Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

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db105
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by db105 »

Moonraker wrote: I went into the closet aged 10, and stayed there until I was almost 50! I then 'came out', and have no problems in being seen reading Blyton and other children's books in public.
:shock: Isn't that a bit too early? I mean, 12 or 13 is one thing, but 10 is well inside the main target market of books like the famous five. Or is it because EB had an image of writer for little children, because of other books targeted to younger ages?
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I thought 10 seemed a bit young, but I guess it all depends on what your friends are like aged 10! When I was 10 I remember that Enid Blyton was still the top children's writer in the UK. We took part in the government reading survey (I think this was about 1980 when I was 9) and Enid Blyton came out as the most popular author.

I recall being in the top class at juniors (aged 10 and 11) and all the girls had their own Famous Five reading club. They wore the Famous Five badges and swapped books so that they could read all of them. Enid was very trendy in our 1979 - 1982 year group!
'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: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by sixret »

The last series I read before I abandoned Enid Blyton was Adventure series when I was 15 years old. Actually, I had not read EB for quite sometime but I stumbled upon the full set of Adventures series in Malay language in the bookshop. I was quite surprised to see another series that I was not familiar with. I bought all 8 titles and read them one after another. Great as any Blyton books that I had read. I remember I liked and enjoyed Valley the most. Then I abandoned EB for a very long time because I went to boarding school when I was 16.The usual reasons, Friends, studies and all. In fact, I hadn't read much. Since 2003-2004, my interest in EB has been revived.
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Moonraker »

When I was 10, teachers were actively discouraging pupils from reading Blyton. It was thought the language was basic and was putting children off from reading more 'serious' work.
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Carlotta King »

I've never understood the negativity towards books with 'basic' language in them. What's wrong with things that are easy to read?

I like to read for enjoyment and I don't get much enjoyment from reading things where the language is so complicated and complex that you need a degree in rocket science just to be able to concentrate on it.

I'm not talking literally here, I don't mean that I'm reading complicated scientific books, I'm just meaning that a lot of novels are written using very long complicated sentences that really require you to be on the ball and paying attention, and I don't like that. I like to read things that are easy and uncomplicated so I can relax and take it in easily without having to re read it just to understand what's going on.

I can't relax if I've got to be paying too much attention!

I'd love to read a lot of the 'classics' but I just find them too hard-going!
I've got bookshelves full of all the classics but I've never read most of them!
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by sixret »

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Cathy! I read fictions for pleasure. :D
I stand with justice and the truth. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

Learn the history. Do research.

The hypocrisy, double standard, prejudice and bigotry own by some people is so obvious.Shame on them!
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Moonraker wrote:When I was 10, teachers were actively discouraging pupils from reading Blyton. It was thought the language was basic and was putting children off from reading more 'serious' work.
Its interesting that when you were 10 this sort of attitude prevailed, but by the time I was 10, about 20 years later, Enid Blyton was very popular! Noddy was on TV, and all the merchandise was in the shops, The Famous Five were also on TV, along with shops full of games and puzzles and books etc. Those girls in my class brought their Famous Fives in to swap, children regularly bought me Enid Blyton books for birthday presents when I had a party - three books I can remember in this way - the annuals of Five Go To Smuggler's Top and Five Go To Myster Moor, and a Dean edition of 'Hurrah For The Circus.

A few teachers were frowning at Enid Blyton, but not with much effect. When we were 7 or 8 our class actually performed the Enid Blyton play 'The Little Green Imp' as an end of term play. I can remember reading 'The Valley Of Adventure' as a 'classroom reading book' (which we had to read when we'd finished doing set work and were waiting for others to finish).

8)
'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: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by John Pickup »

I'm only a couple of years younger than Nigel and my teachers never put Enid down. The local library where I borrowed her books had a great selection of Blytons. If I remember correctly, it was in the seventies when the academics decided that reading Blyton was bad for you.
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Not in my case! It was the 1970's that I was talking about, when we were all swapping Famous Five books, watching Famous Five on TV, and performing Enid Blyton plays! ! :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: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I'm only a year older than Rob but there were no Enid Blyton books in the library when I was at junior school (I think the teachers thought we read enough at home!) and at secondary school she was definitely looked down upon. A couple of English lessons were devoted to mocking her Famous Five books, which were said to be formulaic.

My parents were happy for me to read Enid Blyton books until I was ten, but after that they said I should be reading something more grown-up and they tried to steer me towards other authors. I had always read other authors as well anyway, but I hated the thought of getting too old for Blyton books. I continued reading them openly for another year or two despite the disapproval, and secretly for another year after that.
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Courtenay »

I guess I was kind of lucky... we had Enid Blyton books in my primary school in the 1980s, but I don't remember teachers ever commenting on them either way, positively or negatively, and we kids just read whatever we wanted. I have no idea whether the library copies were regularly borrowed, though. We had such a huge and growing collection of Blyton books at home that I was never short of another one to read whenever I wanted to, which was often! :lol: Both my parents grew up on Enid Blyton and had no problems with me reading them, especially since there were plenty of other authors (including ones for older audiences) that I read as well.

When I got into my teens I hit an I'm-too-grown-up-for-silly-Enid-Blyton phase for a few years, but I never really lost my love for her books and could always enjoy them still if I decided to pick one up from time to time. Now I have no problem with being seen reading them on the train or anywhere else. Gosh, there are plenty of more questionable things that adults don't seem to mind being seen reading nowadays (let's not go there :shock: ), so why should I worry what anyone thinks if they see me reading a classic children's book? Most friends I've spoken to, when I admit to being an Enid Blyton fan and an EBS member, say "Oh wow! I always loved her books too!" and are delighted to find someone else who does. :wink:
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Yes - we didn't have many Blyton books in the school library at primary school, I must admit - though there were a couple in the individual 'book corners' in the classrooms. In secondary school, of course, no one admitted to reading Enid Blyton! ;-)

My parents didn't complain at all about what I read. I continued to read Enid Blyton until about the age of 13. I'm not entirely sure - just going by the fact I have two of my later paperbacks (The Mystery That Never Was, and The Ragamuffin Mystery) with 'Robert Houghton age 13' written in the front. I rarely read other authors, except Isobel Knight, E. Nesbit, AA Milne and Helen Cresswell (mainly Moondial due to it being on TV) and Nina Bawden (Carrie's War - again, influenced by TV). During my teenage years I hardly read any novels unless we 'had' to read them for essays etc.

Mainly, between the ages of 14 and 20 I read factual books - history books, local history, books about old Hollywood Musicals and classic films, and biographies.

Like Courtenay, I've discovered as an adult that anyone I mention Enid Blyton to immediately gets a rosy look on their face, a big smile, and usually has some gushing words about 'I loved The Famous Five' or 'The Faraway Tree was my favourite!' Most adults seem to be happy to remember their love of Enid Blyton, and you can tell that for most of them it never really went away.
'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: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Darrell71 »

I think it's great that adults in your areas seem to have loved her as a kid, shows that despite people trying to pull her down she is still dear to many.
Here in India, even when I was younger, there was not much discouraging or encouraging going on, and there still isn't. She's one of the authors who's always there in the Children's section of all bookstores, kids, especially younger ones who like to read English fiction, like to read her books (I'm trying to get my younger cousins interested) , and as they hit their teens they stop. I'm one of the rare ones who still reads EB, though very irregularly. She's a part of so many young lives here but few ever even acknowledge her. It's sad.
My parents know I still like her books, and though I know they don't exactly approve of my choices, since I read other, more 'age appropriate' stuff as well, they usually don't say much.
Courtenay wrote: When I got into my teens I hit an I'm-too-grown-up-for-silly-Enid-Blyton phase for a few years, but I never really lost my love for her books and could always enjoy them still if I decided to pick one up from time to time.
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by Machupicchu14 »

The bad thing about living in a town is that very little people, especially children actually know Enid Blyton. I tried talking to my friends about her but they didn't even knew she existed, which is a pity. Most of the teachers I've had had read her and they love talking about her books, the other day I showed one of my mum's friends the 1978 Famous Five theme and he got in a very melancholic mood! :lol: So, it's really among the younger generation that Enid Blyton is not as popular as it was before.
And like many of you, I often get raised eyebrows when people see me with an EB book, but I really don't care at all, and this seldom happens to I'm just fine with the company of my Blyton stories. :D
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Re: Would you be seen reading a Blyton in public?

Post by joanne_chan »

The thing for someone like me is actually most 'grown up' books, even some junior fiction require rather more reading ability than I have thanks to learning/developmental disabilities with whole chunks of meaning going over my head if not being obscured by an all pervasive fog, so outside of a few more serious books by say George Orwell and Margaret Attwood, the children's or junior section of the bookstore was where I always looked.
For me going up to a bookstore armed with a book token and handing it over with the either a Blyton reprint (until I got wise to revisions :evil: ) or the latest Jacqueline Wilson novel and reading it on the bus or train is pretty usual actually as was reading them in workplace when I well enough to, so sure I've done it.
I lost some of my EB originals in coming over but have been restocking with at least more original if not the original text.
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