The Enid Blyton Society

Thank you.

I have been made to feel really welcome, and my journal has arrived. \o/

I love corned beef and beetroot sandwiches too!

The Five rarely have sandwiches that I would consider quite common these days - cheese and pickle, or cheese and tomato or just cheese on its own, or even egg sandwiches, as far as I can remember.

Very tasty ones too!

I wonder if cheese was more of a luxury good in those days, or perhaps because it was rationed it wasn't mentioned much. I know sweets and chocolates were also rationed and they appeared in the books, but maybe Enid felt to mention too many unobtainable foods would be cruel. Or maybe she didn't particularly like cheese herself?

I've a feeling that one or two books feature children having a meal of hard cheese and stale bread, so maybe cheese wasn't a luxury, but a poor person's fare?

I guess cheese was rationed - I remember we did have cheese but like most things not in any great quantity.

The Famous Five do have cream cheese a few times though, which for a bunch of kids seems quite exotic! I'd never even had cream cheese until I was in my 20s!

I do remember one short story of Enid's that features cheese as an essential part of the plot. It's the one about a yellowhammer who decides to steal cheese from a farm's storehouse but gets locked in there, so he has nothing to eat but cheese for a whole week. When the farmer's wife finds the little bird lying half dead on the floor, all he can say is "Little bit of bread and no cheese"... hence why he still does today!

Welcome to the forum, by the way, Anne's Sandwiches - so glad you found the stories you were looking for and hope we'll hear from you in other discussions as well!

Thank you everyone, what a lovely bunch you are!