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Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 22 Jan 2017, 18:25
by Rob Houghton
Tony Summerfield wrote:
Rob Houghton wrote:
Tony Summerfield wrote:Don't forget that three Famous Five books were serialised in Princess in the 1960s.
But using my Great Detective Powers, I was presuming a boy might not read 'Princess' and so he would be talking about a boys and girls publication... ;-)
I am not so sure about that - If a boy knew that it contained a new Famous Five serial he might have been tempted with his torch under the bedclothes! :D
True! I think I would have read it - especially if my sister happened to have 'Princess'. I don't think I'd have actually bought it myself though! :-D

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 11:35
by Daisy
The letter head is definitely the Hotel Grosvenor Swanage - holding a mirror to the screen helped me there, but sadly the date is too faint - at least on my computer. I find it a bit odd that although we can see the header through the paper, there seems no sign of writing in the main body of the right side of the paper.

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:14
by Moonraker
Tony Summerfield wrote: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.
I can fully understand your irritation, but I hardly see it as so surprising. This website is the definitive source of information on all things Blyton and we must remember to the majority of the public, Enid is just a great authoress and many remember reading her books as children - often forgetting all about her for many years. If they have any queries then they will Google and find your email address from the Society website. You can hardly be surprised when people email you! I just hope they don't look on the forums and see your comments about them!!! :lol:

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:21
by Aussie Sue
Enid sent this letter to the Returning Prisoners of War Association when they were compiling a book of funny stories to publish to raise funds for their association in the 1950s.

cheers
Aussie Sue

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:34
by Tony Summerfield
If a whole letter exists it sounds as if it would be a very interesting one to put in the Journal!

Obviously it is still difficult to tell which serial is being referred to. I have put below a list of serialisation of the Famous Five from my files, but I am not sure what it will look like in the forums as it won't have the same neat columns!

Famous Five
7. Five Go Off to Camp (Oct 1948) - Sunny Stories (Mar 19 1948 – Nov 26 1948)
9. Five Fall Into Adventure (Sep 1950) - Evening Standard (Nov 11 1949 – Apr 28 1950)
12. Five Go Down to the Sea (Sep 1953) - Enid Blyton’s Magazine (Mar 18 1953 – Nov 25 1953)
14. Five Have Plenty of Fun (Jul 1955) - Chucklers Weekly (Aug 19 1955 – Nov 18 1955)
15. Five on a Secret Trail (Jul 1956) - Enid Blyton’s Magazine (Jul 20 1955 – May 9 1956)
15. Five on a Secret Trail (Jul 1956) - Chucklers Weekly (Oct 19 1956 – Jan 11 1957)
16. Five Go to Billycock Hill (Jul 1957) - Enid Blyton’s Magazine (May 23 1956 – Feb 27 1957)
16. Five Go to Billycock Hill (Jul 1957) - Chucklers Weekly (Feb 7 1958 – Apr 25 1958)
17. Five Get Into a Fix (Jul 1958) - Enid Blyton’s Magazine (Jul 17 1957 – May 7 1958)
17. Five Get Into a Fix (Jul 1958) - Chucklers Weekly (Aug 15 1958 – Oct 31 1958)
18. Five on Finniston Farm (Jul 1960) - Princess [Five At Finniston Farm] (Jan 30 1960 – Jun 4 1960)
19. Five Go to Demon’s Rocks (Jul 1961) - Princess (Jan 14 1961 – Jun 24 1961)
21. Five Are Together Again (Jul 1963) - Princess [Five Together Again] (Jan 26 1963 – May 18 1963)

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:50
by Aussie Sue
Tony, that is the whole letter. Enid probably just wrote that out and gave it to some-one when asks for a contribution. I don't have the letter, but it was offered to me about 6 years ago and I asked for more information seeing as that was all it said. I was told that it came from the Returning Prisoners of War Association who had been given it when they were compiling a book of funny stories to publish to raise funds for their association in the 1950s.

That's all the info I have.

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:20
by pete9012S
Image

Many thanks for that extra interesting information Sue.
I'm sure Enid's Cherry Cake recipe has been mentioned before on the forums etc etc,but I noticed she contributed the recipe for the same cause for a book published in 1950:
Cherry Cake by Enid Blyton, Mulled wine by Evelyn Waugh

From "As We Like it" Recipes by Famous People edited by Kenneth Downey (Arthur Barker, London 1950.) Famous people included Joyce Grenfell, Georgette Heyer, Leslie Charteris, Douglas Fairbanks, Christopher Fry, Celia Johnson Vivian Leigh, Richard Mason, Charles Morgan, Ivor Novello Laurence Olivier, Wilfred Pickles, Freya Stark, Richard Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt ,Katherine Hepburn, Enid Blyton and Clementina Churchill. The book has a forward by Edwina Mountbatten of Burma and she writes that every penny from the sale of the book will go to the funds of the Returned Prisoners of War Association. There is much mention of rationing and tinned food but Evelyn Waugh goes for an extravagant and slightly incapacitating mulled wine in full Brideshead fashion.
Enid Blyton's recipe is for a fairly simple and economical Cherry Cake for the children…

This is a cake my own children love, and is easy to make when children come to tea.

Ingredients:

Half pound of margarine. 3 eggs. 6 ounces castor sugar.6 ounces cherries. 6 ounces flour. A few drops of vanilla essence.

Method: Beat the margarine and sugar till soft and creamy, drop in eggs one by one and beat well in between each. Add flour gradually, and lastly cherries and flavouring. If too stiff, add a little milk. Bake in a moderate oven to start, and then drop to Regulo 3. It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to bake.

This is just as nice with fruit instead of cherries, or ginger cut up it is excellent.

Half the quantity makes a nice little cake for tea, but only takes 3/4 to 1 hour to cook.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... ng+Recipes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:28
by pete9012S
Image

Fiona may even remember making it!!

https://worldofblyton.wordpress.com/201 ... erry-cake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:40
by Rob Houghton
Nice to see Anita on that page too!! :lol:

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:43
by Aussie Sue
Oh that's interesting Pete. I have that book and knew she had contributed to it for charity but hadn't picked up on just who had produced the book. The date of the cooking book may give us an idea of approx. year it may be from. I wonder if the book of funny stories was ever printed, & if so what it was called.

Another mystery to be solved.

cheers
Aussie Sue

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:46
by Daisy
So would the serial be Five fall into Adventure then? It is certainly one where not to know how it all ended would be frustrating in the extreme!

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 17:50
by Aussie Sue
Daisy, that seems to be the most likely as the period they were raising funds seems to be 1950, so that fits with Tony's date for Five fall into adventure serialization.

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:37
by Anita Bensoussane
Daisy wrote:The letter head is definitely the Hotel Grosvenor Swanage - holding a mirror to the screen helped me there, but sadly the date is too faint - at least on my computer. I find it a bit odd that although we can see the header through the paper, there seems no sign of writing in the main body of the right side of the paper.
Great thinking to use a mirror to help you, Daisy! Fatty would tell you to go to the top of the class! :D
Aussie Sue wrote:Enid sent this letter to the Returning Prisoners of War Association when they were compiling a book of funny stories to publish to raise funds for their association in the 1950s.

Brilliant, Sue! Thanks for sharing that piece of information. It's always fascinating to learn something new about Enid Blyton. As you say, it would be good to know whether the book of funny stories was ever printed.

Pete, it's interesting that the recipe book from 1950 was put together to raise money for the same cause. Thanks for listing the Famous Five serials, Tony. If the funny stories book was published around the same time as the recipe book, Michael must have been talking about Five Fall Into Adventure or Five Go Off to Camp. Though of course, Enid Blyton might have contributed to the recipe book one year and the funny stories book another year.

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 20:19
by Tony Summerfield
I have the sort of feeling that it is more likely to be Five Go Off to Camp in Sunny Stories that Michael was reading. In view of the fact that Enid was asked to produce something funny for the book she may have used something that was a couple of years old and I feel it is more likely that a child would be reading from a children's magazine that came out every two weeks, rather than from the Evening Standard. For those that haven't checked it out on the website in the Periodical Section it was published once a week in the Evening Standard.

Re: I do hope you don’t die before you finish it..

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 23:06
by Rob Houghton
I agree - and Five Go Off To camp is definitely one that would have been frustratingly thrilling to read as a serial - those spook trains would keep many a reader guessing, and each chapter is loaded with suspense! :D