The Enid Blyton Society

Well I personally wish Brian well and success with his book publishing endeavour.
I hope in the future he can be reconciled with the Enid Blyton society and we can all be friends who share a common love and appreciation of Enid Blyton together.

Hello everyone
It is said that silence gives consent. So I have to break my word because of a new development. I called Mr Watson early this morning (Sunday, March 8,) on the subject of a statement in a page in my website that was questioned by Tony.
Mr Watson told me he had been in a bookshop in Euston when he noticed several copies of Nash Magazine. It was here he came across the three poems and decided to have them set to music.
So now there are two separate facts to deal with. The first is that Mr Watson came across the poems in Nash Magazine independently and engaged a composer to set them to music. The second is that Barbara Stoney also came across the poems in Nash Magazine and brought them to light in the Biography of Enid Blyton. I chose to state the first fact in the article in my website for there was a direct source to substantiate the statement. And I’m now thankful to Mr Watson for confirming how he came across the poems.
Secondly I have to state that Tony was merely guessing when he asked the question: ‘how else would Cliff have known where to look!’ He was assuming that Barbara Stoney’s source was the only one he could have consulted and therefore could not have discovered the poems in any other way.
Now Anita, I’m so glad you’ve joined in the debate. It was so nice to see you looking so cheerful and lovely in some of the pictures I saw of guests at one of the Enid Blyton Day, in the Enid Blyton Society’s website.
In the light of this new development it cannot be said that I have repeated information in my website that is not correct. As stated earlier, Both Mr Watson and Barbara Stoney discovered the poems, but in different ways.
Secondly, regarding your statement: ‘The article is also wrong in saying that the Maud Dyrenfurth poem is thought to have been written by Enid Blyton…’ * If you mean Mr Fisk’s article then I agree with your assertion. The statement needed clarifying, which I have done in my article.
Well so long folks.
Brian
*Members can go back to Mr Fisk's article to see the statement he has made on this subject.

Even before this dispute arose I decided I wouldn't be buying this book. I have a limited amount of space on my bookshelves and would rather buy something else by Enid herself. I have Barbara Stoney's biography, Tony's Dossier and have read George Greenfield's book and that's good enough for me.

Although Cliff Watkins found the magazines in a bookshop, he was already aware that they contained the poems because he was (and still is) very familiar with Barbara Stoney's Enid Blyton - the Biography.

Robert Fisk says in his article:

Mr Watkins, from the Beckenham Civic Society, discovered three poems in the pages of a magazine from 1917 with two of them definitely written by Miss Blyton... To showcase them to a wider audience he commissioned composer Gordon Carr to set three poems, by or about the children’s author, to music.

You say a similar thing on your website, Brian:

The person who’s responsible for bringing them together for this auspicious occasion is Cliff Watkins, a historian from the Beckenham Civic Society. It was he who came across the three poems while perusing several issues of the long since out of print 1917 Nash’s and Pall Mall Magazines.
But instead of bringing them to light by having them published one way or the other, he commissioned Gordon Carr, a composer, to set them to music.

Anyone unfamiliar with Barbara Stoney's book would assume from reading those statements that, until Cliff came across them, the poems hadn't seen the light of day since they were first published in the magazines.

Hermes wrote:Secondly I have to state that Tony was merely guessing when he asked the question: ‘how else would Cliff have known where to look!’ He was assuming that Barbara Stoney’s source was the only one he could have consulted and therefore could not have discovered the poems in any other way.

I suppose I have to respond to this as it seems yet again you seem to be suggesting that I don't know what I am talking about! I don't ever guess unless I say I am guessing, as I have said before I like to deal in facts not speculation. I have known Cliff Watkins for a number of years - yes, his name is Watkins and not Watson as you continually put and this is your error and not wrong in the newspaper article. So this is actually what happened.

Cliff found some bound volumes of Nash's Magazine in a bookshop. He was not sure which issues contained Blyton poems, so before buying the wrong thing he phoned me to ask which issues they were in. I told him that if he bought 1917 he would get two of the poems and I gave him the dates of the issues that they were in, but he would miss out on the third poem as this was published in 1918. He then went ahead and bought the correct volume.

All three poems are sitting on our website and are scans of Enid's own copies as I have many of Enid's own things here including the workbook in which she put these cuttings. They have been there for a number of years a long time before they were supposedly discovered by Cliff and he looked in the right place as I told him where to look.

I don't normally give full details of things such as this, but you seem quite determined to try to prove that I am mistaken and also seem to think that I know very little about Blyton and her work, when I have been researching it for the last 25 years!

I've just read the three poems. Thanks for putting things like that in The Cave Tony - yes I know they've probably been there for ages, but I've only just looked.

I don't know if anybody else has noticed, but the website for this book seems to have vanished. I am not sure if this means that the book has been abandoned or if the website just has a new different address. A great pity if it is the former as I know that Brian Carter put a lot of work into this for more than a decade. Pete seems to be our expert here so perhaps he can throw some light on what the position is.

Well, it certainly seems to be an untold story now.

Wow! What have I been missing?

Quite a lot.... good to see you here again Robert.

You'll have quite a job catching up, Rob. Where have you been hiding!

Welcome back, Rob!!

Good to see you looking in, Rob!

Brian Carter's website is back but the book still hasn't been published!

http://www.enidblytonbio.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Welcome back, Rob.

Yes,welcome back!

I emailed Brian when it was noticed his web page was down asking him how things were moving along with the book,but as yet I have not heard back from him.