The Enid Blyton Society

I can see how Alice's Adventures in Wonderland could work quite well with a Brexit theme as the story is surreal and is peppered with larger-than-life characters, equivocal statements, bizarre happenings and unexpected twists.

Almost as surreal are Amazon's recommendations about what else to buy. Apparently, customers who bought Alice in Brexitland also bought:

Blephasol 100ml Sensitive Eyelids Eye Lotion
4.5 out of 5 stars 435
£10.61 Amazon Prime

and

Aerolatte Milk Frother with Storage Tube, Black
4.3 out of 5 stars 1,064
£9.52 Amazon Prime.

Surreal indeed, Anita.

Oh dear, is that a Cheshire Farage in the tree??

Mind you, regardless of whether Alice in Brexitland is funny or not (I wouldn't mind having a look at it for myself), I notice immediately that the author on the cover is given as "Leavis Carroll". In other words, a topical send-up of the original author's name, regardless of the fact that his works are no longer under copyright and he's certainly not around to complain anyway. (To be fair, I don't think anyone would believe for a moment that Lewis Carroll was still alive and writing to this day, but you never know... ) Why couldn't the author and publishers of the infamous Famous Five for Grown-Ups parodies show the same respect for Enid Blyton's name? Probably because her name still sells books and they know it...

A bit scared of going to Australia now after reading this article..

https://www.google.ie/amp/www.telegraph ... s-are/amp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oh for goodness' sake... we get those in our houses all the time. They're not poisonous to humans at all, don't worry.

I can suppose that but seeing one would be enough to give me a heart attack.

We do realise that arachnophobia is a very real thing and in some people can be quite intense.

You'd better not read 'The Lord of the Rings' then, Maria Esther. especially the bit about Shelob.

Dave

the spiders in The Hobbit were bad enough! I'm not scared of spiders, but I'm not keen on them.

Or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Oh yes — I remember watching the film of that one and I can still just see poor Ron's face as they meet the giant spider!!

No, seriously, I do realise that for some, fear of spiders really can get to an almost paralysing point and it's not at all easy to control, let alone get over. I'm not exactly fond of huntsman spiders myself — they don't utterly terrify me, but I certainly won't sleep in the same room as one! But having grown up with them, it's easier to realise that they're not as scary as they look. If we have one in the house, we always catch it in a container with a lid (a large ice cream container, usually) and let it go outside. Which I can do myself, if I have to, but it's usually Dad's job.

I do think Australia has a far worse press than necessary when it comes to poisonous/dangerous/scary creatures, by the way. Yes, we DO have some very venomous spiders and snakes (not to mention sharks and crocodiles), but when you look at how often the average Australian actually encounters them, let alone how often anyone dies or is seriously injured because of them, the figures are really very low. I lived in Australia for the first 30 years of my life and don't think I have ever even seen a deadly poisonous snake or spider in the wild. So don't let all the hyped-up reports put you off — it isn't nearly as scary a place as it sometimes sounds.

Domino wrote:We do realise that arachnophobia is a very real thing and in some people can be quite intense.

You'd better not read 'The Lord of the Rings' then, Maria Esther. especially the bit about Shelob.

Dave

Courtenay wrote:

No, seriously, I do realise that for some, fear of spiders really can get to an almost paralysing point and it's not at all easy to control, let alone get over. I'm not exactly fond of huntsman spiders myself — they don't utterly terrify me, but I certainly won't sleep in the same room as one! But having grown up with them, it's easier to realise that they're not as scary as they look. If we have one in the house, we always catch it in a container with a lid (a large ice cream container, usually) and let it go outside. Which I can do myself, if I have to, but it's usually Dad's job.

You can't imagine!!! It all started when I saw this massive black hairy spider in New York. Until then I wasn't fond of spiders but not that scared of them. Now, I get a panic attack if I see one. Actually, I don't like 'creepy crawlies' at all.

I don't like spiders, ever since I was bitten by one last year. I must have been sleeping in my tee-shirt and couldn't get out so it bit me a couple of times, and I really did feel quite ill for a few days. The whole area where the bite was on my side, came up like a bubble and it was extremely painful. I put them out as soon as I spy one, and I've taken to putting conkers on the ledge of my opened windows, so they won't get in. (They don't like conkers!)

Domino wrote:We do realise that arachnophobia is a very real thing and in some people can be quite intense.
You'd better not read 'The Lord of the Rings' then, Maria Esther. especially the bit about Shelob.
Dave

Dave/Domino, I like your avatar from "Stage Freight".
Seems I'm not the only Hitchcock fan on this forum .

Courtenay wrote:Oh yes — I remember watching the film of that one and I can still just see poor Ron's face as they meet the giant spider!!

No, seriously, I do realise that for some, fear of spiders really can get to an almost paralysing point and it's not at all easy to control, let alone get over. I'm not exactly fond of huntsman spiders myself — they don't utterly terrify me, but I certainly won't sleep in the same room as one! But having grown up with them, it's easier to realise that they're not as scary as they look. If we have one in the house, we always catch it in a container with a lid (a large ice cream container, usually) and let it go outside. Which I can do myself, if I have to, but it's usually Dad's job.

I do think Australia has a far worse press than necessary when it comes to poisonous/dangerous/scary creatures, by the way. Yes, we DO have some very venomous spiders and snakes (not to mention sharks and crocodiles), but when you look at how often the average Australian actually encounters them, let alone how often anyone dies or is seriously injured because of them, the figures are really very low. I lived in Australia for the first 30 years of my life and don't think I have ever even seen a deadly poisonous snake or spider in the wild. So don't let all the hyped-up reports put you off — it isn't nearly as scary a place as it sometimes sounds.

I must admit, I like Australia and find the people I've encountered to be so lovely and friendly, but I could never ever go there. Your spiders are a whole other planet of terrifying to ours and ours are bad enough . They don't even need to be poisonous, the very thought of getting a glimpse of one is enough, I just know I'd never relax. As it is I always open any parcel from another country cautiously incase something has managed to creep in, irrational I know but after reading articles of people finding some huge exotic thing in their grapes or something it put it in my mind. I think if you have a phobia of something, anything to do with it sticks firmly in your mind and is even exacerbated in an attempt to keep yourself from encountering it.