The Enid Blyton Society

I entirely agree with BB, Poppy, Anita and Pete.

People who likes detective stories very much usually graduated from FFO series and the like for example Nancy Drew series, Three Investigators, Happy Hollisters, Brains Benton, Trixie Belden, Dana Girls, Kay Tracey, Judy Bolton and many more. These series are more popular in U.S. I have all of them.

The Find-Outers series is indeed a proper detective series, with an injection of mischief and fun. Poison-pen letters make for an intriguing subject as dark secrets of all kinds are dredged up, the victims are affected psychologically and the perpetrator is revealed to be bitter and twisted (though I'm not sure whether we get to know the motive in Spiteful Letters).

I agree, poison pen can damage a person psychologically rather than physically. But it can lead the person to harm himself/herself because he/she can't stand anymore the torment.

Person who send poison pen is usually considered as a weak person. They scare to confront the person, so they sort their dissatisfaction by sending poison pen.

When I googled, I came to the same result like Anita. If the poison pen contains death threat, then it is considered a crime. I can't remember the detail in Moving Fingers by AC( the plot revolves around poison pen) so can't be sure what's the British law regarding poison pen in 1940s.

The anonymous notes in Spiteful Letters probably don't contain threats of physical harm, though we don't get to see all the notes so we don't have the full picture. I get the impression that they're mainly gloating and malicious, designed to disturb people mentally rather than threaten bodily harm. Whether the sender could have been prosecuted in the 1940s is still uncertain.

In Agatha Christie's "The Moving Finger", the poison pen letters are a smokescreen to hide the motive for murder and to present a reason why the victim would take her own life.

I am one of those people who love detective fiction and enjoyed the FFO as a child.
Like sixret, I too moved on to The Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Brains Benton and Trixie Beldon, before discovering Agatha Christie at thirteen.
I still read detective stories when I get the time.

It's nice to know someone who has moved to the same direction, Snugglepot.

Hignoramous- I've found this word in Spiteful Letters. I couldn't believe Enid had used this unknown word( to me). I have to find the meaning online. I've never used dictionary when I read EB books before! But no hignoramous in the online dictionary. I just found ignoramous. This is getting stranger.

So far, I've reread the first 4 titles in FFO series, Spiteful Letters is the best. Currently, I am rereading Missing Necklace.

I loved and enjoyed reading Family at Red-Roofs but it has many sad moments. I need to read 2 titles in funny FFO series before I could tackle the next title in Family series.

sixret wrote:Hignoramous- I've found this word in Spiteful Letters. I couldn't believe Enid had used this unknown word( to me). I have to find the meaning online. I've never used dictionary when I read EB books before! But no hignoramous in the online dictionary. I just found ignoramous. This is getting stranger.

The word is 'ignoramous' but presumably, depending who uses the word (I can't recall) it's a way of depicting a 'Cockney' accent, whereby many words are pronounced with an 'h' where there isnt one, such as 'hignoramous' 'hidiot' instead of 'idiot' 'habsolutely' rather than 'absolutely' etc, as parodied in 'Pygmalion' with the saying 'In 'Artford Erriford and Ampshire, urricanes ardly Hever Appen' !

Thank you for the explanation, Rob.

The FFO and dog are up there with my favourite Blyton books. Has anyone else noticed that when Fatty dresses up he almost always uses dirty clothes?

deepeabee wrote: Has anyone else noticed that when Fatty dresses up he almost always uses dirty clothes?

Yes he usually dressed as some disreputable character like a tramp or an old night watchman or suchlike. I guess it's to make himself utterly different from his normal clean middle class self.

I know that but in Tally Ho he dresses up as an Indian with normal clothes and a turban yet the trousers are dirty and tight.

That's an interesting observation. I obviously knew he dressed up as various gypsies and tramps and generally 'lower class' people, but I didn't notice till now that he never dresses as a toff or an upper-crust type! Obviously the excitement was to mix with the lowly and unwashed of Peterswood!

I guess it was partly because of Enid Blyton's assumption that 'all' villains were lower class! people who wear clean clothes don't commit crimes!!