What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Daisy wrote:I'm reading "The Adventurous Four" at the moment. It is a while since I last read it and I'm enjoying it very much. I found the follow-on book less gripping - but still a good story.
Daisy, I even like the second volume a bit more, because of that underground river. They are both among my favorites and I keep re-reading them.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Chrissie777 wrote:I finished "The Adventurous Four" and started "The Adventurous Four" last night.
I presume the book you started last night was 'The Adventurous Four Again'...unless you're reading the first book twice of course! :wink: :wink:

I agree with Daisy that I find the second book less exciting, but still a good read. The first book is extra special as it seems to be set in an actual historical time, and I also love Enid's description of the storm. Its one of the best storms at sea descriptions - very atmospheric, and she also manages to create a great sense of isolation, and impending doom as the storm approaches. :D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:I presume the book you started last night was 'The Adventurous Four Again'...unless you're reading the first book twice of course!
Of course you are right: I intended to type "The Adventurous Four Again", but somehow forgot.
Yes, I enjoyed reading EB's storm description last night.
The colors of the ocean when the sun went down and when it rose again in the morning are so beautiful! 8)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

Image
1973 Dean, illustrations and cover uncredited
This was another book bought for me by my mum.It was the version above and I absolutely loved it.
They kept making references to their last adventures and I suddenly twigged and asked my mum to buy me The Adventurous Four.

Image
1971 Armada, illustrations by Dorothy Brook, cover uncredited

This was the version she bought me and I really enjoyed this book,despite reading it out of sync!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

pete9012S wrote:This was the version she bought me and I really enjoyed this book,despite reading it out of sync!
So were the books way back then available at book stores for a longer time than nowadays? Were less children's books published than today?
I often wonder how the EB fans in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's were able to catch up with all the new EB sequels being published? Unless they had a huge amount of well-meaning aunts and grandmothers I cannot imagine how they managed to keep up with what was published of their favorite author. :?:

Pete, I just love that Christmas hat on your photo!!! 8)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Daisy »

Chrissie777 wrote: So were the books way back then available at book stores for a longer time than nowadays? Were less children's books published than today?
I often wonder how the EB fans in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's were able to catch up with all the new EB sequels being published? Unless they had a huge amount of well-meaning aunts and grandmothers I cannot imagine how they managed to keep up with what was published of their favorite author. :?:
The library was our best friend Chrissie! I had Blyton books for birthday and Christmas but filled in the gaps by borrowing as many as were available. Some series I only caught up with when I started reading the books to my children and realized there were many titles to add to my collection.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

My sister had the Dean version of both The Adveturous Four and The Adventurous Four Again - though for some reason they were another series I didn't read until I was an adult, and bought the originals in dust wrappers.

I also love the description of the ocean as the storm approaches...when it becomes copper coloured and 'oily'. Enid really manages to create the feeling of 'the calm before the storm', and the isolation of being far away from land. :-)

The sea turned a strange colour, a kind of blue-brown.

"It's caused by the reflection of that funny sky," said Jill, half nervous. "I say! It's queer being out here on the sea, miles away from land, with the sea and the sky doing odd things like this."

Then an even stranger thing happened. the wind, which had been blowing very strongly indeed, dropped completely. One moment it was blowing the children's hair straight back, as they faced the west - the next there was not a breath of air. the sea fell calm and oily. The little fishing boat stopped running in front of the wind, and rode silently over the waves, as if she were at anchor...

...there was a queer humming noise in the air that seemed to come out of nowhere at all. then an enormous purple cloud blew up from the west and completely covered the sun. The world went dark, and great spots of rain fell."
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

Thank you Chrissie. The hat comes out once a year!

The paperbacks seemed to be in good supply in most UK bookshops in the 1970's.
The trick was keeping all your relatives up to date with the books you needed so you didn't receive a duplicate.

The library was great too. I went regularly. My junior school had an enormous amount of paper backed Blyton's from the 1960's which I absolutely devoured too.

Fantastic description Rob - sounds like Enid was actually there herself!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

pete9012S wrote:
Fantastic description Rob - sounds like Enid was actually there herself!
I agree, Pete - its a fantastic description and I always think it seems as if Enid actually experienced it!

How lovely it was as a child to have a vast array of Enid Blyton books to choose from every time I went with my mom to the Post Office (which had shelves of them) or sometimes she would buy me one when I was at school. Most of them were the Dean books, and I particularly remember choosing 'The Book of Brownies' and 'Adventures Of Binkle and Flip' when I was preschool age. I also used to buy Noddy books from there occasionally - strangely enough mostly when I was older (I read most of the Noddy books independently rather than having them read to me, when I was between the ages of about 7 and 9). :D

Most of the paperbacks belonged to my sister, so as I gt older I had a ready-supply of Blyton titles - but that also meant there were some I never read as a child, as I looked at them and thought they were for older children for some reason (as my sister was 6 years older than me) - so I missed out on most of the Barney Mysteries, most of the Adventure books (except Valley, Island and Mountain) and all of the Fives books except Mystery Moor and Smugglers Top.

I'm amazed when I look back, at how few Enid Blyton books I actually read as a child! I'm trying to remember what I DID read - some Secret Sevens, some Find Outer books, Those Dreadful Children, Family at Red Roofs, The Naughtiest Girl series, Holiday House, Island, Valley and Mountain of Adventure, the Rilloby Fair Mystery, Amelia Jane series, Galliano series, Faraway Tree series, Wishing Chair series, Book of Brownies etc and several short story collections, as well as about 8 Noddy books and some 'Bedtime Annuals'...but really that was about all until I was about 24!

I've read more Enid Blyton books for the first time as an adult than as a child!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Daisy wrote:The library was our best friend Chrissie! I had Blyton books for birthday and Christmas but filled in the gaps by borrowing as many as were available. Some series I only caught up with when I started reading the books to my children and realized there were many titles to add to my collection.
Daisy and Pete, that was exactly the problem in German public libraries as well as my elementary & high school libraries in the mid to late 1960's: EB was banned.
So I could either read EB books from a friend or get 2 EB books per year for Christmas and birthday.
It was not before the mid 1980's that I discovered an EB book at a public library in the same town again. And that was the FFO & Dog series.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I realise how lucky I was as a child - with a local post office stocking lots of Blyton titles, plus a school library with other Blyton titles, and several available as books we could read in the classroom, plus Blyton books from friends at birthday parties. :-) I had no idea until at least the mid 1980's that Enid was apparently 'bad' for me! :lol:

I remember our class taking part in a national survey in around 1980 to discover the most popular children's author in the UK - Enid Blyton won hands down! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

Rob Houghton wrote: Most of the paperbacks belonged to my sister, so as I gt older I had a ready-supply of Blyton titles - but that also meant there were some I never read as a child, as I looked at them and thought they were for older children for some reason (as my sister was 6 years older than me) - so I missed out on most of the Barney Mysteries, most of the Adventure books (except Valley, Island and Mountain) and all of the Fives books except Mystery Moor and Smugglers Top.
I had a similar experience, Rob — I grew up assuming that a lot of my sister's EB books were for "older" children (my sister is 3 1/2 years older than me) and so I never got around to reading any of St Clare's, Malory Towers, the Adventure series or the Barney mysteries (except for Rockingdown, which I didn't much like and still don't) — though we had all or most of the books in all those series, or very nearly. I also only ever got through about eight or so Famous Five books (we had most but not all of them) and have still never read any more than that. I did, however, finally discover the Adventure series only a few years ago and quickly became an addict! :D

The ones I read most avidly as a child were the Faraway Tree, the Wishing-Chair, Noddy, Mr Pink-Whistle, Galliano's Circus (still my favourite), and the Five Find-Outers — I only ever had about half that series when I was little, but now finally have a complete set... and still haven't read them all. Probably I'm still waiting till I'm grown-up enough... :mrgreen:
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote: I had no idea until at least the mid 1980's that Enid was apparently 'bad' for me! :lol:
Rob, that's around the same time when I found out how bad EB's books supposedly are for German children while reading all those articles that the Dortmund newspaper clipping collection sent me on request.
I don't care and enjoy her books still today. :D
Guess I'm an EB addict. :wink:
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:I've read more Enid Blyton books for the first time as an adult than as a child!
Which only goes to show how gripping EB's writing style was and still is! 8)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

I'm the sort of opposite to you Rob. I read every single Blyton I could lay my hands on while still young.
The cave has really helped me hunt out rarer titles and stories I have never read in my later years.

One of the best finds ever was the discovery via the cave of the whole collection of the fortnightly Enid Blyton Magazine.
It must have been absolutely wonderful to have received that every couple of weeks!
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