'From My Window' in Teachers World

[Kate Mary]

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.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Kate Mary]

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.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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:

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!

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... e&perid=89" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Kate Mary]

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.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Kate Mary]

A lovely column on taking delight in small everyday things but I've never thought of them as adventures before.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Kate Mary]

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.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Anita Bensoussane]

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;

[Kate Mary]

A lovely description of a children's Christmas party from almost a hundred years ago.

[Moonraker]

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.....

[Courtenay]

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?

I did ask for Gay Jelly and Barcelona nuts in Sainsbury's, but all I got were odd looks. Ah well.....