The Enid Blyton Society

Merged with an older thread.

I think I've mentioned before that there is a mention of Enid Blyton in a Morecambe & Wise sketch. Eric calls Ernie 'Enid Blyton' when he's writing his plays.

Today I came across a mention of ]Noddy in the 1979 Blue Jeans annual. It was used in an article about dealing with awkward boyfriends. In the case of one refusing to pay for dinner when on a date, the solution is for his girlfriend to embarrass him by saying loudly she had recently paid for a number of things, such as his Beano comics, and also his new copy of Little Noddy in Toyland.

To me, things like that show that despite the critics and do-gooders best intentions of putting Enid Blyton down at the time, she was still someone who the majority of people recognised as a household name. Even if her name and books were used in a humorous way.

Enid Blyton is someone out of this world--- whether her character names are used humourously or otherwise. A great personage, and a legend.

Nair Snehalatha wrote:Enid Blyton is someone out of this world

Reading The Twins by Saskia Sarginson, I came across these two references:

Mummy suggested that 'we three girls' get a puzzle out to do together. [...] We rooted out about in the untidy games cupboard and pulled out one called The Whispering Island, from the Enid Blyton book of the same name' Umm, no its not!

And:

'I like the one where they go on holiday and there are wild ponies on the moor and then they discover the gypsies are stealing them.' is this the plot of an EB book? If so, I haven't read it yet!

Am I just being too pedantic? Or if you're going to reference an actual author, should you get your facts right? (I'm reminded of that Pointless episode where someone guessed 'Five go on holiday' as a FF title: their logic being, 'well, they must have done that at some point'

Colette wrote:Am I just being too pedantic? Or if you're going to reference an actual author, should you get your facts right?

Of course you're not being pedantic, Colette. If the author is named, the book details ought to be correct.

As I just said in 'What other author are you reading at the moment', I'm reading a book called The Swimming Pool at the moment by Louise Candlish. It's a thriller and there are some references to Enid Blyton in it!



Two of the characters are obviously fans of Malory Towers. They're talking about swimming and whether or not they like the water:

"She never used to be like this, Natalie. She used to be amazing in the water. But now she's a scaredy-cat, just like Mary-Lou."

Iona's voice grew shrill in playful retaliation. "Yeah right, Amanda. Olympic wannabe."

"Who are Mary-Lou and Amanda?" I asked. "Old Syncro teammates?"

"Teammates? They're characters in Malory Towers," Iona said as if she should really not have to explain something so blindingly obvious.

She went on: "Mary-Lou's scared of swimming in the rock pool and Gwendoline Mary holds her under to give her a fright. And Amanda swims out to sea and almost drowns, so she misses the Olympics because of an injury.

****

"It's the land of do-as-you-please here, isn't it Natalie?"

In spite of myself, I looked up the reference as soon as I got home. It was Blyton of course, from 'The Faraway Tree' - who was this woman who could make 'The Faraway Tree' sound so sinister and threatening?"

****

There are some more references, one in which one of the characters asks if one of the characters [Natalie] regards Blyton as PC seeing as she is a teacher. And another, where one of the character quotes Mam'zelle's "piggy-hoolier", but I haven't got the patience to type all those out, too!

That's great, Poppy! Lashings of references!

Yeah there certainly is, ahaha!

And no ginger beer in sight! Excellent that Louise Candlish is obviously a Blyton fan and doesn't mind showing it.

Brilliant, Poppy. I'll check out The Swimming Pool by Louise Candlish.

Yeah it's really good, I hope you enjoy it if you read it, Eddie!

Eddie Muir wrote:Brilliant, Poppy. I'll check out The Swimming Pool by Louise Candlish.

You sound like a Life Saver Eddie.

Ming wrote:Has anyone found any other references to Enid in any other books? Would like to see some.

Anita, thank you for this link.

Yes, Flavia Leng, the younger daughter of Daphne DuMaurier loved FF books and mentioned that in her memoir. DDM was not too happy about it, but Leng obviously received enough pocket money and was able to buy them at W. H. Smith in Fowey, Cornwall.

Mollybob wrote:The Forgotten Garden is a lovely book. I read it a few months ago. Are you enjoying it Ming?

For me there were too many flashbacks, it got so very confusing. Also I thought that the fairy-tales did not really add much to the story.

However, I was totally enchanted by Kitty Ray's novel "A Peculiar Chemistry" which I read around the same time after I had finished Kate Morton's book. The German title of Kitty Ray's novel was "Nell's geheimer Garten" (Nell's Secret Garden) which refers to the cottage in the woods and the cottage garden that Nell creates.
It has only two time settings, WW II and the 1990's, so I found it a lot easier to follow.
But no, there are no Blyton books mentioned in "Chemistry".