What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

[Anita Bensoussane]

The style reminds me of French illustrator Jacques Fromont, Chrissie.

[Chrissie777]

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with his work, Anita. I will look him up.
The only French illustrator I remember is the one from the French Paul-Jacques Bonzon books about the girl from Mallorca who wants to become a ballet dancer and the other book (that's my favorite) about the carroussel and Scotland (probably one "r" or one" l" too little )

[Wolfgang]

Jacques Fromont illustrated the Mystery series of the idéal bibliothèque, and some other French Blyton books of the bibliothèque rose.

[Chrissie777]

Wolfgang, I'll have to check tomorrow as I have 4 or 5 French EB paperbook versions from the FF and the FFO & Dog. I think it's called "La Mystère de la maison au bois", something like that. They are pink colored. Maybe it has Jacques Fromont illustrations.

[Wolfgang]

Is it "Les cinq détectives et la maison des bois"? I also have a paperback edition, the illustrator is Patrice Douenat.

[Pauline]

I love the Milly Molly Mandy books. Wonderful stories of days gone by with wonderful illustrations.

Yes, wonderful stories indeed. I like the one where MMM has to go shopping without a shopping list and still succeeds. But my favorite is the one with Willy and staying over night in the self-made tent (a blanket thrown over a rope between two trees...who would think of something like that today?).
The German illustrations in the book and on the cover were even nicer...typical 1950's. Check this out:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... a86a71.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ah, thank you Chrissie. Nice. I like the story when little friend Susan stays over-night and Muvver bakes them potatoes with their lids on for tea. Also the Booby Rabbit and when the rest of the family decorate the attic in order to make a bedroom for MMM as a special surprise. It's so funny.

[Chrissie777]

Is it "Les cinq détectives et la maison des bois"? I also have a paperback edition, the illustrator is Patrice Douenat.

Wolfgang, that's the one I possess.
Illustrations by Patrice Douenat, 1992 Hachette Bibliothèque Rose.
The illustrations are o.k., but not as good as in the French FF series which are illustrated by Jean Sidobre.

[Courtenay]

I did end up buying one of the copies of The Land of Far-Beyond from eBay (after saying I didn't think I would!) — basically, after looking at some of the hysterical prices that some copies, even a few in worse condition, were going for, I decided £32.00 was quite reasonable after all. I can see now from a pencil marking on the flyleaf that it was on sale at some stage for £59, so I didn't do too badly!

It came today in the post and I'm delighted with it. It's a seventh edition from 1950, but identical in all regards to the first edition and in really good condition all round. It has bright yellow boards under the dust jacket, which was a surprise — my other copy (first edition with no dust jacket) is a dull sort of greyish yellow, but maybe the earlier editions (published in wartime) weren't as brightly coloured to start with. All the pages are nice and clean and in fine condition, too.

The dust jacket is slightly spotted and stained (that's the trouble with it having been white to begin with ) but with only very minor damage around the edges, and it has a plastic protective cover over it, which is a nice bonus. All in all, a lovely buy that was well worth the money indeed. It now lives on my Blyton shelf next door to its companion book The Children's Life of Christ (as I mentioned, I only discovered recently that these and Tales from the Bible were published as a series) and I'm looking forward to re-reading the story when I have time!

[Rob Houghton]

Well done, Courtenay! Of course, now you need to get the third Eileen Soper Bible story book!!



Unless you already have it of course!

[Pauline]

I did end up buying one of the copies of The Land of Far-Beyond from eBay (after saying I didn't think I would!) — basically, after looking at some of the hysterical prices that some copies, even a few in worse condition, were going for, I decided £32.00 was quite reasonable after all. I can see now from a pencil marking on the flyleaf that it was on sale at some stage for £59, so I didn't do too badly!

It came today in the post and I'm delighted with it. It's a seventh edition from 1950, but identical in all regards to the first edition and in really good condition all round. It has bright yellow boards under the dust jacket, which was a surprise — my other copy (first edition with no dust jacket) is a dull sort of greyish yellow, but maybe the earlier editions (published in wartime) weren't as brightly coloured to start with. All the pages are nice and clean and in fine condition, too.

The dust jacket is slightly spotted and stained (that's the trouble with it having been white to begin with ) but with only very minor damage around the edges, and it has a plastic protective cover over it, which is a nice bonus. All in all, a lovely buy that was well worth the money indeed. It now lives on my Blyton shelf next door to its companion book The Children's Life of Christ (as I mentioned, I only discovered recently that these
and Tales from the Bible were published as a series) and I'm looking forward to re-reading the story when I have time!

I bought The Land of Far Beyond quite recently from a charity shop. It's got one of those glossy board covers, but was only 50p, so that will do me. It's a lovely story. Enjoy, Courtenay.

[Courtenay]

I don't have that one yet, Rob, but I suppose I'll have to! I have read The Land of Far-Beyond once before when we had a readathon for it, but I rushed it a fair bit for that very reason — I'd like to read it more slowly and appreciate it better.

It's interesting that just last year The Land of Far-Beyond was reprinted along with two books of Enid's stories from the Old and New Testaments, as a Hodder "Life-Affirming Series": http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... hodderlife" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The Cave doesn't yet contain details of what's in those other two books — is the content similar to or the same as Tales from the Bible and The Children's Life of Christ, do we know? If so, they've essentially republished the original set of three Bible story / Bible-based fable books, which is nice.

And I've just bought a 1953 edition (near fine condition in very good dust jacket) of Tales from the Bible on eBay for only £26.25, so my own set of them is now complete.

[Rob Houghton]

Good for you, Courtenay! I love it when I encourage people to spend money!!

[Courtenay]

Don't forget that forum rule Anita made up a while ago that stipulates that if you encourage someone to buy a book and they don't like it, they have the right to take any book from your own collection as compensation...

[Rob Houghton]

I have a great copy of Tales From the Bible with a good dust wrapper, lol!

[Courtenay]

But I assume it's not for sale, as I didn't find it on eBay.