35 Signs You Read Enid Blyton As A Child...

[pete9012S]

35 Signs You Read Enid Blyton As A Child (And Quite Possibly As An Adult)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/screeneyedmonst ... km2kva5ZvE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Daisy]

Very good. I enjoyed that Pete.

[Anita Bensoussane]

We had a link to that some months ago:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... ed#p197004" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I was a child I certainly thought I would like to live in a horse-drawn caravan when I grew up - or perhaps in a lighthouse! And even today my idea of heaven would be to discover a colony of Great Auks on a remote island, or a stack of gold ingots in a cave or dungeon.

[Timmy The Dog]

Thats excellent! I can relate to many of those!

[Poppy]

That is a great, article, thanks Pete. Comical, thoughtful, and nice to see all those original illustrations! I have to say, I giggled at various 'signs' in the article - including the fact that my no:1 insult word to use is 'donkey' as established in fact 5. Not that I recall any Blyton character using this...?

[Carlotta King]

I know that the Trents/Mannerings call Gussy a donkey when he's making a fuss about carrying his own lunch on the picnic hike, he says he will not be a donkey and then one of the children says "Gee up donkey, stop braying", and I'm pretty sure that Julian calls Dick a donkey in one (or more) of the FF books but I cant remember which one(s) and I haven't got time to check at the moment.

[pete9012S]

We had a link to that some months ago:

Yes,I thought we did! I searched a bit,then gave up.

*humbly acknowledges Anita's superior mental agility (and memory)!*

[Anita Bensoussane]

I remembered the topic title and the date of the old post but I misremembered the time - I had thought it was posted at 7.55 PM.

(Only joking - I found it by searching for "Buzzfeed"!)

[John Pickup]

Thanks, Pete. I see the article contained a Betty Maxey illustration.

[Francis]

Thank you Pete. I qualify for nearly all of them - thank goodness!

[Francis]

I would add one more - always carry a piece of string, a compass, some chalk and emergency rations!

[Francis]

And one more. Make sure you tell others what to do - especially females. Izzy particularly likes being bossed
around by me!

[walter raleigh]

Well, that was a pleasant suprise. An article that actually seems to understand the appeal of Blyton, and celebrates it, rather then sneering about racism, and sexism, and poor vocabulary, and all the other sins Enid is usually accused of. And although while I agree with Poppy that it's nice to see the original illustrations, I can't help but notice that the majority of them are "borrowed" from the cave, so I'm not sure Tony would be quite as sanguine. In fact given the tone of the article and the source of the illustrations it wouldn't surprise me if the author isn't rather well known to us. Does anybody want to 'fess up?

[Courtenay]

Wow, that IS pretty good - if rather biased towards the school stories, which I haven't read and therefore can't really relate to. But most of the others, yes.

They did have to mention race and gender relations, I notice, but only in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. I think most of us here would agree we don't really have "mixed, troublesome and problematic" feelings about either issue, despite growing up with Enid Blyton! But at least it was more like an acknowledgment that there are elements of Blyton that are now controversial, rather than condemning those elements entirely - or arguing that they should be edited out to protect today's young minds from such corruption.

[Wolfgang]

Wow, that IS pretty good - if rather biased towards the school stories, which I haven't read and therefore can't really relate to.

Well, Courtney, it's never too late .