The Enid Blyton Society

Yes - the 1944 Daily Mail annual was edited by Enid - and also most of the stories she put in it were her own, lol!

Because of that fact, for me, its the best Daily Mail annual!

I revamped Mr Galliano's Circus today to give a more detailed look at the evolution of the book. I may do other books but I will see if it is worthwhile first.

http://enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-det ... 27s+Circus" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also added all the 1st edition Secret Seven front covers with their spines.

Those first two covers are probably my least favourite of any Blyton covers. I have the later EH Davie one, with the bright yellow and blue (1942 edition) and I love it!

Thanks for revamping, Tony!

Thanks, Tony. I do like the various front covers for Mr. Galliano's Circus but they're a bit garish. The frontis is more to my taste.

More treasures in the Cave. Some of my Secret Seven books don't have jackets so it's nice to see the covers and spines and it's interesting to see the changes to the cover of Mr Galliano's Circus.

I have a 7th edition with the pictorial spine (a bit more faded than the one in Tony's picture). I picked that one because I like that cover illustration much better than the earlier editions. Thanks for your work on these, Tony.

The pictorial spines for the Secret Seven series are gorgeous and make the books look most inviting when they're sitting on the shelf.

Book covers look good, but have to confess that is one set of books I haven't read. Mainly because I don't do circus.



Most of my own collection have the pictorial spines, Anita, and as you say, they all look gorgeous sitting on the shelves. A thing that you don't get these days with books, no enticing picture to look at.

Lovely to see the covers in stunning HD and large! I agree, Rob, the 1942 Newnes is a lovely cover. I too dislike the first ones with the clown on the front.

I loved circuses, as a child, and find all of Enid's circus books riveting. I even wanted to run away to a circus - until I read Five Go Off in a Caravan!

I actually made a mistake here which I have just corrected as the 1st edition was in 1938 not 39. It is lucky that nobody liked the first two wrappers as both are extremely scarce and very difficult to find copies of! The only other book to follow this same route was Adventures of the Wishing-Chair, which also had three different dustrappers by 1942, but unless someone can help me I won't be able to show the evolution here as I don't have a copy of the 2nd edition with the picture onlay and I only have the 3rd edition without a wrapper. Fortunately all other Newnes books had a simpler evolution!

It's funny - I'm also not a fan of the early covers of The Wishing Chair. I think its because, as ypu've mentioned, they were still evolving. It's almost as if the publishers didn't really know what children wanted and are experimenting. I feel the same with the News Chronicle books - they are well produced, but somehow not really 'child-friendly' looking. I prefer the 1940's versions better. Ironically, I guess it was the war that started the changes in size and looks that I prefer.

I'm quite surprised that Julie has never read the Mr Galliano books...and also hasn't really read the Faraway Tree books...and I'm guessing you're not keen on the Wishing Chair, Julie, as I think you don't like fantasy much? I'm presuming your dislike of circus's also means you've never read 'Come To The Circus' or 'The Circus Book' either - which is a real shame, as both are excellent stories, and all the circus books are big on emotion and friendships and have some interesting and realistic themes running through them.

Some nice work there, Tony. I too prefer the later cover from 1942.

I have continued my revamping of some of the early Newnes books and I have now added a Book History as well. I have done Adventures of the Wishing-Chair as well as I can, but I do not have the 3rd edition with the white surrounds for the dustwrapper (similar to Mr. Galliano's Circus) and I may replace the 2nd edition image at some stage. I have included information about the later abridging.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... hing-Chair" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have also done The Adventurous Four and Hurrah For the Circus!.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... urous+Four" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-det ... +Circus%21" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More to come!

Those book histories are very interesting, Tony. They certainly help to place my own copies. I own 7th editions of both The Adventurous Four and Hurrah For The Circus. But have you set yourself a mammoth task as we will all be clamouring for histories of ALL the books?

My editions all have the pictorial spine - mostly mid-195's - which is a choice rather than just circumstance. I really don't like books with plain spines!