Website Additions

[Chrissie777]

Ooer... yuck. I'm sorry, but putting modern cartoony art on period literature like Enid Blyton's is just completely wrong (and I know there are many more examples than these that we've seen in recent years). Honestly, what'll they come up with next? Jane Austen illustrated by Quentin Blake??
(None of this is intended as a slur against all your great work in collecting all these covers for the Cave, Tony, don't worry.)

Hi Courtenay, that's what I thought, too. Tony is indeed creating a master piece with his Cave of Books, the most beautiful website I've ever seen in 16 years on the Internet.
But you are right, this constant modernization of Blyton's text (politically correct) and new illustrations with Blue Jeans, maybe even cell phones (I don't know, just guessing) doesn't leave much from the original EB and her great illustrators. It takes away that certain atmosphere that's so special about EB.
The new covers/dustwrappers make the Mystery series look like books for little children (4 or 5 years). How can a 10 year old be thrilled with these new covers?

The same was going on in Germany way back in the 70's when Bertelsmann worsened the Famous Five. All off a sudden the FF went through a modernization process which changed the text and replaced Soper with Wolfgang Hennecke's ugly illustrations. Fortunately I found the missing Soper editions on hundreds of flea markets that I searched for them (my mom unfortunately gave all my EB books to some relatives 700 km away in Southern Germany when I moved out with 19 and had no chance to take everything with me).

The problem is also that today the illustrators draw in a very different more modern style compared with Tresilian, Soper, Dunlop etc.
There is something to their sketches that is lacking today. Don't know why.
Probably the same as with Disney animation movies. Just compare Cinderella with Arielle, the faces look totally different. I like Cinderella's face much more than Arielle's. For me that's not typical Disney any longer. Maybe I'm old-fashioned.
But I've come to love certain things (call it vintage) and hate it when they change to mediocre replacements. But that's the Zeitgeist.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I've just checked out the Cave and looked at all the Find-Outers lastest covers. Obviously for me I love the older books, but these lastest covers I think will appeal to the young readers of today. And that's what we want, for them to read and enjoy Blyton books. Some of the covers I particularly like. The first four are fine and the Hidden House one is quite spooky. I'd pick that book up if I was a youngster as I often used to 'judge the book by it's cover.'

[Anita Bensoussane]

What can we look forward to in 2014? I have added a great many forthcoming books to the Cave over the past two days.

From Egmont - all cartoon covers!









Just a sample, plenty more in the Cave. When I have the energy I will do something for Bounty hunters!

I'm not keen on cartoon covers for Blyton books because so many of them (i.e. the cartoons, not Enid Blyton's stories!) are lacking in grace, charm and atmosphere. That Malory Towers one is atrocious, with the characters so ridiculously out of proportion, and those unattractive scribbles on the Faraway Tree covers completely fail to capture the awe-inspiring magic and majesty of the Enchanted Wood. All Aboard! (is that The Pole Star Family, etc.?) is bright and breezy but scribbly once again. The Wishing-Chair covers are a little better in my opinion but are spoilt by the children's bland, expressionless faces.

The only ones I do rather like are the Find-Outers covers (judging by the two shown). They have a spooky, Gothic, swirly, quite elegant look to them. Okay, so they're very stylised and what is a cat doing in a cage of that design (Disappearing Cat)? And I'm not sure that the artwork really suits the tenor of the series. However, I do find those covers appealing and I enjoy looking at them.

[John Pickup]

I really like the covers for the Five Find Outers books. If I was new to Enid's books, these covers would encourage me to buy them.

[Courtenay]

The Faraway Tree covers and "All Aboard!" look like they're by Quentin Blake. Now I love Blake's illustrations in some contexts, but not in others, and definitely not for Enid Blyton!

The FFO covers do look dramatic and intriguing, but completely unlike the style and content of the stories.

The Wishing-Chair covers are atrocious. Apart from the children's faces (I agree with Anita there), the huge red wings make it look like the chair's legs are on fire!

All of them, really, just make the books look cheap and trashy. I'm hoping they don't have internal illustrations to match!

[Kate Mary]

I quite like the new Find-Outers covers they are a great improvement over the previous editions. It is good that the Cave doesn't stick to firsts and early editions.

Kate

[Carlotta King]

I don't think I really like any of them to be honest. Well, not as covers for Enid's work, anyway. The Malory Towers ones are hideous, and I'm not keen on the (as Anita said) scribbly style of Quentin Blake. And the Find-Outers styles remind me of Tim Burton's work.

I'm not criticising the artists - the FFO style would look brilliant on other books but I'm not keen on it for Enid's work. Same with Quentin Blake - fine for other books but not these. The Faraway Tree books are so full of magic, and to depict them in that scratchy scribbly style with not even a hint of magic or fairy-land quality just robs it of its enchantment.

The Wishing Chair ones (the first one really) have too much going on in them, and the Malory Towers ones just lack any kind of appeal and aren't even drawn properly in my opinion - the girl who is swimming just looks as if she is scrabbling around on a flat floor for something, not swimming in water!

[Tony Summerfield]

You get a better idea of the Find-Outers covers with a slightly clearer image.


Unfortunately reprints in the Cave are not as clear as they might be. This is another one which isn't in the Cave yet as I am not sure where to put it. It is a large hardback book which will be published this autumn.


I believe that the Fidel Castro look-alike is the Saucepan man, whilst ET is obviously Moonface!

[Daisy]

I suppose that's Tupping with the rake. He looks like Pinocchio!

[Courtenay]

The Find-Outers covers are not bad as artwork per se, but honestly - they look like something out of Harry Potter. From that kind of illustration, I'd be expecting magic and fantasy, not five children in a 1940s English village solving local mysteries over the hols!

And again... Quentin Blake + Roald Dahl = (at least in most instances).
Quentin Blake + Enid Blyton = (or thereabouts).

[Daisy]

Well! I've just looked at the Secret Room - you'd never guess from the cover - it looks more like the Faraway Tree!

[pete9012S]

When I look at these new covers I get the same sort of feeling that comes over Prince Charles when he sees modern architecture....

http://www.architecture.com/TheRIBA/175 ... peech.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Poppy]

Nothing stands out at all, there, for me. It all looks modern, tacky and just unattractive. The Wishing Chair books, I would say are the worst; just quite boring and look similar to a children's cartoon on the TV - A Little Princess? I can't even really see them attracting the correct age-group. I would have aimed these books at 6-8 yrs, but these covers look so babyish.
I don't actually mind the Faraway Tree covers that much; they are quite all over the place and remarkably out of proportion in the face-area, but the artist portrays the characters in friendly, welcoming way. There has been some beautiful Faraway Tree covers and I wouldn't put these up there, but it is another interpretation and I respect the artists originality; these are very different from past covers.
The Malory Towers one is absolutely ridiculous. Portrays the characters, not referring to the text at all in a pampered and vain way. Absolutely awful to match the previous cover of this kind.
The Mystery series' new interpretation are not to my taste either, though they are an improvement from the last few.
The All Aboard book is surely the same illustrator as the Faraway Tree? Alright, but again quite silly and modernised dramatically.

[Julie2owlsdene]

That's much better, I can clearly see the Find-Outer one now. I do actually like it, funnily enough. Okay Fatty is not as I know him in my own mind, but the cover and the covers of the other Find-Outer books are quite good and will probably sell the books.

They somehow don't look as cartoony as the other books shown, so all in all, I give them the thumbs up! I might even go and hunt some out in the shops when they finally arrive.

[Moonraker]

Yes, I too rather like the FF-O covers. I think we need to remember that these covers are designed to attract youngsters to pick up the books and hopefully buy them. They are not designed to please adults, wallowing in the past. At least Fatty is fat, although it looks as if Tupping might be wearing Goon's helmet!