What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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

Post by Daisy »

Rob Houghton wrote:I feel quite envious when I hear about people having the pleasure of reading a story for the first time - I've read every series book she wrote, so can never have that thrill again! :-(
That's exactly how I feel too Rob. And why, I suppose, we still hope for some previously unknown book to come to light.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

I'm reading my way through the Barney mysteries in order and I've four chapter to go for Rubadub. I love these books, each one is so very different settings wise, and the image I get in my mind's eye of them their all places I'd love to visit. I'd have trouble choosing between the tiny countryside village of Ring o' Bells and the lovely old inn by the seaside in Rubadub though, which mirrors exactly how I'd be in real life! I've always been torn when it comes to choosing the country or the sea (perhaps because I've got both around me and know what I'd miss if one wasn't there) and the wonderful scenery and settings described in these two books perfectly describe why. Just like the stories themselves, their both so appealing and enjoyable yet different it's virtually impossible to pick between them :D .

The Barney books, certainly the first four, are sublime, I can't understand why their not more popular as their easily as good as The Famous Five. Speaking of which, now I've re-read Five Are Together Again and the Rilloby Fair Mystery so closely together, I honestly can't see any similarity at all between them. The culprit might be the chimp in both but that's as far as them being the same goes, and I certainly wouldn't say one was a copy of the other as Rilloby Fair is a lot more padded out with different smaller sub plots and has a totally different feel.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I just describe them as similar because Together Again seems a pale rip-off of the earlier book, plotwise, and a lot less well written! I agree both are quite different in some ways, but its one of the few times (apart from Five Fall Into Adventure and five Have Plenty of Fun) where similar plots are so noticable. 8)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
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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 Anita Bensoussane »

IceMaiden wrote:I love these books, each one is so very different settings wise, and the image I get in my mind's eye of them their all places I'd love to visit. I'd have trouble choosing between the tiny countryside village of Ring o' Bells and the lovely old inn by the seaside in Rubadub though...
You could have a week in each! If I could only choose one Barney location to visit, it would be Ring O' Bells because it's so quaint and fairytale-like. I also love the sound of Rockingdown and Penrhyndendraith.
IceMaiden wrote:The Barney books, certainly the first four, are sublime, I can't understand why their not more popular as their easily as good as The Famous Five
The first four Barney books appeal to me more than any of the Famous Five books because Barney and Snubby are such wonderful characters. Barney is a romantic figure, vulnerable yet admirably capable, and his quest to find his father runs through several titles, providing ongoing intrigue and emotion. Snubby sparkles with wit, yet his story tugs at the heartstrings too.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Lucky Star »

I've just finished The Valley of Adventure for at least the fortieth time in my life and been reminded again of why I usually describe it as my favourite book of all time. It truly has everything. Enid's pacing and prose id simply wonderful in this book and the plot zips along in one of the most atmospheric settings she ever devised. I think I shall request to be buried with a copy of this book, that's how much I love it. Sea is up next.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by John Pickup »

I couldn't agree more, John. The best adventure story written for children by a country mile.
If I could spend a week in a Barney book location I would choose Rubadub. Just so I could see Barney reunited with his father.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by sixret »

Vanished Prince. Fun read so far!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I recently gave an early edition of Valley of Adventure to a friend (aged 68) who used to read a lot of Famous Fives and Secret Sevens as a child, but didn't remember reading the Adventure series. He is planning to read it when he goes on holiday to Dorset in April, so I'm interested to see what he thinks of it! :-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 Wolfgang »

I finished reading "Le mystère de vaisseau perdu" (= The Ship of adventure). Some minor scenes are missing (e.g. Mickey leading Bill and three children out fo the labyrinth), and the end has a complete different feeling compared to the English version. Alice Lefèvre (Alison Mannering) isn't too happy about René Marchal (Bill Smugs), but when she says she can no longer trust René and Lucette (Lucy-Ann) defends him, Alice says that she forgives him and that he's the firmest friend the children can have. She spills the beans that he'll have the opportunity to watch them all the time from now on, and René explains that they decided to marry because the children are too much for Mme. Lefèvre to handle them alone. But they'll only do it, if the children agree to that (which they do).

If this approach is a better solution than the English version, everybody has to decide themselves.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

Rob Houghton wrote:I just describe them as similar because Together Again seems a pale rip-off of the earlier book, plotwise, and a lot less well written! I agree both are quite different in some ways, but its one of the few times (apart from Five Fall Into Adventure and five Have Plenty of Fun) where similar plots are so noticable. 8)
It was me that originally thought they were similar, because the previous times I've read them there was a long gap between them , but now I've read them less than a month apart with both totally fresh in my mind, I find them so different I'm not sure why I used to to think they were practically a copy of each other before. I agree with you that the plot of Together Again isn't brilliant, I do like it but it's certainly not very deep. I've never thought about those other two Fives being similar before, but now you've mentioned it I can see it straight away! I suppose it couldn't really be helped though, the boys wouldn't have worked and Anne could hardly be used to substitute George for the plot in either book.
Anita Bensoussane wrote: You could have a week in each! If I could only choose one Barney location to visit, it would be Ring O' Bells because it's so quaint and fairytale-like. I also love the sound of Rockingdown and Penrhyndendraith.
Rockingdown sounds lovely, another tiny country village just like Ring O' Bells. Penrhyndendraith I pass through quite often, though it's actually Penrhyndeudraith. Not sure why it was changed in the book, though maybe it's a pronunciation thing as my English nan would call it Penrhyndendraith too :D . Every time I go through it I think of the Ragamuffin mystery and wonder what it was like there back when Enid took the inspiration from it for the book. The name is all that would be recogniseable now :( .
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I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

We don't know if Enid Blyton ever went to Penrhyndeudraeth - and her original name for the village was Tillyhwllanyll. As I once wrote elsewhere on the forums:
The Ragamuffin Mystery was first printed in Enid Blyton's Magazine in 1958, and in that version the village is called Tillyhwllanyll. Also, Dafydd is spelt "Dafid" in the magazine. I don't know why the name of the village was altered for the book, except that Tillyhwllanyll sounds less convincing as a name than Penrhyndendraith. I seem to remember reading somewhere that a reader mentioned to Enid Blyton that Penrhyndendraith sounded like Penrhyndeudraeth, but she claimed it was just a coincidence. However, I can't help wondering whether, having decided to change the name from Tillyhwllanyll (or being prompted to do so by the publishers), Blyton deliberately modelled the new name on a real Welsh place-name.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I didn't know this, or had forgotten! I wouldn't be surprised if the publisher's suggested the name be changed - depending on how people pronoune it - Tilly-will-anal would have been how I'd have pronounced it as a child - which sounds a bit..well...odd! :shock:

It sounds a bit similar to the instance where she had Noddy asking where he could spend a penny in Toyland, or the story 'Mr Widdle on the Train'.
'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 IceMaiden »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:We don't know if Enid Blyton ever went to Penrhyndeudraeth - and her original name for the village was Tillyhwllanyll. As I once wrote elsewhere on the forums:
The Ragamuffin Mystery was first printed in Enid Blyton's Magazine in 1958, and in that version the village is called Tillyhwllanyll. Also, Dafydd is spelt "Dafid" in the magazine. I don't know why the name of the village was altered for the book, except that Tillyhwllanyll sounds less convincing as a name than Penrhyndendraith. I seem to remember reading somewhere that a reader mentioned to Enid Blyton that Penrhyndendraith sounded like Penrhyndeudraeth, but she claimed it was just a coincidence. However, I can't help wondering whether, having decided to change the name from Tillyhwllanyll (or being prompted to do so by the publishers), Blyton deliberately modelled the new name on a real Welsh place-name.
That's interesting Anita, I'd never heard of that before. What a name! No wonder she was asked to change it, that's difficult to pronounce for someone fluent in Welsh, I'm sure most English readers wouldn't have a hope :lol: . I'm fairly certain it's a completely made up name, Welsh names, despite looking strange do make sense when you work out the meaning - 'Llanuwchllyn' for instance - but Tillyhwllanyll doesn't :P . Personally I think Penrhyndendraith looks and sounds far too similar to Penrhyndeudraeth for it to be purely coincidental, but it could well be the actual place itself in the book was modelled on another Welsh village entirely and only the name used. To be honest, somewhere like Aberdaron or Nefyn fits the location better than PD, which isn't that close to the sea really (I've always thought the inn must be quite near the beach just like Rubadub) let alone a Blytonian style beach!
Rob Houghton wrote:I didn't know this, or had forgotten! I wouldn't be surprised if the publisher's suggested the name be changed - depending on how people pronoune it - Tilly-will-anal would have been how I'd have pronounced it as a child - which sounds a bit..well...odd! :shock:

It sounds a bit similar to the instance where she had Noddy asking where he could spend a penny in Toyland, or the story 'Mr Widdle on the Train'.
:lol: That is definitely not how you pronounce it :D. It's Tilly-who-llan-ill, only with the double LL's pronounced the Welsh way, which I can't think of a way to explain :P . It would actually be a marvellous name for a house now, I wonder how many people would know where it comes from?
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I presume the ll's are pronounced 'clan' (roughly) as in Llandudno?

I know very basic Welsh because of my dad being Welsh but as he wasn't allowed by the school to actually learn Welsh, he only knows how to pronounce things but not always the meaning!

I was just thinking that the majority of Enid's readers would have been English, or from other European countries, and so would have pronounced the original name as it is written! :lol:
'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 IceMaiden »

Yes that's right :) . It's a very difficult sound to describe to someone how to say because unlike 'th' or 'dd' there's nothing in English really to compare it with. The closest I can think of would be the sort of sound you'd get by clamping your teeth together and forcefully sucking in air!

I wonder why your dad was not allowed to learn Welsh at school? Reminds me of the old rule where at one time in Wales if you spoke Welsh in school or were heard speaking it you'd be made to wear the Welsh Not, a piece of wood on a string with W. N on it as a mark of shame and punishment. Imagine what would happen nowadays if a school stopped a pupil from learning a language, they'd be accused of every 'ism' going :shock:.
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Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
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