The Enid Blyton Society

Hello everyone!

I am looking for a specific Enid Blyton magazine from the 90's and I'm hoping someone might be able to help me.

Over the weekend my girlfriend and I were discussing our childhoods and she said that her biggest regret from then was that she drew a picture that got into an Enid Blyton magazine when she was around 10, but had missed the opportunity to buy it at the time. She now doesn't remember which issue it was, or what the magazine was even called but I'm hoping to find it for her for Christmas.

Her name is Holly Knowles from Colchester and she would have been 10 in 1995, but as you can tell by the request her memory isn't the greatest so it could have been anytime in the mid 90's!

If anybody has a collection of Enid Blyton magazines from the 90's I would really appreciate if you could please have a look for her picture so I know which issue I have to find and buy.

Hi Nicholas
That's a lovely idea for a Christmas surprise for your girlfriend. I feel sure it must be the Enid Blyton Mystery & Suspense magazine, going by the date. I can't tell you which one as I don't have them, but I'm sure someone on here will. Good luck!

Welcome, Nicholas. I too would have thought the magazine was probably Mystery and Suspense but I've just looked through the 'Mystery Mail' pages in every issue, which consist of letters and pictures from readers, and I'm afraid I was unable to find a contribution from Holly Knowles. Hope I didn't miss it!

I know that Enid Blyton's elder daughter (Gillian Baverstock) produced a magazine in the late 1990s called Blue Moon but it was based around fairy tales - not Enid Blyton stories. I don't have any copies of that.

Another magazine that was about at the time was 'Enid Blyton's Enchanted Lands' but as far as I can tell this was 1998 and very much based around the Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair TV series' so probably your girl friend would have been too old by this point. It was for younger children - although it does feature a readers drawings page, featuring pictures of Moonface and other characters, sent in by children aged 5 - 8.

The Enid Blyton Society Junior Newsletter sometimes included artwork from young contributors.

Thanks everyone for your help! That's quite a few avenues to continue my search, hopefully one of those should hold the key...

It's not Mystery & Suspense, I've just looked through them cover to cover. There aren't many issues with readers letters in and only a couple have pictures.

Thanks for taking a look IceMaiden.

I decided with a few avenues to look into I told Holly I was looking for it and showed the list of possible magazines and she remembered it was Mystery & Suspense... but 2 of you have been kind enough to look through all issues and not found her drawing in there so it must not have been published. I asked if she definitely got in and she said she received the prize, but obviously it's not there. Rather fittingly for the magazine I think this will have to remain a mystery!

I'll have another look through if I get the chance, Nicholas, but I believe the magazine closed quite suddenly (there were only ever ten issues) so it's possible that some pictures and letters had been approved for inclusion in future issues that never got published.

Nicholas, does Holly have a favourite Enid Blyton book you could get for her as a consolation? I'm sure there are many here who could help you locate a book for her that she would like to read again?

Regards

Pete

I'm still puzzled, as in my (only) copy of 'Mystery and Suspense' magazine, (issue number there are NO drawings by readers featured... Were there drawings in any of the others?!

As IceMaiden said, only a couple of issues featured a drawing sent in by a reader. Letters and photos from readers were printed too, but again not in every issue.

Ah - I missed what IceMaiden had said. I only have one copy of the magazine, so wasn't sure.

Rob Houghton wrote:I'm still puzzled, as in my (only) copy of 'Mystery and Suspense' magazine, (issue number there are NO drawings by readers featured... Were there drawings in any of the others?!

Issues 3,4,5,7,8 & 9 have a mail page.

3 & 4 only have letters
5 & 8 have a photograph
7 has a drawing
9 has a photo and a drawing

I don't suppose the magazine was running long enough to get too many drawings or letters, or at least to include the ones sent in.