Looking for a story

bensdad · Post by **bensdad** » 26 Jul 2006, 19:20

On the off chance that some of you have read absolutely everything EB wrote, I wonder if this rings a bell. I'm looking for a story involving a Clown, a Wardrobe, Jousting, Jacket Potatoes, and Brussel sprouts. I've posted this query to Loganberry and various other sites, to no avail. Somebody suggested Blyton, and who knows? Maybe you do? Thanks

Viking Star · Post by **Viking Star** » 27 Jul 2006, 00:03

Unless someone has made an odd update to an Enid Blyton book, jacket potatoes are very much before EB's time so I would have thought you could rule any of her books out.

HeatherS · Post by **HeatherS** » 27 Jul 2006, 04:12

I'm not sure what you mean about jacket potatoes being "before Enid's time" - I eat them myself! I do remember children eating them at least once in her books, but that certainly doesn't explain them in relation to the other "ingredients" of the story that bensdad listed. Jousting sounds very un-Blytonish to me (freely adding to the dictionary at whim).

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 27 Jul 2006, 06:34

Sounds a bit Roald Dahl to me.

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 27 Jul 2006, 08:50

I don't know that story but jacket potatoes do feature in a number of Blyton books, as Heather said. Off the top of my head I remember the Faraway Tree mother promising to cook potatoes in their jackets for the children's supper. And I'm sure that, in several books, children cook jacket potatoes in the embers of a campfire. In Six Cousins Again, Rose Longfield bakes jacket potatoes for the family. She isn't used to preparing meals and Blyton remarks: "It was quite incredible, but it took Melisande and her mother over an hour to get the meal." To be honest I find that remark puzzling, since jacket potatoes do take about an hour to cook properly in the oven. Not that Enid Blyton was an expert on cooking.

I recall reading somewhere (Barbara Stoney, perhaps?) that, in the early days of her marriage to Hugh, Enid Blyton once rang up her friend (and illustrator) Phyllis Chase, to ask her how to bake a potato for Hugh's supper (it was the maid's day off!)

Anita

Viking Star · Post by **Viking Star** » 27 Jul 2006, 13:29

Actually I meant to say after Enid's time - but either way, it seems I was wrong!

As I've almost only read the adventure/mystery type books, I suppose that I was being a bit presumptious..... Apologies!

bensdad · Post by **bensdad** » 27 Jul 2006, 17:37

No it's not Dahl, or any of the many other lift/elevator books.
Briefly:

family of children are visiting relative with old house, and sleeping in the same bed in the attic, which has the usual wardrobe. In the middle of the night a (very spooky) clown pokes his head out of the wardrobe and beckons to the children. This image seems to coincide with a remembered illustration that haunted me for years. They eventually venture into the wardrobe which turns out to be a lift (an elevator) with buttons that take you to different places. One place they visit is a medieaval jousting tournament, where they partake of hot jacket potatoes (another illustration springs to mind). At another location they meet a White-Knight sort of character sitting on a Brussels carpet with all sorts of bric-a-brac on it, and he makes a joke about whether, if vegetables grew up through his carpet, they would be Brussels sprouts. Hilarious if you're six, eh?

Looking for a story

Looking for a story

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