Banshee Towers

[Green Hedges]

Here is an analysis of The Mystery of Banshee Towers:

http://www.enidblyton.me.uk/styled-54/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is now something up there on all of the Find-Outers books.

I have done my best to make the series go out with a bang rather than a whimper.

Duncan

[pete9012S]

Hurray! I'm going to read this right away with my fishfingers.
Many thanks, Duncan.

The force is indeed strong with you!

Best Wishes

Pete

[Fiona1986]

Might be better using your eyes, Pete

[Green Hedges]

Something to chew over as you munch your fish fingers, Pete...

Why is the German edition of The Mystery of Banshee Towers called Mystery of the Blue Boat when it is a tiny red boat that goes missing from the seascape painting?

Do you think those fish fingers of yours were caught by a red boat sailing out of Swanage or a blue boat out of Hamburg?

Questions, questions.

D

[Boodi 2]

Thanks ever so much! I really enjoyed that, especially the addition at the end. No idea why the German translator decided to change the red boat to a blue boat...perhaps it sounds better or she/he was trying to avoid an association with left-wing political parties (although that seems highly unlikely). Perhaps someone who is a native speaker might have a better idea/explanation.

[Lucky Star]

Excellent work Duncan. Very enjoyable especially the Pastiche at the end.

[Eddie Muir]

A most enjoyable read, if I may say so, Duncan. Many thanks indeed.

[Wolfgang]

Why is the German edition of The Mystery of Banshee Towers called Mystery of the Blue Boat when it is a tiny red boat that goes missing from the seascape painting?
D

I suppose it's easier to miss a blue boat in blue waves than a red boat in blue waves...

[Boodi 2]

That makes sense! Well done Wolfgang!

[pete9012S]

Great comments everyone!

Really enjoyed that article. Many thanks, Duncan. Always seems strange to me that what many see as a lacklustre book is so damn hard to track down in a decent hardbacked original edition.
Took me ages and a lot of help to procure mine.

The boat:

The French edition seems to have changed it to being GREEN in colour??




Wanna see some other foreign language covers?

[Green Hedges]

Thanks for the comments all.

Those are some weird covers, Pete. The good thing about the German cover is that it evokes the freedom of childhood.

I don't think the red boat/blue boat has been convincingly explained yet. If the author tells you that the boat is a spot of red, then you, the illustrator, have no right to make it a spot of blue. Actually, given that it's the German title that says 'blue' boat (blaues boot), I wonder whether the boat is described as blue throughout the text. Surely not! But then if it isn't, then the title is a nonsense.

I wonder what Chrissy thinks. Chrissy are you there?

Also, I wonder if the 2020 edition in German retains the word blue in the title. Maybe the book has been translated by someone else and a completely different wording has been used in the title.

The Mystery of the Blue Boat, indeed.

[MJE]

     And considering the point around the boat that the plot turned on in some ways, isn't the title itself something of a spoiler? I'd have thought that was a cardinal sin in fiction.

Regards, Michael.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's interesting to see the photos, Duncan - especially the one of Enid Blyton and Noddy outside the Scala Theatre.

I enjoyed looking at the foreign language book covers, Pete. Some of the artwork is lovely.

[Wolfgang]

Duncan,

in the German translations it's a blue boat throughout the complete text.

[timv]

Many thanks for this, Duncan, most interesting. The storyline of 'mysterious noises heard in a room, then discovered to be crooks down a tunnel creating alarm to scare off the public ' reminds me of the solution to the odd noises in another 'haunted' location - the inn/ hotel bedroom in Wales occupied by Miss Pepper and Diana in Ragamuffin Mystery. There the innkeeper/ hotel manager/ chef's wife warns off Miss P from using the room as it's 'haunted' and tries to get her out, but she stays put and the noises are heard - it turns out to be the smugglers shifting goods down in the secret tunnel from the beach below. The boys find the tunnel entrance on the beach and follow the tunnel up to the cave under the bedroom, then find its secret trapdoor up into the room. In this version of the tunnel/noises story, Fatty finds the tunnel entrance from the room. The 'painter who turns out to be dodgy' is also a bit reminiscent of the fake persona of the smugglers' leader in that book, who has bought the inn/ hotel. The question of 'how does a painting that appears to have been replaced get out of a room without anyone seeing it go' has elements of the mysterious disappearances of documents from locked rooms in Rilloby Fair - in that case , via a very narrow chimney.

As Ragamuffin came out in 1959, ie the most recent non-Famous Five adventure written by Enid, was she recycling ideas from it (accidentally or not?) in Banshee Towers as a sign of her failing powers? I seem to remember there's also a reference to an alternative holiday attraction, the 'sea caves', that seems to refer to Enid recalling the caves at Tilly Whim near Swanage,(then ) open to the public. In her mind, Peterswood now seems to be near the coast not in the Thames valley!