80 Years Ago This Month - Sunny Stories 1938

[Moonraker]

I have always been fascinated by the gentle sex!

[Kate Mary]

The five April 1938 issues of Sunny Stories are available, I particularly liked the decorations for the poems Easter Time in No.65 and Gold in No.67. Thanks Tony.

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[Anita Bensoussane]

Excellent as always - thanks, Tony! E. H. Davie's Galliano's Circus cover (Number 65) is extremely attractive and I also love Ernest Aris's comical Brer Rabbit cover (Number 66).

Pamela Ingram's poem 'The Wind' is very good indeed and she must have been delighted to have her work illustrated by E. H. Davie.

It's lovely to see the extra Amelia Jane pictures by Sylvia Venus, and Dorothy Wheeler's Billy-Bob illustrations are exquisite. I particularly like the drawing of the hedgehog next to the title 'The Mysterious Thief' - though I suppose it gives away the ending of the story! Gordon Robinson is great and Grace Lodge's pictures for a couple of the poems are beautiful too, as is Hilda McGavin's illustration for Pauline Tighe's riddle, which I enjoyed solving. The Nursery Rhyme and Happy Families puzzles were fun as well. As a child, I'd love to have coloured in the picture for the 'Kite Flying' Painting Competition (Number 68).

Enid Blyton says in one of her editorial letters that she receives more than a hundred poems and puzzles from readers each week. It must have been quite a job choosing which ones to print!

[Courtenay]

Thanks as always, Tony — I love the Galliano's Circus cover! How exciting to think that the children reading this magazine 80 years ago were getting the first-ever instalment of what became a classic Blyton series and one of my own all-time favourites (and it must be nearly 30 years since I first read it myself with Mum, but never mind that...).

[Rob Houghton]

It has to be one of the best Sunny Stories covers ever!

[Kate Mary]

Tony has been busy adding pages from four issues of Sunny Stories for May 1938:

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Betty Hinks' poem in issue no. 70 must have pleased Enid very much, a guaranteed winner.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Beautiful issues once again. Thanks for adding them to the Cave, Tony.

'Bobs and His Friends' is an interesting picture-strip as we get to meet Judy the puppy, as well as a black cat with a non-PC name which was commonly used for black cats and dogs at the time. In issue 70 Bobs makes the same joke about "the month of May" that he made previously in a letter in Teachers World!

What a stunning illustration by Doris E. White for the cover of issue 70. Grace Lodge's picture for the poem 'Stand Up, Rollo!' (issue 71) is wonderful too - so full of life and cheer.

'Mary Polished Too Well!' caught my eye because of the poor man whose foot is bandaged and supported using a sling around his neck because of the gout. Crikey!

Betty Hinks' poem about Sunny Stories is excellent, attractively illustrated by E. H. Davie. I also enjoyed Alison Cowie's Ridldle-Me-Ree and the 'Hiking' puzzle with anagrams of towns.

[John Pickup]

I like the cover of Issue 69 showing Pippity pouring water down the chimney but, unfortunately, the artist is uncredited. However, I got all the answers to the puzzle where you had to work out the animals from the clues in the squares.

[Kate Mary]

Another selection from Sunny Stories for June, I loved the poem Buttercup Gold in issue no.74, which I hadn't seen before as I don't have the Buttercup Story Book and My New Watch in issue 76 is a super poem too. I appreciate being able to have a closer view of the cover illustrations, some of them are superb.

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[Anita Bensoussane]

Excellent as always! Thanks for putting these gems in the Cave, Tony.

I still find myself replying "Yes" to Enid's question in her editorial - "Would you like to live in a caravan?" I was envious of Jimmy and Lotta when I was a child and wished I could belong to a circus, perform clever tricks and travel from place to place in a cosy caravan.

The 'Bobs and His Friends' strips are amusing and I agree with Kate that 'Buttercup Gold!' is a super poem. The illustration for 'Buttercup Gold!' is uncredited but it looks like E. H. Davie to me.

It took me a while to work out the answer to Donald Logan's riddle (Issue 73)!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Just been looking at the issues from June 10 1938 to July 8 1938 as I'm not sure that I got through all of them before:

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It's interesting to read Enid Blyton's own words about her book The Children's Garden (Issue 74), including her remark about Gillian - "Gillian has been reading it, and dear me! what a lot of new tools I have had to buy her!"

In a later editorial (Issue 76) we have a rare admonishment when Enid says to her readers, "Do you know, some of you haven't been very fair, and have sent in poems that you didn't make up yourself. Please don't do that, because I usually know. You must always play fair in everything."

I'm impressed by E. H. Davie's delightful and varied illustrations as always.

'The Naughty Boy' (Issue 75) is a most entertaining poem, as is 'The Sad Story of Mrs. Mouse's Mushroom House' (Issue 76) - especially the last line!

Regarding rhymes sent in by readers, I particularly like Esme Nicole's sweet and heartfelt poem called 'My Granny' (Issue 78).

Lovely stuff - I feel I've had the chance to step back into the past for a while!

[Kate Mary]

Thank you for the reminder Anita, it's good to revisit Sunny Stories there are some uncollected gems in its pages. I'm particularly fond of the little picture strip stories.