Uncollected Pip the Pixie Stories in the Cave

[Anita Bensoussane]

'The Woodpecker Has the Last Laugh!' is fun to read. I've had a soft spot for yaffles since I was tiny, because of Professor Yaffle in Bagpuss:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4188

[Courtenay]

Yes, that was fun. I haven't heard any green woodpeckers here in Cheshire yet, but we used to have them where I lived in Kent! (Mind you, the "yaffle" doesn't sound nearly as much like a laugh as the kookaburra... )

[Anita Bensoussane]

Leaves and hedgehogs are the subjects this time:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4189

[Anita Bensoussane]

A most entertaining and informative story about a worm - I enjoyed this!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4190

[Anita Bensoussane]

Quite an involved Pip story, considering the length. I'm always fascinated by sealed-off snail shells when I come across them in real life:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4191

It's great to see the opening frames of 'Adventure at Midnight' too, which delivers excitement and potential danger right from the start.

[Anita Bensoussane]

An interesting Pip story about an acorn - and a fair amount of action in just three frames of 'Adventure at Midnight', which has suitably sinister and atmospheric illustrations by C. Gwynne Price:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4192

[Lucky Star]

The last frame of Adventure at Midnight reminds me of Tresilian's illustration of Jack diving into the boot of the car in The Circus of Adventure.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Pip's disobedience leads to his having a dreadful shock in this week's story:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4193

I'm loving the shadowy but detailed illustrations for Adventure at Midnight, which is fast-moving and action-packed.

[Anita Bensoussane]

We learn about the nuthatch this time. I'm surprised Enid Blyton refers to it as a "big bird", though of course it would seem big to Pip! Nuthatches are very pretty and I sometimes see them in the willows at my local park.

It's great to read the next part of Adventure at Midnight too.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4194

[Anita Bensoussane]

This Pip story is truly delightful - one of the best in my opinion. The lanterns sound wonderful and the story contains a very interesting fact about holly trees that I learnt from another Pip tale when I was little ('How Very Sensible!' from The Adventures of Pip). I like the way our world is referred to as 'the Big World'!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4195

It's accompanied by a most exciting episode of Adventure at Midnight. Great stuff!

[Anita Bensoussane]

There is no Pip story this time but I can't leave the final part of Adventure at Midnight unposted:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4196

[Anita Bensoussane]

Toys have now started featuring in the Pip tales, beginning with the story for January 2nd 1949 (which isn't up on the website with the uncollected tales because it was included in Enid Blyton's Twelfth Bedside Book).

In the story for January 9th 1949, the toys need some glue and Pip knows that nature can provide some. That particular nature lesson (about chestnut buds) has already been covered in at least one previous Pip tale, but the situation in this one is quite different.

I must admit I'm in two minds about toys featuring so strongly all of a sudden. It gives the stories a tamer feel somehow, with Pip and Jinky consorting so frequently with toys in a nursery.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=4197

[Courtenay]

Very interesting, Anita — I haven't read the Twelfth Bedside Book, so I didn't know that Pip and Jinky ever started consorting with toys!

I agree with you about being "in two minds" about this. Of course Enid did write some stories that combine toys-coming-to-life and the fairy folk — who could forget the army of toys marching on Mr Grim's School for Bad Brownies in The Wishing-Chair Again, for example! I'm also remembering one short story (I've forgotten its title and which collection we had it in) about a fairy called Lissome who used to fly in at the window of the playroom and play with the toys when they came to life at night, and then one day when one of them was playing with scissors and accidentally cut off one of Lissome's wings, the toys built a tower of building blocks for her to climb up so that she could leave safely through the window before morning. (Can anyone else remember that particular story?)

So it's not an unprecedented twist, but it just seems strange in the Pip stories. As far as I've seen, Enid always intended them to have a strong focus on facts about nature, so although he's a fantasy character himself, Pip almost always interacts with creatures and plants in the natural world and learns something important about them. Bringing toys into the story somehow changes the overall tone and it doesn't quite feel like a Pip story any more.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, in general I'm happy to read stories about fairy folk and toys doing things together. It's just that the Pip tales haven't been like that up until now, so it feels as though we've entered a slightly different universe all of a sudden.

The name 'Lissome' doesn't ring a bell so I'm not sure that I've come across the story you mention, Courtenay. Is there any indication that Lissome will grow a new wing? If not, her life will be severely affected forever. Even climbing the tower of blocks to the window leaves her with the problem of getting to the ground on the other side - though there may be a trellis or ivy or something she can climb down.

[Courtenay]

The name 'Lissome' doesn't ring a bell so I'm not sure that I've come across the story you mention, Courtenay. Is there any indication that Lissome will grow a new wing? If not, her life will be severely affected forever. Even climbing the tower of blocks to the window leaves her with the problem of getting to the ground on the other side - though there may be a trellis or ivy or something she can climb down.

I've just found it, after remembering which short story collection it was in! It's The Elf in the Nursery, which we had in The Enchanted Umbrella and Other Stories (from the 1980s "Enid Blyton's Tell-a-Story Book" series), but according to the Cave, it was previously published in Now For a Story. Following that up, I've found its first appearance was in Sunny Stories No. 141 of Sep 22, 1939!

And yes — I should have added — Lissome does assure the toys that her wing will soon grow back again! The urgency in getting her out of the playroom is simply so that she's not there when the children come in the next morning. I can't remember if we were told that there's ivy or something else for her to climb down when she gets out, but there must have been some solution, as I don't remember being left at all worried about her when the story ended! (And obviously she's an elf, not a fairy, but I guess I misremembered that from the fact that she's small and has wings. I've got used to "elves" being the rather taller characters we see in Tolkien and the like!)