The Enid Blyton Society

I always thought she was male too. I had a few of the Voilier books as a child and never knew that she was a 'she' until I read it here last year!

What's the French for a female Jean?

Is it Jeanne? Just a guess.

That's interesting about it being a pseudonym. I wonder if she chose it deliberately for its mannish sound, or does it sound more feminine in France?

I know an elderly French lady whose given name is Marie-Claude, so I would guess that in French names, Claude can be considered feminine at least when paired with another feminine name. Don't know if that has any bearing on this particular nom de plume, though...

The name "Maria" is a female name in German, yet it may be used for boys as a second name like actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (though it is a pseudonym in this case).

I think many French women are manly......

Has to be Eileen Soper.

Lots more here;

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yarvelling wrote:As many of the books in different countries used different illustrators; yes, some dreadful (!!), I wonder how folk from those countries view the illustrations... When they owned/read the books were they even aware that these drawings were unique to their editions, and do they view these as the 'definitive' ones; that *this* is how the Five look?! How do they view the 'original' Soper illustrations?

I grew up with Henneke's illustrations, though I had some books with Soper's drawings (either from flea markets, presents or found in the garbage). Being used to the 70's TV-series and the Henneke's drawings I considered Soper's illustrations out of date and unusual. I know by now that the ones by Soper do probably look more the way Enid Blyton envisioned the Five.
I personally never cared if those illustrations are unique or not, and I'm afraid that many other German Blyton books have unique illustrations, and sometimes rather awful ones as well.

It's interesting to see the different styles. The colour illustration by Simone Baudoin is appealing - it looks dreamily idyllic.

I'm going to go against the current and say that I prefer some of the illustrators over Soper...

There's always one!

Merged with an older topic.

The Famous Five illustrators compared.

Let's establish some facts.

Eileen Soper: Undisputed Famous Five illustrator.
Betty Maxey: Underappreciated, second choice Five illustrator by common consensus (except by myself).

Other Five illustrators: Let's see, comment and discuss:



Above Pic:
Illustrator? Artistic merit? Year published? Threat to Soper's crown? Better than Maxey?
Discuss:

In my humble opinion, the only Famous Five illustrator worthy of mention is Eileen Soper. All the rest can be forgotten.