The Enid Blyton Society

Lucky Star wrote:I am currently reading Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall and have just come across avery comedic scene featuring a Welsh silver band which is liberally sprinkled with "Look yous" and "Whatevers". The book is set in North Wales in the fictional village of Llanabba. Whether or not it is true that Welsh people do, or ever did, use these terms it is clear that Blyton was not the only author to put them into the mouths of her Welsh characters.

That's very interesting, John (Lucky Star). I've read Decline and Fall but it was years ago and I'd temporarily "grown out of" Enid Blyton at the time.

I grew up in North Wales and never heard those expressions, but they do appear to have a long pedigree. We've talked before about a Welsh character in Shakespeare's Henry V who says "look you" repeatedly:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... sh#p262285" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: A Welsh detective saying "look you" in Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal was also mentioned here:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... 71#p224871" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
Edit: A Welsh detective saying "look you" in Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal was also mentioned here:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... 71#p224871" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks Anita I had completely forgotten that I'd made that post. Old age is obviously creeping up. Interesting that I put it in almost exactly the same terms as yesterday's post too. So that's four authors that have used the "look you" phrase. It surely must have some basis in fact?

Lucky Star wrote:So that's four authors that have used the "look you" phrase. It surely must have some basis in fact?

About as much as all Scottish people say 'och aye the noo." I guess!!

On that other thread Poppy mentions that her Grandmother who is Welsh and from South Wales says "Look You" quite a lot. So I imagine it's probably a regional thing which may well be dying out these days.

yes - when I mentioned the phrase to my dad, he immediately said 'That's South Wales!' in a typically North-Walesian way!!

Lucky Star wrote:On that other thread Poppy mentions that her Grandmother who is Welsh and from South Wales says "Look You" quite a lot. So I imagine it's probably a regional thing which may well be dying out these days.

Americans often say "Look at you!". I think it's considered a praise?

Hmm, I'd say that's something different — "Oh, look at you!" is what someone would say when literally admiring that person's appearance. Or maybe horrified at it, if the "look at you!" was said to a little kid who'd been playing in the mud and got all dirty, for example. But this "look you" that Welsh characters constantly say in Enid's and other (non-Welsh) writer's works seems to be more of a meaningless catchphrase or filler — like "you know" or, well, like "like".

I always thought that "Look you!" was an expression that kind of meant "you see?" or "look" or something similar. Whenever Mrs Evans says it she is always saying it as an explanation to something, or an exclamation about something.

Like when she says "It is high tea for you, look you." - she seems to be meaning it as "It is high tea for you, you see", and the " look you" translates vaguely as "look you > you look > you see".

And when she is exclaiming, like " Effans! A parrot, look you!" it again translates as "look you > look!"

I am only 10 years too late but I thought I would resurrect this thread. I love the Adventure Series, definitely one of my favourite series and probably Enid Blyton's best longer series. It is fascinating to see the different opinions. Most people including myself love Valley and Sea and Island and think Mountain and Ship are the weakest, Castle good but not the best. River and Circus attract hotly debated themes - i love Circus, probably my favourite and hate River, but lots of people have the exact opposite opinion. I was trying to summarise the key features of the Adventure series that make them stand out and I have come up with the following (slightly contrived) acronym :
A Adult involvement apart from the Secret Series the only set where Adults are truly involved in part or all of the adventures
D Drawings – fabulous – add to the atmosphere and reveal important information, eg the type of car boot where Jack was hidden in Circus of Adventure
V Variety of animals – fox cubs, slow worms, puffins, Alsatians, monkeys, bears, snakes
E Exotic locations
N Near deaths ie Nearly drowned in Island, Nearly crushed in Castle during thunderstorm, Nearly abandoned in Valley and Sea, Philip Nearly falling to death out of the plane, not so much for the later ones although the escape from Borken Castle sounds very precarious
T Themes – crimes of major importance – eg, industrial money forging, major defence secrets stolen, trafficking of guns, disposal of kings; not just theft of your neighbour’s cat or stolen money from a third rate theatre manager
U Utilization of complexity in the plots – sorry this is a bit contrived but difficult to find words beginning with U -the adventures are much more complex than in the other series
R Romance between Bill and Allie – gloriously understated but still tender – eg Bill’s eyes were shining when he went to greet Allie at the end of Circus of Adventure
E extended length of books – over 300 pages for most of them

I am replying to my own post - I should have added that most of the books are over 300 pages long if you have the Stuart Tresillian illustrated editions. Not sure of the length of the inferior unillustrated books.

Better late than never Irene Malory Towers and I love the acronym!

A great summing-up of the Adventure series, Irene! It has always been my favourite Enid Blyton series - and Stuart Tresilian has always been my favourite Blyton illustrator.

Thanks - I was even looking up the dictionary for words beginning with u - really I wanted to say complex and I am sure there is an opposite - un something which means not simple - but I could not see it.

The best books of this series are exceptional, Enid at her very best. The only fault is that the series is a bit irregular. Just like it has some great books, it has an equal amount of weaker ones. It's a pity the series wasn't longer (as long as the extra books were like the great ones).

And the blended family aspect is quite appealing too. It starts with the two pairs of siblings becoming friends, one pair of them orphans and the other pair with a single mother, and ended up as a big family, including Bill "Smugs". I would have liked more emphasis on that, instead of it just going on in the background.

Irene Malory Towers wrote:I am replying to my own post - I should have added that most of the books are over 300 pages long if you have the Stuart Tresillian illustrated editions. Not sure of the length of the inferior unillustrated books.

Irene, I was very lucky and bought all 8 books in hardcover from MacMillan with Tresilian's illustrations when I went on my first UK trip in May 1981. At Foyle's in London I found 5 of the books and ordered the 3 missing books at the beginning of my 3 weeks trip. When the trip was almost over, I stopped at Foyle's once more and picked up the 3 other sequels.

The big reward came at home: I compared all 8 books with the German translations (I grew up from 1965 on with the Erika Klopp Verlag translations) and on an average the British originals had 20 to 30 more illustrations per book than the German versions.