated birthday... fantastic site and happy new year 2010 have fun julie (jo)

Great Anniversary and many thanks for those that have maintained this great website for the past half-decade. In fact, at the backcover of my book, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage, it is one of the four great websites higly recommended for those that want to know more about Enid Blyton.

Stephen Isabirye

Enikyoga wrote:Great Anniversary and many thanks for those that have maintained this great website for the past half-decade. In fact, at the backcover of my book, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage, it is one of the four great websites higly recommended for those that want to know more about Enid Blyton.

Top marks for getting your book-title in every post, Stephen!

Incidentally, are there more than four "great websites" devoted to Blyton?

What are the other three? Keith's site I presume but the others? The Yahoo group maybe?

Heathers Blyton Pages is/are pretty good, although it has not been updated in a long time. I was sure I read somewhere it was to be merged with Keith's Site? Or was that a dream. Then theres Michaels book listing which is fairly indepth..... can't think of any others though.

Lucky Star wrote:What are the other three? Keith's site I presume but the others?

I don't know. We will have to buy "The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage" to find out.

Moonraker,
The backcover of my book contains what I consider to be the four hottest Enid Blyton-related websites, notably:

http://www.enidblyton.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.heathersblytonpages.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.gingerpop.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is true there are many Enid Blyton-related websites, reading groups (the last time I counted 17 Enid Blyton-related Yahoo reading groups!!!), blogs, etc. Surely, I cannot list all of them at the back of my back as they have to compete with other details such as the abstract as well as summarized information about myself. In fact, I am glad that the publisher managed to squeeze the four websites neatly at the back of the book. in fact, they happen to be placed in the middle of the backcover page. That would enable any reader, including, and maybe especially those that have never heard of Enid Blyton to access these sites. usually, whneever, I discuss Enid Blyton in the media, usually i jot the first two beneath my message since they are the most frequently updated and above all they are well-maintained by our resourceful, skilled and talented Keith Robinson. As for Heathers Website (http://www.heathersblytonpages.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), though it is not updated regularly, it contains very invaluable (very valuable) information about, for instance, illustrators. Though Heather no longer can maintain or update that website on a regular basis, some of us resisted the idea of quashing the website due to the aforementioned valuable information. As for Viv's website (http://www.gingerpop.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), that one is also a very valuable source of information not only about her shop but also Dorset which as we all know played center-part in many of Enid Blyton's most renown series such as The Famous Five. As for my book, cropping up in a coiple of discussions, it seems I cannot help since many of the topics currently discussed in this forum and elsewhere have been touched upon in one way or the other in the book. In the future, what I may plan on doing to avoid mentioning the book on the regular basis is to discuss an issue in that topic ( I will not mention my book), then shortly afterwards I could discuss or expand on it in The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage segment (after citing where in the multifarious discussion segments I have got it from). Moonraker had earlier suggested the idea, but due to the nature of the topics discussed and the fleeting time we have it would be difficult to follow the thread of arguments transplanted from one topic or the other, without losing the reader. Anyway, I will give this idea my best shot.
Stephen Isabirye

Humble apologies Viv that I did not include your site in my guesses there!!

Groan.

I love looking at websites (and I spend more time here than any other - thanks to all who keep it going) but I hate maintaining my own. I'm of the view that technology is a wondeful thing (when it works) and whilst my brother has a doctorate in something to do with computers, I can't even update the message on the Ginger Pop Shop answer-phone at Corfe because I've lost the instruction manual...

Updating both the Ginger Pop and Eileen Soper websites is on my to-do list for this month, so it may get looked at before Easter.

Viv

What I like about the Ginger Pop site is that it’s not just a site, there is a real place behind it and one can go there and visit and try some of the activities.
Is the castle covered in snow now?

Hi Lenoir,

I'm in Poole today, and I've just walked down to the end of the Quay, from where there is a view of the castle over the harbour. As far as I can see, Purbeck looks frosted, but not snowy.

Have you seen the NASA picture of frozen Britain? It shows just 2 green spots on the south coast - Weymouth (20 miles west of here), and the area around Poole Harbour. It sounds sort of ungrateful to be moaning about lack of snow given the chaos in the rest of the country, but I would like to go sledging just once this winter!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8447023.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best wishes

Viv

Ok thanks Viv, and that image sums up the weather. I can see why Aunt Fanny thought it a good idea to keep a stockpile of tinned food in the cupboard!

Lenoir wrote:I can see why Aunt Fanny thought it a good idea to keep a stockpile of tinned food in the cupboard!

I was shopping in the supermarket a few days ago and wondered if I should get a few more tins. I then realised I was turning into my mother I decided not to bother but as it is now snowing heavily again, I may regret that decision.

shadow wrote:I then realised I was turning into my mother

Bet she would be delighted.

This reminds me of another incident that took place two days ago at my nephew's first birthday party. His dad, my second cousin, was something of a "baby in the family" for people my mum's age, but we younger folks looked up to him. He wouldn't care at all though when his youngest cousins would start crying just 2 years ago even, even after his marriage. Now that he's a dad though, it's all changed drastically. At the part Aarham asked for a balloon and because it was far too high for him to reach (same for me and my mum, short people that we are), he started crying, and my cousin ran over immediately, fussed over him and fetched a huge pile of balloons.

Case of someone turning into their parents!