The Enid Blyton Society

Kate Mary wrote:Why I wonder did Enid refer to Sandy as he up 'til now? Anyway Sandy's secret is out, and Enid's readers must have been somewhat confused. This week's poem is a good one and a nice little story on the same theme.

Yes, I'm baffled and I'm sure Enid's young readers would have been too! I remember a while ago, we had a discussion somewhere here on the fact that Enid writes in The Story of My Life (I haven't read it, so can't quote) that Bobs and Sandy lived in a little house and had many puppies. I think, in fact, this was when we were up to the stage of the Teacher's World saga where Enid first introduced Sandy as her new dog, clearly describing him as a he. So we were all puzzled and wondering whether Enid later had another Sandy who was female (unlikely, as Bobs died only a few years later and therefore couldn't have fathered puppies with a later Sandy) — or maybe Enid, writing years afterwards, was just indulging her imagination and inventing the puppies for effect. Now it seems she wasn't. But why on earth then did she always refer to Sandy as "he" in all her preceding letters?? She surely can't have been genuinely unaware of the sex of her own dogs... I'm still completely baffled.

I remember The Wrong Berries from Stories for You — one of my favourite Blyton short story compilations. I certainly don't remember ever eating any berries or flowers or plants I shouldn't have as a child, though — my parents were always quick to warn us "that's poisonous" about any such things and I think I just had it instilled in me very early on that I mustn't eat anything from the garden unless it was definitely safe (like mint and parsley).

I suppose I should have mentioned that my sister was only just about sitting up in her pram when she ate Laburnum flowers. My mom had put the pram under the Laburnum tree and hadn't given the fact it had poisonous flowers a thought until she saw Deb putting one in her mouth! She never left the pram under there again!

My son was also under a year old when he picked a sprig of buddleia and sucked it. We'd just got home and I'd wheeled his pushchair up to the front door but didn't go in immediately as a neighbour called to me. It was while I was chatting to her for a minute that my son got hold of the buddleia.

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Another newsy letter. I bet lots of children (as Enid Blyton no doubt hoped) had a go at painting a picture of many-hued blackberry leaves, just to try to prove her wrong in her statement that "I am sure you couldn't do it!"

Like Enid, I love autumn leaves, ivy blossom and conkers. It's a beautiful time of year with golden mists and softly-glowing sunshine.

It's great to know that Bobs' book is selling so well and that the third batch of 5,000 is being printed! How very odd that Bobs continues to refer to Sandy as "he" in his letter, even though we were told last week about Sandy giving birth to puppies!

A nicely-written riddle by Rose Hughes, though it's not too hard to work out the answer! Enid's story is simple but enjoyable too.

Yes, another lovely letter from Enid — I like how she first writes there about the different kinds of insects (funny that she calls them "winged creatures"... was "insects" not a term she expected her young readers to know?) that congregate around the ivy blossom, then uses that same idea in a story. But this ongoing canine gender confusion is still making my mind boggle...

A lovely letter indeed. It’s always a pleasure to read Enid’s letters.

It is strange that Sandy has reverted to 'he' in Bobs' letter, but I can remember my grandmother referring to all cats as 'she' and dogs as 'he' irrespective of the actual sex of the animal. Maybe that was common with that generation. A case of 'Dogs are from Mars and Cats are from Venus'.

Bobs' book is selling like hotcakes, was there ever a book written by Enid that wasn't a bestseller? A super letter, I love Enid's comments about Autumn.

Yes, I can remember as a child several people referring to our male cat 'Korky the cat' as 'she' which always annoyed me as a 10 year old - and I always pointed out - quite forcefully! - that 'she' was a 'he'. It always seemed that adults were a bit thick because so many referred to him as 'she'or 'her'. Its something that doesn't seem to happen so much these days, so maybe it was an old-fashioned convention.

Eddie Muir wrote:A lovely letter indeed. It’s always a pleasure to read Enid’s letters.

Indeed it is, Eddie.

Rob wrote:I can remember as a child several people referring to our male cat 'Korky the cat'

He was a legend.

He was! My mom named our cat 'Korky' because he had the same markings as his cartoon namesake - and a pink nose!

Korky was indeed a legend!

I’m not sure why you’ve quoted my post above the Dandy picture, Nigel??

Eddie Muir wrote: I’m not sure why you’ve quoted my post above the Dandy picture, Nigel??

My internet connection reset whilst submitting the original post, Eddie - and all content was lost. On my second attempt I forgot to add my reply, the error of which I have now corrected.

Thanks for the explanation, Nigel. Much appreciated.

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Enid Blyton has been extremely busy planting 7,000 bulbs in her garden - though I expect she had some help from Dick Hughes!

'Firework Night' is an interesting poem, told from the point of view of a dog. A great way to make children aware of the need to keep an eye on their pets and reassure them when fireworks are going off in the neighbourhood.

'A Tale of Coddle Village' is quite amusing. I wonder if it was based on a traditional folk tale.

Lovely letters again this week. I had to laugh at Enid's description of Gillian dousing herself with broth and feeding all the sugar lumps to Bobs!! I love her description of all the puppies and kittens playing with each other as well. I also laughed at Bobs' remark "... instead of reading my books and licking the puppies, I sometimes try to lick the books and read the puppies! And that's very difficult." Definitely some good reminders from Bobs and the poem that fireworks often aren't fun at all for pets.

"Coddle Village" does sound like it's based on a folk tale of some sort. It reminds me of the one about the big stone in the road that all the villagers complained about, but no-one bothered to move it, figuring someone else would do it. Finally the king came through the village and moved the stone himself, revealing that there was a box of gold coins underneath it "for whoever moves the stone" — the king had placed it there himself to see who would be unselfish enough to move the stone instead of grumbling about it, but no-one was. I'm remembering that tale from an old school reader in which it was written as a play — I don't think Enid ever retold it, but it's similar to some of hers, including this one, which I can imagine would also be a good one to act out. Simple, but with a memorable moral!