The Enid Blyton Society

“Enid Blyton:
Perhaps the incident that tickled me most was the following letter from another small boy:- I do like your new serial about the ‘Famous Five’, and I am just writing to say that I do hope you don’t die before you finish it. Love from Michael! Fortunately for his peace of mind, I didn’t!- Enid Blyton.”

I wonder which serial the boy was referring to!

Where did you get the quote from, Pete?

I wondered that too. When I saw the title of this thread I thought it might be a personal message to me!!

These morbid calculations by fans still go on today. For example, George R. R. Martin, the writer of a very popular series of epic fantasy novels starting with Game of Thrones, is an extremely slow writer. He has published so far five books in the series, and nowadays the whole thing is supposed to be seven books long (although fans believe that the total number might be higher as Martin discovers that some of the planned books are too long and have to be divided in two). The fifth book was published in 2011 and we are still waiting for the sixth, with no publication date set so far. Martin is 68 years old, and he is rather fat and has a sedentary lifestyle, which has led to widespread speculation about how long he might live, and whether fans can expect the series to be completed before he dies. For some strange reason, Martin is not amused by all this speculation around his life expectancy.

Also, some fans get angry when they see Martin posting on his blog about his other interests apart from writing. Those fans believe that Martin embraces any distraction when he should concentrate on writing the books. This led Neil Gaiman, another very famous fantasy writer, to publish an article a few years ago titled "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch". There was even a song inspired by that article, which is worth listening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0hRTGfVfA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you were amused by that song here's another fan song, as a bonus, urging George to "write like the wind":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7lp3RhzfgI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And just as a final bonus, this is a video of a live performance of "Write like the wind" at a fantasy convention. George R. R. Martin himself (the fat guy with the white beard) appears on the stage in a rage and smashes the singer's guitar. Then, Neil Gaiman appears on the stage to calm George R. R. Martin down. Of course, the whole thing is a staged joke, but it's quite funny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5vw9RTVky4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An interesting quotation, Pete. Is it from a letter that Enid Blyton wrote to someone?

Anyone know which serial he had in mind?

Thanks, Pete. Is that for sale somewhere? It's a pity we can't see the other side of the sheet of paper because it looks as though there might be a crest or logo showing through, and an address. I half wondered if I could see word "Hotel" and a long word beginning with "G", which might suggest it was written from the Hotel Grosvenor in Swanage, but I can't be at all certain as it's so faint. It might be nothing like that!

About ten Famous Five books were serialised over the years so it's anybody's guess which one the boy was referring to!

Where did you find that, Pete — and are we sure it's genuine? That signature might actually be from the legendary Gnid Blyton... (Only kidding. It does look genuine and I'm intrigued as to where it comes from and when it was written.)

This seems to be the last page of a multipage letter. If we had the first page, we would have a salutation and a date. The date would help us know which serial was being talked about. Or Enid might have referred to which serial it was earlier in the letter.

Pete's gone unusually quiet!!

Put us out of our misery, Pete!

Oh ok.You want a glue?














Check the Dustbin Tony! thread and do a little detective work...

Intriguing, Pete. I found these posts from Keith and Matt in the 'Dustbin Tony!' thread, but Keith's link no longer works:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... er+#p10703" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keith talks about the page being put up for sale on eBay in February 2007.

After a spot of Googling I came across this listing from February 2007 - but on liveauctioneers rather than eBay:

https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/30 ... -1897-1968" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For some reason the page is described as an autograph manuscript story signed "Enid Blyton", 1p., slightly browned, 8vo, [c. 1960].

Confusingly, it sold for £260 despite the starting bid being £300. It was nowhere near the estimate, which was £600 - £800.

I couldn't even find the 'Dustbin Tony' thread!! It sounded made up to me, lol!

Rob Houghton wrote:I couldn't even find the 'Dustbin Tony' thread!! It sounded made up to me, lol!

Not to me it doesn't! You should see the emails I get on a regular basis and I am utterly fed up with being the dustbin for any Blyton enquiry. Here is the latest one.

Hi

I have ordered a few of the adventure books because I recall how much fun they were when I was young.

Where can I buy the dice, rucksack cards, binoculars, picnic cards etc for these fantastic books please?

Please reply to me

Sympathies to Tony on constantly having to deal with the vagaries of the general public.These sorts of bizarre requests must become very tedious.

Congratulations to Anita for her sterling detective work in uncovering the source of the letter from Michael that Enid writes about.

Unfortunately though, we seem no nearer to discovering what serial Michael so desperately wanted to read to its natural conclusion that he felt impelled to write directly to the author seeking assurances of her continued mortality!

The sale blurb indicated the letter was written circa 1960,which is quite late in Enid writing career.I'm trying to remember if she wrote any Famous Five serials after that date?