Teachers World Letters 1942

[Courtenay]

The book mentioned is available from Amazon, Courtenay.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=seven+litt ... doa-p_3_24

I know what it is, John, and I was aware of it as a child. We just didn't have it at home and I was never interested in reading it!

[Anita Bensoussane]

One of the best-known Australian novels featuring a boarding school must be Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967), in which a school picnic takes a sinister turn. It's set in 1900 and is a creepy but compelling story with a frustratingly inconclusive ending (apparently, the novel originally had an additional chapter but the editors rejected it as unconvincing, so the book was published without it!) There was a film adaptation in 1975 which was lyrical and atmospheric, with haunting music. It conveyed the essence of the book perfectly. There was also a TV version in 2018 but I didn't think it was as good and I can't remember much about it now.

[Courtenay]

Oh yes, of course, very famous — I haven't read it or seen the film(s), but I know about the story and should have thought of that too as an example of boarding schools in Australia in the past. That said, it is a totally fictional story, but so well known that there's a persistent rumour that it was based on true events. It wasn't, although Hanging Rock is a real place, just north-west of Melbourne — less than an hour's drive from where my mum grew up, actually. (I haven't been there, but Mum has and she definitely came back. )

[Kate Mary]

Another Australian boarding school novel is The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (pen name of Ethel Florence Richardson) first published in 1910 it’s a world away from St Clare’s and Malory Towers. It is an adult novel rather than a children’s book, I read it years ago in a Virago Modern Classics edition. It was made into a film in 1977 but I haven’t seen it.

[Judith Crabb]

Melbourne does have some very exclusive boarding schools, even though you're right about the geography of Victoria, Courtenay. If I remember rightly our current King Charles had a stint at Timbertop, one of the campuses of Geelong Grammar. If newspapers can be trusted he didn't enjoy himself one little bit.
The famous Australian school stories which have been mentioned (Hanging Rock, Getting of Wisdom) were not initially written for children but have since been set for schools. A lot of Australian children's school stories were published in the UK (eg Robert Richardson, Lillian Pyke) and were popular in their day but since forgotten. So popular was the genre that in 1928 Ethel Turner herself wrote a belated sequel to 'Seven Little Australians (1894), long after the earlier sequels 'The Family at Misrule' (1895) and 'Little Mother Meg' (1902). These three were still in print in the 1950s and I enjoyed all three, but only as an adult did I get to read 'Judy and Punch' (1928) the story of Judy Woolcot's boarding school experiences, which has rarely been reprinted. I enjoyed it but wished that I'd read it earlier.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's interesting to hear about the sequels, Judith.


Enid tells us that the weather has turned colder and remarks that one of the enjoyable jobs is gathering dead wood for the fire:

We take our old hay-wagon that the children used to pull each other in to the woods, and we fill it with dead wood for the fire. It burns beautifully, and is great fun to collect. Do you do that too? We have to do all sorts of queer things in wartime, some pleasant and some unpleasant. Collecting wood in the autumn is one of the pleasant things.

Imogen has just begun learning to play the piano. Gillian plays too. I wonder if either of them inherited their mother's talent for music.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1908

[Anita Bensoussane]

Bobs is delighted at Enid's enjoyment of the "damp, rich, earthy" smell of autumn, as humans aren't part of "the delicious World of Smell" in the way that dogs are.

Most of the fruit at Green Hedges has been gathered but the bullaces will be next, followed by quinces and medlars. I don't think I've ever eaten bullaces or medlars.

It's interesting to hear of Gillian coming home from school just for the day, returning in the evening.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1909

[Anita Bensoussane]

Enid talks about autumn leaves, ivy blossom and spindle-berries this week, and tells us that the four kittens have all gone to the same home - "a big grocer's shop in London, where they will be expected to earn their living by hunting mice and rats and guarding our food - real war-time work!"

The mention of knitting blanket squares reminds me that my sister and I knitted blanket squares for Ethiopia when we were in our teens.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1910

[Kate Mary]

A lovely column this week, I like Imogen’s comment that ‘the leaves must be excited when they break free of their stalks and really go adventuring at last’ and Enid’s description of ‘sleepy wasps half-dazed by a frosty night’.

I was interested to see the advert for The Book of a Thousand Poems, this has long been a favourite of mine. In 1942 it would have been the first edition but my copy is dated 1989, Enid has four poems printed in it. It is I think the very best anthology of children’s poetry ever published.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Imogen's comment and Enid's description are lovely, Kate.

The Book of a Thousand Poems has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mum received it as a school prize and loved it, and my sister and I used to read it when we were little. I've now picked up a copy of my own from a charity shop but my mum still has her childhood copy on her bookshelf in Wales.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Although the following Teachers World letter was printed on 4th November 1942, Enid had written it a little earlier, of course. As a result, Gillian hasn't yet come home for half-term and Imogen hasn't yet celebrated her 7th birthday (on October 27th). Since it's a wartime birthday, sugar has had to be saved up for the icing on Imogen's birthday cake. Enid has managed to get hold of some chocolate biscuits, and she has also been keeping a small tin of fancy biscuits for the occasion. Cook will make some ice-cream too, so Gillian and Imogen and anyone else who is there (e.g. perhaps Kenneth, the cook's little boy?) will enjoy a few treats - treats that have become very scarce during the war.

Gillian is unwell with a temperature and has been confined to bed at school, but she has plenty of books to read. As Enid says, books are a great help when you're stuck in bed feeling ill.

I've seen a lot of autumn crocuses this year and they're very pretty. Until just now, I didn't know that they belonged to the tulip family. Even at my age, I'm still learning from Enid Blyton!

Bobs' letter about the dog called Adolf is interesting as it harks back to the story 'The Boy Who Changed His Name', published in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories in May 1940.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=1911

[Kate Mary]

I thought of the story ‘The Boy Who Changed His Name’ too when I read Bobs’ letter, it is an unusual story for Enid to have written and must be the only story where she mentions Hitler by name. Unsurprisingly it was never included in a short story collection but it was reprinted in Journal 40.

[Boodi 2]

Thankfully that name seems to have gone totally out of fashion, although recently I was surprised to note that a man I know has it as a second name...he proudly presented me with his new business card on which his full name was displayed in gold lettering!! If I had Adolf as a second name I somehow don't think I would include it on my business card...

[Anita Bensoussane]

I think it's fine to keep the name Adolf going. After all, there's nothing wrong with the name itself - it means 'noble wolf'. Some families might have a long history of using it, generation after generation. Why should it be associated only with Hitler? It's an old name that existed long before him, and it doesn't 'belong' to him and his evil legacy.

[Boodi 2]

Yes, I assumed that the second name of the man in question (his first name is Markus) was probably that of his father/grandfather/uncle, in much the same way as our son is called after his two grandfathers. Nevertheless, I am not a 'fan!!!