60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine - 1959

[Courtenay]

When 1959 runs out, however, I plan on having a break. I started in 1956 because I had the full set of magazines...

Gosh, you must be older than I thought, Rob (and so must the internet be too, for that matter)...

[Rob Houghton]

I can always rely on you, lol!

[Courtenay]

1956 was the year we got television in Australia — and don't forget, one of our first programs (we always use the American spelling, for some reason) was the ITV production of Noddy!

[Boatbuilder]

When you say 'we' I take it you mean 'the country', as you weren't born then. If so, I'm surprised it was as late as that.

[Courtenay]

Yes, I do mean "we" as in the country collectively, not myself (duh! ), and yes, it was 1956 (my dad remembers it well). Later than many countries, but not as late as some (South Africa, for example)...

[Lenoir]

Later than many countries, but not as late as some (South Africa, for example)...

Yes it was 1976 when SA got it. My parents only bought a TV set the following year. I suppose they thought there wasn't much on.
The radio was better. I heard some Noddy and Famous Five books serialized, also Bobby Brewster.

[Rob Houghton]

Another fortnight has flown by! Here's this week's issue -



We start with the cover story, which is a delightful one about school children stocking their classroom aquarium - Pennies For the Goldfish - its an interesting and informative story, featuring one of Enid's many tales about the caddis fly grub - but also offering lots of other information on keeping an aquarium, all wrapped up into a story. I found a few things that I thought wouldn't happen these days - children going off to ponds and rivers to find water snails etc, children going to buy goldfish for the aquarium, and also collecting a penny off each child for the purchase of the fish. I'm sure these things wouldn't be financed by the children in 2019!

The story reminded me very much of my own school days, as we had a big aquarium in the corner of our classroom, with snails in it, and also two newts - one being a great crested newt with a beautiful orange belly!

I found the illustrations interesting in this story - a clear indication that we are heading towards the 1960's, with the teacher, Miss Johns, dressed more fashionably than many teachers depicted in past issues of the magazine.

in Enid's Editorial letter we hear, as usual, about all the news from Green hedges - including the birds nesting in Enid's garden. I found it interesting that Enid credits 'modern children' with being more kind and thoughtful than children in the past. That's not something you hear very often!

After the aquarium story we have chapter 17 of The Ragamuffin Mystery - which features one of my favourite illustrations -



Next we have The Goblin Shop which is still bubbling along well, and after that we have another short story. Now that the Adventure of the Strange Ruby serial has finished, we get treated to a Noddy story instead!! - Noddy Makes A Little Mistake - which is a typical Noddy story, and can be read if you happen to have a copy of the book by Purnell of the same title, where it was published in 1968. Its a typical Noddy story where Noddy attends a party, leaves in teh dark, and drives off in somebody else's car. The 'somebody else' gives chase and of course Noddy thinks he is being chased by a villain...!

PUZZLE PAGE

Sunbeams Prize Puzzle -

Can you complete the following song titles? The missing word in each song is the name of an animal -

1) The ___ and the pussy cat
2) The Little Red ___
3) Rudolph the Red-nosed ________

Famous Five prize Puzzle -

Have you a good memory? If so, you should be able to tell in which years all these things happened -

1) The festival of Britain took place
2) The year of our Queen's Coronation
3) The year Princess Anne was born


A Puzzle For My Busy bees -

What am I?

My first is not a gentleman,
My last might be a pelican
My whole is lucky, so they say,
If upon you it should stray


Next we have chapter 12 of Bonfire Night for the Secret Seven - which has no illustration this week, sadly. However, for the book version Sharrocks saw fit to include this rather bland illustration! -



That's all for this issue - hope you enjoy the short story. here's the link -

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/mag ... ?magid=959

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Rob - and Tony! 'Pennies for the Goldfish' is a fascinating story with many interesting ingredients. It teaches the reader about caddis grubs etc., shows that it's fun to work as a team and create something together, and introduces an element of intrigue regarding Bill.

I agree that that illustration from The Ragamuffin Mystery is great, with Snubby being treated almost as if he's a puppet! Enjoyable puzzles too.

[Kate Mary]

I must admit I'm stumped by the Busy Bees puzzle but I dare say I'll get it eventually. I enjoyed the story very much.

[Courtenay]

It took me a few minutes, but I figured the Busy Bees puzzle out — as a clue, the "first" and "second" you're looking for are two words that go together to make another. Bit like the charade that Emma cleverly figures out in Janet Austen's novel, if you're familiar with that.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A Puzzle For My Busy bees -

What am I?

My first is not a gentleman,
My last might be a pelican
My whole is lucky, so they say,
If upon you it should stray

I must admit that the first words I thought of for "not a gentleman" were "cad" and "bounder", before I realised what Enid actually had in mind!

[Rob Houghton]

Lol! me too!! Then I went through quite a few others, like 'tramp' or 'beggar' or 'ruffian' or 'thief'...!! It took me a while to realise what she meant!

[Courtenay]

Only just caught up with the short story Pennies for the Goldfish — I agree, an enjoyable little story that packs in a lot of useful information and advice about keeping an aquarium. I also doubt, though, that schoolchildren these days would be expected to (or want to) donate their own money to help stock the aquarium! There's a slightly uncomfortable note of competitiveness, I thought, with the unkind comments from the other children about "Forgetful Fanny" — "And we'll fine you a second penny for forgetting, so bring two!" — and of course Bill, who it turns out does have a reason for not being able to spare any money even though he has some.

I've never seen a caddis grub, but I did know about them already, thanks to reading Enid's Pip the Pixie stories when I was little! In Wanted — a Suit of Armour, it's Pip who gives the caddis grub the idea of making his own suit of armour and helps him find bits and pieces to stick together.

Just been looking online for more info about them and found this really excellent short video that's well worth watching: The Amazing Underwater Tape of the Caddisfly This is a species from America that specifically uses pebbles to build its armour and is very picky about getting exactly the right size and shape to fit! The narrator makes the point that the caddis larva's silk, which it uses to stick its armour together, is something we humans haven't managed to invent yet — stretchy double-sided tape that doesn't lose its stickiness when wet! — and if we could find a way to copy it, how useful it might be for internal surgery, for example... Fascinating stuff!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Just watched the video, thanks, and found it fascinating too!

[Rob Houghton]

Another fortnight, another Enid Blyton magazine!



Here we have the latest edition, with cover illustration by another of those uncredited illustrators! The illustration is from the first uncollected short story, Be Careful, Tom Twisty! - a very entertaining story, though it runs along fairly familiar lines - a sort of 'circular' story that involves the theft of a basket. I used to love this kind of story as a child, and obviously they were quite popular because Enid used this kind of plot numerous times. To give Enid credit where its due though, each story comes across as fresh and new, even though quite often they had similar plots.

I was quite interested to see the illustrations in this one, which appear to show Tom Twisty in a Teddy Boy jacket with velvet collar and cuffs. I guess by 1959 the Teds were looked upon as villains and Tom Twisty is certainly a bad 'un!

You can read this story, and the others, by following the link below.

Next we have Enid Blyton's Editorial Letter - which can also be read by following the link, as usual. In it, Enid tells her readers, once again, about how to send for silk worm eggs etc, and also talks about all the letters she receives. She mentions that she has 'once again' had too many letters to answer, and tells her readers that sometimes she can only pick out about a dozen letters to answer. I know she had many, many letters, but this did make me wonder if she was slowly beginning to find it more difficult to physically answer these letters due to the gradual deterioration of her health.

Next, we have Puzzle Page - which Tony has kindly scanned this week - saves me quite a job of typing these out, and at least it prevents me from adding typos which might confuse puzzle solvers! THanks Tony. You can see the full puzzle Page by following the link'.

The Ragamuffin Mystery follows, with chapter 18.



Next we have another episode of The Goblin Shop - again this can be read by following the link.

After chapter 13 of Bonfire Night For the Secret Seven - which again, sadly, doesn't have an illustration - we have an advert for the Noddy Theatre. I think I'd have liked that sort of thing as a child, as I was always putting on puppet shows, and making up plays, with my friend next door. We would charge our mothers and brothers and sisters 2p each to watch our shows! The Noddy Theatre was 18 shillings and sixpence - which seems rather expensive.

Sixpence A Bunch is the next uncollected short story. Its a simple tale about a little girl thinking up an idea for raising money for the Sunbeam Society for blind children. it has some lovely illustrations by N Newman, and, we discover at the end, it is based on a true story about one of Enid's many fund raisers. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I'd been 'Laura' (not her real name) because Enid doesn't really paint the poor girl in a very good light - though supposedly 'Laura' had admitted this in her letter to the Sunbeam Society. Enid paints her as being selfish, conceited, lazy, and spoiled...but does say how proud of the little girl she is, by the end of the story.

And so we come to the end of this fortnight's Enid Blyton Magazine. There aren't many left to go now - just another five issues.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/mag ... ?magid=960