The Enid Blyton Society

I like that sentance about finding little bits of summer in November, I still have a few flowers hanging on in my garden but the first frost will see them gone soon. The Eel in the Pond is a odd little story, based on an old folk tale I think. It has echoes of Brer Rabbit and the briar patch and I love this week's poem My Bird Table, thank you for letting us read them Tony.

Yes, I also loved the descriptions of the walks, the "little bits of summer", the bird table poem and indeed Bobs and Gillian kicking the swept-up leaves all over the garden again! Very sad about Bimbo, though.

"The Eel in the Pond" sounds like it must be taken from a folk tale, as it features the famously "wise" men of Gotham, whom I think we discussed in another thread a while back. I've just found the Wikipedia article on them — and yes, it does mention them "endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool of water"!

Notable that Enid didn't mention Bimbo. Has she forgotten about him already?

Erm, Bobs devotes more than half his letter to Bimbo and how he wishes he could go out as a "town crier" to look for him...

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It does seem that Bimbo has probably been stolen. It's sad to read that "Pat mews for him every day", though at least she has the kitten for company.

Enid's vivarium sounds interesting, though personally I wouldn't want to bring wild creatures indoors and try to keep them as pets.

'Harry Higgle Drops His Hs' is quite a dark, surreal story. It would have made me shiver (with mixed alarm and delight) if I'd read it as a youngster and I look forward to reading the second half in the next issue. I've read the story somewhere before so I've got an idea how it ends.

Thanks, Tony, for scanning and cleaning these pages and putting them up on the website!

Harry Higgle drops his Hs is a very clever story. I seem to recall there is a similar story about another missing letter, T perhaps? I read this one and its sequel ages ago when Tony first put the uncollected TW stories on the website. It's good to see it again. And one of Enid's best poems this week too, what a treat these letters are.

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Aware that many of her young readers must be feeling sad about Bimbo's disappearance, Enid Blyton gently encourages them to take an interest in the new kitten by asking them to name it. As usual, she is also keen to instil in them a love of nature and challenges them to find as many evergreen trees as possible and take some leaves in to school.

The poem 'The Wrong Way Round' is great! It reminds me somewhat of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Bed in Summer'.

No self-respecting cat should answer to the name Cuddles, I wonder what name the children come up with? The Teachers' World is a gold mine of uncollected stories and poems, Harry Higgle and The Wrong Way Round are brilliant.

Kate Mary wrote:No self-respecting cat should answer to the name Cuddles...

Exactly! Actually, at least in today's world I can't see a self-respecting cat answering to "Bimbo" either, but I guess it didn't have the modern meaning when Enid used it for her cat...

It is sad about Bimbo, but at least Enid doesn't skirt around it — or indeed around the fact that the other cat died of poisoning. Maybe it was a little later in her career, with her divorce from Hugh and so on, that she developed the famous reputation for hiding bad things that happened in her life? In these Teacher's World letters at least, we've seen her quite often being upfront with her readers about sad news — not dwelling on it, but certainly not pretending these things didn't happen. (On the other hand, I'm aware a couple of years after this she avoided letting her audience know Bobs had died and simply kept on scribing his weekly letters for quite some time after that...)

I enjoyed the poem "The Wrong Way Round" — it reminds me of an old riddle from a book I had as a child:

In spring I look gay
Dressed in comely array,
In summer more clothing I wear;
When colder it grows
I fling off my clothes,
And in winter quite naked appear.

I remember reading the story of Harry Higgle when it was posted some time ago, but it's a good one and well worth revisiting! (All together now — "In 'Ertford, 'Ereford and 'Ampshire..." )

'The Wrong Way Round' is rather like another poem, 'Topsy-Turvy!', which can be seen in this 1937 issue of Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories:

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Unlike many of us, Enid Blyton is enjoying a mild winter (so far) at Old Thatch.

Enid must have been mortified at Bobs and Sandy breaking into a neighbour's hen-run. I hope the rabbit and hens were all okay.

The puzzle poem ('The Sleepers') is lovely and I enjoyed the Hidden Evergreens puzzle too. 'Mr. Wittle's Snowball' is an amusing tale, though predictable.

Thanks as always to Tony for putting up these letters every week.

Oh dear! Enid in trouble with the law. I picture the village policeman as a pompous Mr Goon type. The dogs must have got the rabbit or one of the hens died of fright for Enid to pay compensation, but if the dogs could get in the hen-run so could a fox. A nice little uncollected story, all the children could see the joke at once, when I used to do library story times I found young children like knowing more than a character in a story does.

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Chatty letters from Enid and Bobs, full of jollity and mischief. A nice idea to have Bobs retelling the legend of the Noah's Ark dog.

The chimney at Old Thatch must have been the inspiration for similar chimneys in several of the books and I like Bobs' story, it reminded me of the story of the little Dutch boy sticking his finger into the hole in the dyke. I bet the incident with Dilly making her own Christmas pudding really happened too.

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An enjoyable account of Christmas preparations at Old Thatch, with the animals and birds being included in the celebrations. I like Bobs' daft remark: "I've always wondered where the mistle keeps its toe"! A lovely story too - and a puzzle and poem.

Thanks very much, Tony, for putting up these letters every week! They're fascinating and teach us a lot about Enid Blyton's time at Old Thatch, even if they give rather a romanticised portrayal.