Teachers World Letters, Jan 1930 - July 1934

[Courtenay]

Yes, that might be it — it's certainly the only explanation I can think of. Do we know which month in 1934 the first Round the Year book was published? (Tony...?? )

[Kate Mary]

That theory has gone west too. The chapter from Round the Year on the cuckoo (The Strange Cuckoo) was originally published in Teachers' World issue no. 1558 5th April 1933. Unless of course it was corrected for the book publication.

[Courtenay]

Could have been... We'd need someone who can check the original version — Tony, maybe, if you've got time (I realise it's a big ask!)? It's certainly the only explanation I can think of, that Enid originally believed and wrote that the cuckoo was carrying its own egg, and then someone corrected her and she corrected the chapter when Round the Year was published.

[Anita Bensoussane]

An interesting page as always, though it is strange about the egg.

[sixret]

I agree with Anita. It is strange about the egg.

[tix]

On May 30th, 2018 Kate Mary wrote:

"Enid made a couple of errors in this week's letter."

*************

I was relying on the links in this thread and the last one seems to have been posted on May 23rd. Where's a later entry that deals with comments dated '30 May' onwards?

The May 30th 'EB Children's Page' doesn't seem to say anything about a cuckoo and a caged blackbird so maybe I'm looking in the wrong area.

[Lenoir]

The May 30th 'EB Children's Page' doesn't seem to say anything about a cuckoo and a caged blackbird so maybe I'm looking in the wrong area.

It's in this letter:
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=1189

[tix]

Thanks to 'Lenoir' for the info.

The lettering appears quite small when displayed, but now I've seen the blackbird incident.

Still can't see anything about a cuckoo though.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The cuckoo incident is mentioned about halfway down the first column, Tix. It begins:

"And here is a postcard from Michael Butcher, of Steeple Aston School, telling me that he and two other boys saw two cuckoos flying up from a field, and one of them had an egg in its mouth."

[tix]

Thanks to Anita Bensoussane this time. The writing is very small on the retrieved pages but after managing to enlarge what was relevant, the cuckoo reference came to light.

There's a script alteration in the 'later' edition of 'Round The Year.' The 1934 version reads:

"The cuckoo flies to the nest, sits on it and lays her own egg there among the others. When her egg is in the nest she picks up one of the other eggs and flies off with it. I expect she thinks that 'Fair exchange is no robbery' don't you? She eats the other egg, and then, as she will probably lay a second egg within 48 hours, she looks for another nest to put the next egg in."

The 1950 version reads:

"The cuckoo flies to the nest, sits on it and lays her own egg there among the others; sometimes she lays her egg on the ground and then carries it to the chosen nest. When her egg is in the nest she picks up one of the other eggs and flies off with it. I expect she thinks that 'Fair exchange is no robbery,' don't you? She eats the other egg .... etc."

Michael may have been telling the truth.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Interesting, Tix! Thanks for typing out the two versions.

[Courtenay]

That is interesting! I wonder if there is any documented evidence that a cuckoo sometimes lays her egg on the ground and carries it to the host's nest? I would think it would be much easier for her to lay it in the nest and remove one of the other eggs, which I'd assumed is always what happens with cuckoos. We might have to do some cuckoo research (not for me at this time of night though)!

[Moonraker]

The lettering appears quite small when displayed, but now I've seen the blackbird incident.

Yes, it is minute. You could do what I do, tix: press and hold the Ctrl key whilst pressing the + key. Each press of the + key magnifies the print. Remember to Ctrl and - afterwards to get the size back to normal!

[tix]

Thanks are due
To Moonraker who
Presented a hint that is tried and true.

Modified to 'Option Command +' it works very well indeed.

Thank you again.

[Anita Bensoussane]

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=1190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Poor old Bobs - we're a day late looking in on him this week! I'm intrigued by the following paragraph from his letter:

"Gillian's Granny is staying with us now, and as she is a very nice old lady I wondered if she would like to come and have a bone with me and Sandy in my kennel, but Mistress won't let me ask her. It's a pity, isn't it?"

I assume "Gillian's Granny" refers to Hugh's mother and not Enid's!! As Hugh's family lived in Scotland, it's more likely that his mother would need to stay for a while if she came to visit. Enid's mother only lived 30-odd miles away in Beckenham.

'The Poppy's Day' is a charming poem and the story 'The Beautiful Tail' is delightful, teaching children about wagtails in an imaginative way. It's good to see Enid prompting her young readers to look at things more closely and find out more about them by suggesting that they sketch the different stages of the poppy and find pictures of the birds mentioned in the story.