Text modifications in Egmont editions and elsewhere

Viv of Ginger Pop · Post by **Viv of Ginger Pop** » 28 Jun 2006, 23:55

It started in The Sunday Times, and has since been repeated in both The Belfast Telegraph and todays Daily Express, "that Bessie, a black character with a name associated with slavery, is now a white girl called Beth".

We know that there is no black child called Bessie (though a white girl is now called Beth), but for those who always wish to believe the worst about Blyton, here is more grist to their mills. And so it is that another Urban Legend is born.

Can anyone else think of other Urban Legends around Blyton that are actually a load of tosh?

Best wishes

Viv

HeatherS · Post by **HeatherS** » 29 Jun 2006, 00:08

Yes, I read the article on the internet myself and had a chuckle at the mistake. I didn't think of any Urban Legend being born from it though!

Post by **Keith Robinson** » 29 Jun 2006, 02:20

I forgot about Mafumu, otherwise I would have mentioned him. And then there's Oola from The River of Adventure. You know, now I think about it, Blyton's books should be updated. Far too many black heroes and not enough white ones. Hmph!

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 04 Jul 2006, 14:00

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Ooh - that article was certainly scathing of poor Barbara Stoney! Other than that, though, it was rather an interesting read. Several of those who posted comments were unnecessarily rude to each other, I thought. Obviously they need a good dose of Enid Blyton to teach them some manners!

Ah well, it is the Grauniad after all! I think the Daily Telegraph readers would be more kind to one another, and to Enid Blyton.

Vic Nicholas · Post by **Vic Nicholas** » 05 Jul 2006, 07:05

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... .php?t=685

I posted on this issue in the "author" section.

Blyton still has her fans who will rise up to stop this literary vandalism.

Regards,
Vic

Viking Star · Post by **Viking Star** » 09 Jul 2006, 01:00

There was an amusing letter in the Daily Mail this week following on from the recent press articles on updating EB's books.

As it's not too long I'll reproduce it here:

Enid's revenge

Criticism of the works of children's author Enid Blyton is nothing new.

In the mid-fifties I attended Oakdene school in Beaconsfield, which was next door to Miss Blyton's house.

She happened to hear that her books had been banned from our school library - not for the characters but for the perceived poor literary quality. On that occasion, she was able to get her own back.

In several of her girls' boarding school books, the losing team in inter-school matches is called Oakdene.

HeatherS · Post by **HeatherS** » 09 Jul 2006, 03:10

Hilarious, Viking Star. Does anybody else know of any revenge Enid Blyton took on real people/places in her books? It would be great to compile a list.

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 09 Jul 2006, 09:27

I hadn't heard that one before, Viking Star!

In Green Hedges Magazine (Autumn 1998), there was an article by Alice Maughton which told of how Enid Blyton once took revenge on a noisy neighbour:

"Lucy Nottingham, who was, as a child of five, a next-door neighbour to Enid Blyton, said that she was singing in her bedroom one summer evening (with the window open) and Enid, who was typing in the garden, shouted over the hedge to tell her to be quiet (ignoring, of course, that someone persistently typing out of doors in the late evening would be disturbing to others!) Later, Enid took literary revenge on Lucy by writing a short story for her Sunny Stories magazine, called "Lucy Loud Voice," about a small girl who disturbed all her neighbours by singing!

Imogen also came in for similar treatment, thinly disguised as "Isobel the Very Rude Girl" who had 'wonderful parents who could not understand what made her so badly behaved.' "

I have a book called The Enid Blyton Storybook, a 1989 WH Smith publication, which contains (according to a note at the front) stories taken from some of the Bedtime Books. One of the stories, "Linda Loud-Voice," is obviously the same story as "Lucy Loud Voice," with the name of the girl changed. Perhaps Enid Blyton changed the name herself for the Bedtime Books, having got into trouble for using Lucy, the name of her neighbour, in Sunny Stories (I believe solicitors were involved). In the story, Linda annoys her neighbours by shouting in the garden, and singing in her room when she's put to bed at night. One day a brownie-man captures her in a sack, and takes her home to his wife. Linda is to call the brownie whenever his wife wants him - her voice is so loud that he will hear her wherever he is, even though he's almost deaf. His wife says of Linda: "What a voice! I never heard anything like it in my life. Why doesn't her mother stop her, I wonder?" Linda learns to be quiet and, as she is of no use to them then, the brownie-folk let her go. She returns home a reformed child!

Another example is the nasty gardener Tupping in The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat. He was apparently based on one of Enid's own gardeners, Old Tapping. In her book A Childhood at Green Hedges, Imogen Smallwood writes: "My mother and Old Tapping were enemies. I suspect that she inherited him with the garden. He seemed to dislike all of us and eventually he left, dismissed, he later told his grandson Kenneth, for taking vegetables home."

Anita

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 09 Jul 2006, 11:05

There are times when I think you must have a photographic memory Anita! I had forgotten all about Lucy Nottingham until you posted. The article in Green Hedges Magazine by Alice Maughton (I believe this was one of many pseudonyms used by Michael Rouse) was about the very unbalanced Channel 4 programme Secret Lives - which also contained the allegations of nude tennis parties referred to by Viv in another thread.

Round about this time I was contacted by Lucy Nottingham as she wanted help in tracing other stories about her in Sunny Stories and in exchange she wrote an article about the incident in Journal 8. I remember trawling through Sunny Stories and finding one or two other stories with Lucy as the central naughty character. It was part of a vindictive campaign by Enid against her neighbours and solicitors got involved. No action was taken, but the name Lucy was removed from a number of stories and as you noticed in the example you pointed out in one instance it got changed to Linda.

I wonder how many other writers get their revenge in thinly disguised wording?!

Best wishes
Tony

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 09 Jul 2006, 12:41

No photographic memory I'm afraid, Tony - I was just very surprised when I first heard about Lucy Nottingham so the story stayed in my mind. No-one lives up to their ideals all the time, of course, and in this case Blyton appears - unwisely - to have given vent to pent up emotions through her writing. Still, if we really want to understand Enid Blyton we have to take the rough with the smooth. The occasional thoughtless or even seemingly vindictive action on her part by no means cancels out all the good she did. We know that she built up a strong rapport with many of her readers and has had a positive influence on millions of lives.

I remember the article by Lucy Nottingham in Journal 8, which I bought as a back issue. Although she was upset by the story as a child, Lucy said that she has now bought a copy of the issue of Sunny Stories in which "Lucy Loud Voice" appeared, and that it's "a much prized and important part of family history."

I hadn't realised that Alice Maughton was a pseudonym used by Michael Rouse (though I have wondered about Brad Gatehouse and Robin Douglas!) For those who don't know, Michael Rouse, who sadly died last August, was editor of an Enid Blyton fanzine called Green Hedges Magazine. Copies come up for sale on eBay from time to time, in case anyone is interested.

Anita

Viking Star · Post by **Viking Star** » 09 Jul 2006, 13:41

Lucy Loud Voice!

Fantastic! There's nothing like being subtle is there? I'm surprised Enid could look the girl in the face the next time she saw her

: what do you think was in her mind? "Ha ha little girl, wait 'til you see what I've written about you.....".

Honestly!

But Enid was only human, like all of us, so as you say, she had a few bad points as well as lots of good ones!

Thanks Anita. I did wonder when putting the letter on, whether the story might be old news for some of the experts. For the record, the letter was written by someone called Diana Lyons of Sheepshear, Leeds (just in case her name is known for commenting elsewhere).

Viking Star · Post by **Viking Star** » 10 Jul 2006, 22:42

I re-read The Circus of Adventure a couple of days ago (an Armada paperback from the early '70s).

I couldn't believe my eyes (well, I suppose I could) when I read Philip saying of Gussy:

"fuss and grumbles and silliness all the time. Why don't foreigners bring up their kids properly?"

I'm afraid I had to smile - I wonder what Enid was trying to say....

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 11 Jul 2006, 08:07

Ooh yes - that line makes me cringe! Doesn't Blyton also imply that Gussy's father was a good king because he was educated in Britain?!

Anita

Lucky Star · Post by **Lucky Star** » 11 Jul 2006, 11:33

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Ooh yes - that line makes me cringe! Doesn't Blyton also imply that Gussy's father was a good king because he was educated in Britain?!

Anita

Yes she does. I think Bill says something in there as well to the effect that Gussy will become a good King after he's had some British schooling.

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 15 Jul 2006, 17:03

I am pasting below part of an article from The Guardian which I have only just noticed that was published on July 1st. I didn't think much of their first article and I am even less keen on this one.

Apparently we are all imagining the changes according to Chorion:-

'The joy of seeing that icon of modernity Martin Clunes impersonating PC Plod at last Sunday's children's party at Buckingham Palace was rather spoilt for stalwarts of the Enid Blyton Society when, the very same day, a vile story began to circulate. Blyton was once again being taken to task by the PC Brigade. Biscuits were now cookies, boys were having to share household chores and Fanny and Dick in The Faraway Tree had become Frannie and Rick. A call to Chorion, which has right of veto on any textual changes as owner of the highly lucrative Blyton estate, left us confused. Cookies remain biscuits, boys still don't do housework (phew!), while all the other changes cited appear to have been made years ago: only currency gets an update in Hodder's latest rejacketing of The Secret Seven. So how did these rumours begin? Enter Barbara Stoney, who by happy coincidence is about to reissue her biography of Enid Blyton. When it was first published in 1974, Golliwogs were still pursuing Noddy and Big Ears was still feeling a little queer. Ms Stoney, presumably, fell down a person hole shortly afterwards and has only just clambered back into the real world.'

I feel that I ought to just comment on this by saying that these rumours were nothing at all to do with Barbara Stoney, who was simply responding to the orignal writer in the Sunday Times. Are they just rumours then? Have we all imagined the changes

Best wishes
Tony

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Urban Legends

Lucy Nottingham

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