'From My Window' in Teachers World
- Kate Mary
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
I wish I could write an essay as good as that, Enid uses some lovely lyrical phrases, I know just how she feels. At the moment the sky is a clear pale blue, it's going to be a beautiful autumn day, I must follow Enid's example and get out for an exhilarating walk.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
This week's From My Window article is accompanied by four poems, each one looking at the world from the point of view of an imaginative young child. I particularly like 'Ships', which is simple yet evocative.
The From My Window piece ('Other People's Shoes') is interesting, exploring the effects of taking on the role of a character quite different from oneself.
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=88" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The From My Window piece ('Other People's Shoes') is interesting, exploring the effects of taking on the role of a character quite different from oneself.
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=88" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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- Kate Mary
- Posts: 1934
- Joined: 20 Apr 2007, 06:25
- Favourite book/series: The Treasure Hunters/ Five Find Outers
- Favourite character: Barney
- Location: Kent
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
A bumper collection of delightful poems this week to accompany the column. Enid doesn't get enough recognition for her poetry I think, it's at least as good as R L Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses or A A Milne's When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six.
I've never heard of a fancy dress fair with the stallholders dressing up but I would love to a see a photo of Enid in her Knave of Hearts costume.
I've never heard of a fancy dress fair with the stallholders dressing up but I would love to a see a photo of Enid in her Knave of Hearts costume.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
It's almost five years since I last read Enid Blyton's From My Window article about the play Hassan at His Majesty's Theatre (now called Her Majesty's). I wrote on the forums at the time:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=89" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;She describes the story as "one of love and death, wealth and power, torture and cruelty inconceivable, told in the language of a poet who understands the smallest feelings of his characters with a penetrating and passionate intensity, making the play at times almost too much to be borne, so dismayingly vital it becomes." It leaves her dreaming "of the mighty things of life, the eternal, insolvable problems." Enid's ardour is infectious and seems so fresh, yet her use of slightly quaint words like "mighty" and "insolvable" is a reminder that, from our perspective, this outing took place many decades ago!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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- Anita Bensoussane
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- Posts: 26895
- Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
- Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
- Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
- Location: UK
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
A beautifully evocative piece about a London of yellow fog, and a colourful pageant in the Strand that is still an annual event:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=90" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=90" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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- Kate Mary
- Posts: 1934
- Joined: 20 Apr 2007, 06:25
- Favourite book/series: The Treasure Hunters/ Five Find Outers
- Favourite character: Barney
- Location: Kent
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
This year's Lord Mayor's Show was a couple of weeks ago, I didn't get to see it this time. Enid must have been on her way to see her publisher Newnes whose office was just off the Strand, I'm sure they forgave her for being late.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
An uplifting article this week about the everyday "adventures" that make life so extraordinary and unpredictable:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=91" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=91" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
- Kate Mary
- Posts: 1934
- Joined: 20 Apr 2007, 06:25
- Favourite book/series: The Treasure Hunters/ Five Find Outers
- Favourite character: Barney
- Location: Kent
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
A lovely column on taking delight in small everyday things but I've never thought of them as adventures before.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
Enid Blyton's review of Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett (1923) makes it sound earnest but intriguing. I was a little taken aback by her remark that the author shows that "even a sluttish little slavey can bear in her soul the marks of true divinity"! I just didn't expect to come across an expression like "sluttish little slavey" in anything written by Enid!
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=92" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Riceyman Steps is available on the Project Gutenberg website if anyone's interested:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58666" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=92" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Riceyman Steps is available on the Project Gutenberg website if anyone's interested:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58666" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
- Kate Mary
- Posts: 1934
- Joined: 20 Apr 2007, 06:25
- Favourite book/series: The Treasure Hunters/ Five Find Outers
- Favourite character: Barney
- Location: Kent
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
Riceyman Steps was just published when Enid read it. Back in the 1970s I read several Arnold Bennett novels, Anna of the Five Towns, the Clayhanger series and Riceyman Steps and its sequel Elsie and the Child. Bennett is a good writer but sadly out of fashion now.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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- Anita Bensoussane
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- Posts: 26895
- Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
- Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
- Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
- Location: UK
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
It's interesting that you've read Riceyman Steps and its sequel, Kate.
Today's column on "suspicious people" contains food for thought. As Enid says, it doesn't pay to be too cynical or critical and fail to see (and therefore lose the opportunity to foster) the good in people:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=94" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Today's column on "suspicious people" contains food for thought. As Enid says, it doesn't pay to be too cynical or critical and fail to see (and therefore lose the opportunity to foster) the good in people:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=94" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
- Anita Bensoussane
- Forum Administrator
- Posts: 26895
- Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
- Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
- Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
- Location: UK
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
Enid's description of 'A Dinner in Lilliput' is delightful and the accompanying story and poem are lovely too:
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=95" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=95" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
- Kate Mary
- Posts: 1934
- Joined: 20 Apr 2007, 06:25
- Favourite book/series: The Treasure Hunters/ Five Find Outers
- Favourite character: Barney
- Location: Kent
Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
A lovely description of a children's Christmas party from almost a hundred years ago.
"I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines." Oliver Goldsmith
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
Quite charming. Thanks for adding them, Tony. I did ask for Gay Jelly and Barcelona nuts in Sainsbury's, but all I got were odd looks. Ah well.....
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- Courtenay
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Re: 'From My Window' in Teachers World
Yes, what a lovely account of the miniature dinner party — and I enjoyed the fairy story too, and most of all the gorgeous Christmas poem! It reminded me of A.A. Milne's poetry. Has it really never been reprinted?
Moonraker wrote:I did ask for Gay Jelly and Barcelona nuts in Sainsbury's, but all I got were odd looks. Ah well.....
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)