Most unusual place you ever bought/found a Blyton book

[Boodi]

I just thought it would be interesting to know if anyone bought or found an Enid Blyton book in an unusual or unexpected place. I'll explain what I mean by the following example: All of my original books were bought new in a bookshop. Later on, when I was building up my "second collection" for my son (my mother having given away all of my original books with the exception of "The Six Cousins" series and "The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage", my absolute favourites) I bought some books new (when I could find them) and others I picked up extremely cheaply in second hand bookshops in Dublin. However, last year I found an Enid Blyton book (Five Go To Billycock Hill to be precise) where I least expected it....in a second hand and antique bookshop in the very centre of Prague in the Czech Republic, where my husband was searching for old books on art. Needless to say, I was really surprised. Although Five Go To Billycock Hill is by no means my favourite Famous Five book (in my opinion it is one of the weaker ones), I felt that I just could not leave it there, so we duly purchased it, much to my husband's amusement, along with several books on Czech art. When we were paying for the books the owner of the shop informed us that Enid Blyton was "a very famous English author of books for children". Anyway, I just wonder if anyone else has bought or found an Enid Blyton book in an unusual place!!

[Boodi]

With regard to the above: does anyone know if any of Enid's books have actually been translated into the Czech language?

[Anita Bensoussane]

With regard to the above: does anyone know if any of Enid's books have actually been translated into the Czech language?

I don't know but we do have a thread in which we're listing languages into which Enid Blyton has been translated:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... =languages" target="_blank

Can anyone add any languages to the list in that thread?

Anita

[Boodi]

I was so curious that I did a little snooping around (in true find-outer fashion) and discovered that some of Enid's books have indeed been translated into Czech. In the Czech language Enid is know as "Enid Blytonová", and among the books that have been translated are The Five Find-outers, The Famous Five, St. Clares, The Naughiest Girl, the Secret series and Noddy. As far as I can see, the Adventure series, The Secret Seven series, The R (Barney) Mysteries, Malory Towers and the various family books have not yet been translated.

The Five Find-Outers are known as "Tajemství" in Czech, and comprise Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bětka, Špekoun a jeho pes Brok (the first three words are obvious, and the last six are "Bets, Fatty and his dog Brok" thus dear old Buster has been renamed...Špekoun being a fairly literal translation of "Fatty").

The Famous Five have been literally translated as "Správná pětka" (Pět being Czech for 'five') and the original names have been more or less retained: Georgie, Julián, Dick, Anička and Tim.

I don't know when the translations were done, but I would assume at some stage after "the fall of the wall" in 1989, as I imagine that "Enid Blytonová's" books would not have been encouraged in the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic....they would probably have been deemed "imperialist, western rubbish" and banned, like so many other books. If anyone is interested I will try to find out more, as by coincidence I will be in the Czech Republic again in early August.

Cheers,
Boodi