Enid Blyton recommends....

[timv]

Logically, I think that the author who was the son of a publisher should be David 'Severn', real name Faber - son of one of the Faber and Faber publishing house dynasty. He was writing in the 1940s , and did similar books to Enid, especially ones featuring family holidays on farms with crime and 'gypsy' involvement. I've read a couple of his books starting with 'Rick Afire!' where two town cousins go to stay with two country cousins on the latter's farm and they meet up with a mysterious adult visitor, Mr 'Crusoe' (so called because his real surname is Robinson and he lives close to Nature like Robinson Crusoe).He has some similarities to Enid's Tammylan and Mr Twigg, though he is more 'respectable', and is wrongly accused of crime by the locals like Mr Twigg is by PC Potts, so the children have to clear him; later he buys a horse-drawn caravan for the children to join him on a tour. I think that the book, pub ?1943, could have given Enid as well as Malcolm Saville ideas for what would work sales-wise; the 'setting ricks afire' charge made about Mr Robinson is reminiscent of several incidents in later Saville books, eg 'All Summer Though' (1952, a favourite of mine but now mostly forgotten) and the Lone Pine story 'Not Scarlet But Gold'.

David Severn is a really good writer in my opinion, but I only rarely see his books anywhere; they do not seem to have been republished, and possibly the lack of interest by Armada in the 1960s was a problem. I'm glad to see that Monica Edwards makes the list!

[Kate Mary]

Does that leave just one?

M E Atkinson perhaps?

[Katharine]

Violet Needham - I would never have thought of her though if Judith hadn't given me the answer in another topic.

If there are any other names missing, then I'd say:
Angela Brazil
Elinor Brent-Dyer

[Kate Mary]

Just reread one of your earlier posts Judith about a writer dismissive of Enid Blyton - surely not Alison Uttley? A fellow resident of Beaconsfield, I thought she and Enid were at daggers drawn.

[Jomo]

Is one of them Lucy M. Boston? The ‘Greenknowe’ series was great!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I thought of W E Johns, and ‘Biggles’ but discounted it as a favourite of EB’s, though I know they both topped the list of children’s favourites.

Biggles was a favourite of my fathers...

When I was a child, we had a few Biggles books on the bookcase. Because they had pictures of an adult airman on the front, I assumed they were for adults so I never read them! I knew they were my dad's but I imagined he'd read them as a young man - not as a boy!

Just reread one of your earlier posts Judith about a writer dismissive of Enid Blyton - surely not Alison Uttley? A fellow resident of Beaconsfield, I thought she and Enid were at daggers drawn.

Noel Streatfeild, who is on the list, was also dismissive of Enid Blyton.

Logically, I think that the author who was the son of a publisher should be David 'Severn', real name Faber - son of one of the Faber and Faber publishing house dynasty. He was writing in the 1940s , and did similar books to Enid, especially ones featuring family holidays on farms with crime and 'gypsy' involvement...

...David Severn is a really good writer in my opinion, but I only rarely see his books anywhere; they do not seem to have been republished, and possibly the lack of interest by Armada in the 1960s was a problem.

There has been a little discussion of David Severn's adventure-type books on the forums before and they do sound good, though I've never come across any of them myself. A little while ago, however, I found (for £1 in a charity shop) a Puffin paperback of a science fiction-type David Severn book called The Future Took Us. To quote the opening paragraph of the 'blurb':

Two schoolboys are mysteriously snatched away from their headmaster's study and transported into the future. They eventually discover that it is the year A. D. 3000, but civilization has come to an end. The Britain they knew has been ravaged by a vast explosion, and its people appear to have reverted to a primitive life. But as the boys make their dangerous way through wild forests towards Ondin (as London is now called) sinister monk-like figures appear who seem to have absolute power over the populace. The boys are horrified to witness a terrible execution and afterwards penetrate into a strange underground city from which mathematicians seek to rule the world.

As a child, I read books of a similar sort by John Christopher and Peter Dickinson.

This is a super thread by the way, Judith! With all the authors that have been suggested, we've created quite a reading list between us!

[Judith Crabb]

Yes, Kate Mary, Joanna Cannan, who established the genre with her 'A Pony for Jean' in 1936, and yes again, not Alison Uttley. As Anita pointed out, the dismissive one is Noel Streatfeild.
Yes timv, David Severn it is, but the father is Stanley Unwin, not Faber. I didn't read Severn as a child, but I believe he was popular, especially his Bill Badger books for younger children.
Yes Katharine, somehow I thought you'd get the final one!
I didn't miss Biggles, Anita, because I had boy cousins, but now I'm at a loss to remember any particular plot though at the time I thought they were great.
We can thank aussiesue indirectly for this thread because I discovered the pamphlet in her collection.

[Judith Crabb]

As a summary of this this thread so far I quote Enid Blyton's own words:
‘There are many first-class writers for both boys and girls nowadays. To mention a few – there are Violet Needham, Monica Edwards, Joanna Cannan, Noel Streatfield (sic), the Pullein-Thompsons, David Severn, Malcolm Seville (sic) and Captain W.E. Johns. These are not all – ask your young friends who are their favourite authors, and why, and they will enlighten you much further’.
Of the eight names only Needham I felt as a child as important to me as Enid Blyton - 'The Emerald Crown' and 'The Horn of Merlyns' as significant as 'Valley of Adventure', or 'Boys' and Girls' Circus Book' but I loved the Romney Marsh novels of Monica Edwards and Malcolm Saville's Lone Piners. W.E. Johns and the Pullein-Thompsons I read in abundance.
My answer to the question Enid Blyton suggests would also include Elinor Lyon, Rosemary Sutcliff, Jane Shaw, Lorna Hill's 'Annette' series, Richmal Crompton and L.M. Montgomery, especially 'Emily'.
Happy Days.

[Kate Mary]

David Severn's Bill Badger books not to be confused with BB's Bill Badger books (Bill Badger was also Rupert Bear's best pal). BB is another brilliant author; The Little Grey Men, Down the Bright Stream, Wild Lone, Manka the Sky Gypsy, Brendon Chase and many more. Happy days indeed.

[Anita Bensoussane]

We can thank aussiesue indirectly for this thread because I discovered the pamphlet in her collection.

Thanks, Sue!

As a summary of this this thread so far I quote Enid Blyton's own words:

‘There are many first-class writers for both boys and girls nowadays. To mention a few – there are Violet Needham, Monica Edwards, Joanna Cannan, Noel Streatfield (sic), the Pullein-Thompsons, David Severn, Malcolm Seville (sic) and Captain W.E. Johns. These are not all – ask your young friends who are their favourite authors, and why, and they will enlighten you much further’.

Of the eight names only Needham I felt as a child as important to me as Enid Blyton - 'The Emerald Crown' and 'The Horn of Merlyns' as significant as 'Valley of Adventure', or 'Boys' and Girls' Circus Book' but I loved the Romney Marsh novels of Monica Edwards and Malcolm Saville's Lone Piners. W.E. Johns and the Pullein-Thompsons I read in abundance.

The only one of the eight that was of great importance to me as a child of the 1970s was Noel Streatfeild, especially Apple Bough, Ballet Shoes, The Circus is Coming, White Boots, A Vicarage Family and the Gemma books. I enjoyed Malcolm Saville but couldn't get hold of many titles at the time I was looking for them (around 1981). I read quite a few of the Pullein-Thompson pony books but borrowed them from the library rather than buying them so I never re-read them.

Thinking of other authors of the period, Gwendoline Courtney and Antonia Forest haven't had a mention (though Antonia Forest wouldn't have written very many of her Marlows books at that stage).

[Katharine]

Yes, thanks Sue and Judith for the list.

The only one of those authors I read as a child, and indeed as an adult - is Noel Streatfeild. I remember seeing the Pullein-Thompsons books listed in other books, but I seem to remember they were horse stories which I didn't think would be of interest. I don't recall hearing of any of the others, although I think I did know of the Biggles books, but dismissed them as being 'for boys'.

[Boodi 2]

As a "horse-mad" child I read all the Pullein-Thompson and Monica Edwards books and really enjoyed them, although I still preferred my Blytons. Apart from that I read one or two of the Biggles books but they did not really appeal to me and I cannot remember much about them.

[Debbie]

The only author I haven't read from that list is Joanna Cannan, but I wasn't really into pony books (don't really count Monica Edwards as pony stories after the first couple. They're much more about the adventure)

As a child I associated Noel Streatfeild and EB, I think because they both wrote lots of different stories, whereas most authors had their series and didn't really venture out.
As an adult NS is writing far more about real life (at the time) but her stories are less varied, and her characters are nothing like as varied. In almost all there is the lacking-in-confident, not pretty middle girl surrounded by cousins/siblings who are amazingly talented and beautiful, and she comes through in the end. Then there's the older slightly worried sibling, normally a girl, sometimes boy/girl twins (other than the Adventurous 4, did EB use twins much?) and the younger very talented sibling who is supremely confident in her ability.
Other than The Children of Primrose Lane, I don't think she did stories with a set of different families, which EB did so well.
But I enjoyed both and that's really what matters!

[Jomo]

Of all the authors discussed so far, Monica Edwards was my favourite, but I couldn’t get all her books.
From age 9-12 my choices were largely dictated by the contents of our primary school library, which fortunately was a good one, with easily over 500 books to choose from and about a dozen added each month. All the Enid Blyton series were represented and in constant circulation.
Unusually for a public school, we paid an annual library fee - and fines if books were not returned on time. So our school librarian had quite a bit of cash to splash. The NSW government also sent out recommended titles, especially major book prize winners - most of these were disappointing I recall - adult ideas and unrealistically drawn children.

[Boatbuilder]

Unusually for a public school, we paid an annual library fee - and fines if books were not returned on time. So our school librarian had quite a bit of cash to splash.

Gosh, Jomo, that's s bit of a cheek, isn't it? I've never heard of that here in the UK. I was the school librarian in my last year at senior school (early 1960s) and if books were overdue, after so many days I used to go around the classrooms to remind the pupils to return them, which seemed to work. I don't ever recall any books not being returned soon after. I don't think fines were ever considered, but it might be different these days. Also, there was never a fee for using the library. We never seemed to be short of new books being added to the library as they provided plenty of work for me in cataloguing and preparing them ready for the shelves.