What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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

Post by Rob Houghton »

A Noise In The Night was mentioned in my last Journal article, as it was a story that I loved as a child. I also loved the first one in the book, and quite a few others too! Its a great short story collection! :-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 »

It is, isn't it? :D Mind you, I'm not that enamoured of all the stories in it. Funny Little Mankie is the one about a Manx kitten who comes into the playroom and the toys soon convince her she must have lost her tail somewhere and take her out to search for it. But as Enid has already explained to the reader in the first couple of sentences that Manx cats don't have tails (I'm pretty sure I first learned that from this story!), the whole story contains no surprises at all and is a bit of a frustrating drag for that reason, I've always thought.

Really, it doesn't quite make sense to me that Mankie herself wasn't aware that she'd never had a tail — did she never notice her mother and brothers and sisters didn't have any either? I just feel it'd have been a more effective story if either we hadn't been told in the first place that Mankie was a Manx cat — so there'd be an element of surprise and discovery at the end — or else, instead of "the big black cat from next door", perhaps Mankie and the toys could have met Mankie's own mother at the end and seen for themselves that that's just how Manx cats are. But, well, Enid obviously liked it the way she wrote it, so there it is. :wink:

Mr Squiggle is one I've always liked. The title character, coincidentally, has the same name as my favourite TV character from when I was really little — a puppet with a pencil for a nose who would turn mere squiggles into pictures in every episode (accompanied by various other amusing characters, but only those who were also watching children's TV in 1980s Australia will know what I mean 8) ). But Enid's Mr Squiggle is someone quite different who has a stern and quite scary warning for a little girl who loves scribbling all over everything and doesn't realise that the fairy folk can read nasty messages in her squiggles... :shock: One might say it's Enid's characteristic way of warning off juvenile graffiti-ists!

He Wanted Adventures! is another one I've always found a bit unsatisfying. It's pretty ironic, actually, compared to most of Enid's other stories, short and long, in which children have adventures coming to them all the time without them batting an eyelid! :lol: But Paul doesn't know how to "manage" adventures, as he's told at the end, and so the several that happen to him, one after the other, all end up badly. I guess Enid was trying to show her young readers that all sorts of happenings can turn into adventures if you face them with a bit of courage and resourcefulness and good sense, none of which Paul had...
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

As a child I can remember finding 'He Wanted Adventures' very clever indeed - so maybe I was Enid's target audience, lol! I can remember thinking how silly Paul was, and how (obviously!!) I would have done things better. I also used to enjoy the idea that the story could have had a very different ending if Paul had been more able to handle his adventures! I was totally taken in by the story! :-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 »

Well, I guess it just goes to show we all have different tastes! :) I think the reason I've always found the story a bit frustrating is that Paul keeps on doing the wrong thing at every point and spoiling his adventures, and I'm left feeling sorry that he didn't end up having the much happier experiences he could have had, like meeting the Prince and going out boating — though it was his own fault for being so silly each time! I don't think I ever thought to identify myself with him and think "I would have done better!" — maybe because he was a boy character and I was a girl?

Now the next story — I hope no-one minds me reviewing them, but this one's quite intriguing: The Big Dog, which is a pretty straightforward "Enid version" of the old fable "Belling the Cat". According to the Cave, it was first published in Teachers World of Dec 26, 1934. What's interesting is that this version of it (in Stories for You) is specifically set at Green Hedges, whereas Enid didn't move there until 1938. I'm assuming the original story was set at Old Thatch — it'll be interesting to read it when we come to it in Tony's weekly uploads of Teachers World. We're up to 1934 this year, so it will be at the end of the year.

What else is interesting is that the animal characters in the story are "Bobs the puppy", Sandy, Cosy, Pitapat and "Bimbo the kitten". Now going by what we know of Enid's own menagerie at the start of 1934, Bobs was definitely not a puppy and Bimbo wasn't a kitten — he was Enid's adult Siamese cat who went missing in late 1933. I'm assuming she did have at least one more cat called Bimbo later (thinking of the stories of Bimbo and Topsy, though I'm not very familiar with them)... did she get a new kitten called Bimbo towards the end of 1934 and put him in the story? Or did she change the animals' names when the story was revised for this book in 1966, perhaps getting them a little confused at that late stage of her career (which might account for old Bobs reverting to puppyhood as well)?

I'm also quite intrigued to know who Cosy was (another cat or kitten, I assume)... one rather odd thing about this story is that apart from Bobs and Bimbo, it's not specified whether the other animals in the story are cats or dogs! I suppose when it was originally published, the young audience would have known Enid's pets already from her weekly letters, and that wasn't taken into account when the story was revised over 30 years later. Anyway, I will be very interested to read the original version when we see it!
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I too think Stories for You is a lovely collection. 'The Very Fierce Carpenter', 'A Noise in the Night', 'A Lark in a Cage...', 'Mr. Squiggle', 'The Quiet Little Boy', 'The Quarrel in the Playroom' and 'He Wanted Adventures!' are the stand-out stories for me. Like Rob, I like the latter because it makes the reader ponder how different things might have been if only Paul had seized opportunities instead of running away from them.

Although it isn't among my favourites, I find 'Funny Little Mankie' quite amusing and enjoy the word-play involving "mankie" and "monkey". My uncle, who lives in the Isle of Man, used to have Manx cats so it's nice to see them featured in a couple of Enid Blyton tales.

Regarding 'The Big Dog', Cosy was indeed a tabby cat which belonged to Enid Blyton at some point.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Stephen »

I've finished Five On A Secret Trail. A run of the mill, generally ok, good-but-not-great sort of a book. It's different that Julian and Dick don't make an appearance until Chapter 8. George, Anne and Timmy work together very well. Anne seems a bit more mature than she does in other books - and yet still in character. She's still scared, and even puts up with George's patronising dismissal of seeing the lights as a dream. But they still come across as equals, and I get the impression Anne would snap back at her cousin if she was pushed too far!

But the aspect I always remembered it for was the fact there were twins who didn't acknowledge each other, and the Five assumed it was one boy contradicting himself and seemingly appearing in different places when he couldn't have got there in time. In hindsight, it's so obvious - and yet when I first read this, I was properly fooled! Funnily enough, I've even referred to this at work. Several times, I've told a boss who frequently contradicts herself "I sometimes wonder whether I'm living in an Enid Blyton plot and there are actually two of you!" (Don't worry, we're good friends out of work!)

Towards the end, George bizarrely goes all Northern when she says "I don't know how I shall be able to tell one from t'other when Guy's bad foot is better." My copy happened to be a 1974 hardback, but I had a look in a shop at a later edition, and she still says it. Just seems a bit out of character for her!

My next book is The Wishing-Chair Again - which I'm pretty sure is the very first Blyton book I read. Sadly not my original 1971 copy which fell apart many years ago, but a 1987 edition with the same, delightful Rene Cloke illustrations.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Five On A Secret Trail has some good plot ideas...but for me they don't really amount to much. I've always felt the book has the feeling of a short story that has been stretched into a novel. It doesn't have the 'epic' feel of the journey in 'Five Go Off In A Caravan' or 'Five On A Hike Together' and doesn't appear to take place over many days, thus making it seem a bit inconsequential. I prefer my mystery stories to take place over a week or two at least.
'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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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Stories For You also has one of my favourite poems - one I can still recite today -

The Storm

Hark! the thunder roars aloud
Black is every lowering cloud,
Swift the lightening comes and goes,
All around the storm-wind blows,
Now there comes the falling rain.
Crash! The thunder speaks again.
What a grand and lovely sight
Is a storm by day or night!

: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 pete9012S »

t'other
I'm struggling to find any other Famous Five book in which this expression appears!
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Although 'one from 't' other' does indeed sound very northern, I think it was just a popular saying of the day - I've heard my older relatives say it. I guess Enid was just using a popular expression of the day. I also find it a bit odd when George says 'its an ill wind that blows nobody any good' - doesn't really sound like something a child would say, in my view.
'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 John Pickup »

Those of you who have read Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books will be aware that not all of the children appear in many of the stories. I always thought that Five On A Secret Trail would have worked perfectly well with just George and Anne. Julian and Dick don't appear for quite a while and their place could have been filled by the twins. I do think it is one of the weaker books of the series.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Moonraker »

Couldn't agree more (apart from it being one of the weaker of the series), John. Maybe one of our resident authors might like to write a story in such a way.

I have often wanted to read a story with a different ending. Say, Smuggler's Top - George and the dog get sent home, Anne follows and Julian, Dick, Sooty and Marybelle continue with the adventure..... Five Get into Trouble would be another great re-write.

There's a challenge!
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I feel the same way about Kiki. In Ship, Kiki should indeed have had to stay at home. :twisted:
'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 sixret »

It is a challenge. I like to read Faraway Tree continuation story! :D
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

A Faraway Tree continuation would be good, although I think it would be even better if it wasn't episodic like the original books, but was one long story/quest. :-)
'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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