The Enid Blyton Society

I really enjoyed reading this article and I love the idea. What do you think?

https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2017/1 ... of-prizes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Certainly a positive spin on Enid Blyton.

cheers
Sue

Thanks for the link Aussie Sue. That is brilliant. There certainly seems to be a different attitude to Enid and her writing these days from the negativity displayed in the late 50s and onwards for several decades.

Interesting idea - although I disagree that all Blyton adventures end with the 'return home' - a return to safety maybe, but not necessarily 'home' lol!

As I've said before (and Julie was quick to point out my repetition of the story) I wrote many a story in Enid Blyton's style when I was a child, and my teacher told my mom I was obviously keen on Enid Blyton, after reading one of them, which started with a train journey to a cottage by the sea with some secret passages, baddies who were smuggling, and ultimately the unearthing of the families long lost treasure...!!

It would absolutely not have suited me to work the way that these children worked, however - all writing a story together - what an absolute nightmare that would have been for me! I like my own creation to be my own - no one else butting in telling me what to write! I never worked well in group situations, because I quite simply would have been the one at the back not putting my hand up, and all my ideas would have gone to waste.

Nice idea for those children who enjoy working this way...but I'm sure there were just as many who wouldn't benefit from the experience.

A fantastic idea, Sue, though it's a pity the stories couldn't be longer than 500-800 words. How refreshing to see Enid Blyton's writing style being regarded as something to value and emulate!

I agree - its brilliant to see Enid regarded so positively as she used to be. Mind you, I never came up against any negativity about Blyton as a child, as many others here did. She was the 'bees knees' of my generation, lol!

Its brilliant this was done to commemorate the 75 anniversary of the Famous Five. i agree with Anita though that the word count doesn't sound very long. That's a shame - especially as it was a whole class effort.

I do think its quite sad that the 75 anniversary came and went without a special Famous Five book aimed at adults (and no - I don't mean by Bruno Vincent!!). It would have been good to have a high-quality annual of some sort, in my opinion. I'm kind of hoping something will be planned for next year, as its 50 years since Enid's death...but again, I won't hold my breath.

     Am I missing something about this - because, when I read the linked article, it didn't seem to be nearly so much about what it was claiming to be about: i.e., writing Enid-Blyton-style stories. It was more about making multi-media productions with fancy software and stuff.
     I just found this - and, while I am in some ways supportive of anything that will encourage children's creativity and literacy, and I do like Enid Blyton being portrayed positively rather than negatively, I must (at the risk of sounding like a wet blanket) admit to having doubts about aspects of this.
     When I began reading, phrases like "writing a story in the style of Enid Blyton" made me think literally of writing - words on paper, or at least on a computer screen. But it then seemed that it was really a "multi-media" project of some sort, and it began to remind me of those quick courses that promise to make you an expert musician after only 10 lessons or whatever using a sure-fire formula that would cut through the years of drudgery old-school musicians went through to acquire their skills. As a pianist who acquired pianistic skill, knowledge of music theory, and so on over decades, I am very sceptical of any claimed short-cuts like this, even though I have no actual knowledge of these "guaranteed" short courses.
     And this Enid Blyton multi-media thing on that web page reminded me a bit of that: seeming to suggest that you can use computers and multi-media as a kind of glamorous short-cut to writing Enid-Blyton-style stories instead of the hard slog of using words, knowing grammar, plot structure, and such things. (I don't think you can reduce a plot, even an Enid Blyton one, to a simplistic five-step formula like that mentioned in the article. Her plots in fact are not nearly so limited and copies of each other as many seem to claim.)
     Well, I know nothing more about it, and that article didn't really give me a clear picture of how the project worked, so I won't try to say a lot more beyond the above. But that was the impression it tended to give me once I actually read it. It seemed self-contradictory, talking about writing Enid-Blyton-style stories, but then using computers, multi-media and such. "Stories" to me means "words on paper (or computer screen at least - but still words)" - *not* multi-media tricks and special software (provided by Microsoft) ("text, images and even their own voices to... video, pictures, stop motion animation and audio" - sounds more like a television programme to me than a "story in the style of Enid Blyton".)
     I guess I'm old-school and conservative - and, without knowing more, I suppose I do support it if it does help literacy and creativity and imagination, and also if it portrays Enid Blyton's work favourably. But the story didn't seem in the end to be referring to what it initially seemed to be promising.
     Am I missing something? Or am I just old-fashioned enough to think that a story is *writing* and not modern media?

Regards, Michael.

     However, just to add a bit more, this did remind me of something I encountered at school in 1967. It was a joint novel written by school children, who created an adventure story called "Dangerous Secret" some years earlier. It was sponsored by the A.B.C.'s (then Australian Broadcasting Commission) "Argonauts' Club" which was linked to the main A.B.C. radio station and encouraged various creative endeavours amongst the child members. So it was probably a very good thing for children in its day.
     A chapter was written at a time, and children would submit their chapter, and also illustrations were sought (probably for the previous chapter, as illustrators would first have to know what they had to illustrate), and the editors, led by John Gunn, would select the winning entry and it would officially become part of the story; then a bit later on the competition would move to the next chapter, and solicited entries had to build upon previous chapters accepted, like a Round Robin.
     I read the story after finding it in the school library in 1967, and quite enjoyed it. It had a certain Blyton flavour to it perhaps, although in a much harder Australian setting, and also some of the plot elements seemed more "adult" somehow - quite surprising for writers who I think in the main were no older than their early teens. (For example, lawyers and legal battles to control a farm were a big part of the story - a serious attempt to murder a woman by sabotaging her car - then deliberately starting a bushfire in tinder-dry bushland to try to destroy the farm - pretty heavy, dangerous stuff.)
     Many years later I thought I'd like to read the story again, but couldn't find it despite on-and-off Googling for years. But I had misremembered the title as "Dangerous Adventure" instead of the correct "Dangerous Secret"), so that led all my searches astray. Also, I hadn't remembered either the editor's name (John Gunn) or the A.B.C. and Argonauts' Club connection. By accident I did finally learn at least one of these details, and it took me only minutes to learn the remaining details and locate and buy a copy on eBay. Just knowing the correct information was all it took.
     As an adult I wasn't *quite* as impressed by the story as I was as a child, but it was still not bad - and quite impressive for a Round Robin by early teenagers.
     Very likely no-one here will know of it (except possibly Australian or former Australian members like Courtenay), because I think this was very much an Australia-only publication. But it's an interesting by-way in the world of children's novels.
     And no multi-media whatsoever: words on paper, and illustrations also.
     I probably should be more open about and receptive to multi-media-type stuff. But it just doesn't excite me, whereas writing words and chapters and such does.

Regards, Michael.

Oi mate, I'm not a "former" Australian!! I wasn't around in 1967, though, so I don't remember the story you're describing. It does sound interesting, though.

     Sorry - I was sure you live in England now.

Regards, Michael.

I do. But I certainly haven't given up my Australian citizenship (or my accent!)...

     Funny... although I'd never left Australia until 2014, I have at different times been taken as British (including once by a British tourist I met) presumably because of the (not very Australian) way I seem to speak...
     One theory is that it's in fact a South Australian accent, and they do tend to speak a bit that way - especially in the 1960s. Both my brothers lost all trace of it decades ago, though.

Regards, Michael.

Generally people from Birmingham are usually mistaken for Australians by American tourists...!

Fair dinkum, Robbo mate??

     Is it true that Bostonians can be mistaken for British by some people? I have a vague idea I've read or heard that, but am not totally sure.

Probably not by anyone who knows their British accents, I'd say. It's just that the Boston (Massachusetts) accent is softer than most American accents and non-rhotic — i.e. they don't pronounce the letter "r" distinctly at the end of a word or syllable (same as Australians and many Brits, but unlike most Americans). I've been to Boston and there are lots of jokes about Bostonians saying "pahk the cah in Hahvud Yahd" and drinking "beah" and eating "chowdah" and so on, which is what it sounds like to other Americans. But I wouldn't think many of them would outright mistake it for a British accent. I could be wrong, though...