What was the first Blyton book you read?

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Chrissie777
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Chrissie777 »

pete9012S wrote:I was very young.I was off school ill.From somewhere out of the blue I was handed this whilst stuck in bed.
I read it, or should I say 'absorbed' it.I forgot about being ill,forgot about school,forgot that I couldnt play out with my friends I could hear playing outside my bedroom window......
'They went off to their own secret island in THEIR OWN BOAT I thought..............'They lit fires and cooked their own food'............'They dived off their boat and swam underwater to sunken wrecks'.....
I thought THIS IS HOW I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE!
I put this to my parents when they asked why I looked so gloomy.......they said dont you know,there are many other books about the same characters written by the same lady....'WOW' my spirits lifted IMMEDIATELY!
And thus began my life long Enid ODYSSEY!..............
Pete, your parents sound wonderful! 8)
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Rob Houghton »

pete9012S wrote: Then a great depression swept over me.......The real world loomed....I didnt want that....I wanted to go back to their world with them.....

I thought THIS IS HOW I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE!
:lol: :lol: :lol: I love this, lol! For some reason it just made me laugh - yep - I felt the same way! :-D

I'm always amazed when I discover that some people, like you, Pete, came to Enid Blyton via The Famous Five (a set of books I didn't even read as a child, unless you count two annual versions). I'm always surprised that people didn't first meet Enid via Amelia Jane, The Wishing Chair, The Faraway Tree etc - although, like me, it seems your first encounter was 'The Book of Brownies' - even though you didn't realise it! :-D

I was so lucky to have a mom who encouraged our love of Enid Blyton. She had read Sunny Stories as a child, and remembered The faraway Tree in particular, so had sought out the books for my sister when she was old enough to enjoy them. When I came along six years later, I was also introduced to Blyton by my mom.

So I guess, in a roundabout way, I have a few editions of Sunny Stories circa 1941 - 1946 to thank for my love of Enid Blyton!
'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 was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Daisy »

The first Enid Blyton book I read was "The Secret Island" - as far as I can remember. I bought it with a book token when I was nine. Having said that, when I came across "I'll Tell You a Story" at an EB day, I found it was familiar and think I may have had that at a younger age than nine, but didn't realize the significance of the name of the author at that time! In fact, I read lots of books such as some FF ones without even noting the author until much later. On thinking about it, she may not have been as famous when I first got hold of her books, but I certainly asked for Blyton books for birthdays and Christmas by the time I was about eleven! I was getting Sunny Stories by then too.
Last edited by Daisy on 01 Dec 2017, 13:37, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:I'm always surprised that people didn't first meet Enid via Amelia Jane, The Wishing Chair, The Faraway Tree etc - although, like me, it seems your first encounter was 'The Book of Brownies' - even though you didn't realise it! :-D
I was so lucky to have a mom who encouraged our love of Enid Blyton.
Rob, "Amelia Jane", "Wishing Chair", "Book of Brownies" etc were not translated into German in the 1950's and 1960's. There were only the FF series, Adventure series, R series, FFO & Dog, 8 books on the Arnold Children (a mixture of the "Adventurous Four" and the Secret series) and the Secret Seven series available in German translations. This was done by Bluechert Verlag (later Bertelsmann) and Erika Klopp Verlag.
Franz Schneider Verlag translated a few stand-alone books.
"Hanni und Nanni" was not to my liking (I believe that was Malory Towers).
Wolfgang might correct me, please, if I forgot to mention something.

So German children did not grow up with EB's books for smaller kids, they started reading the FF books if they were lucky and had friends who owned those books as many German public libraries in the 1960's banned EB. :evil:
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I often feel like I was living in a parallel Universe when I read how Blyton was banned in libraries etc! That really wasn't my experience, in the 1970's and 80's, at all! :-D

My mom encouraged our love of Blyton, our post office was stuffed with Blyton books, there were Noddy figures on my birthday cake, my friends bought me Enid Blyton books for my birthday. Our local toy shop had Whitman Find Outer jigsaw puzzles (I bought The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage), The Famous Five were on TV, our classroom had several Blytons in the 'book corner' - including 'The Valley of Adventure' - which I first read at school - and relatives bought me 'Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual' for Christmas for several years. Plus, our junior school class performed the play 'The Little Green Imp' (probably in 1979 when I was 8) and all the girls in my class belonged to the Famous Five club, had badges, and swapped Famous Five books! Our local public library stocked a few shelves of Enid Blyton books - although I never borrowed any from there, as I had most of them anyway.

It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered that I wasn't meant to like Enid Blyton, and that 'everyone' had been trying to ban her books, lol! :lol: :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 was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Daisy »

I still remember the occasion when I acquired "The Mystery of the Spiteful letters". I had been invited to a birthday party and of course needed to take a present. My mother took me shopping and asked me to choose something. I decided on a book and my mother generously bought two of the Find-Outer books - the afore-mentioned Spiteful Letters and also Disappearing Cat, saying I could keep one. I had the difficult choice of deciding which to part with - I had read neither. Disappearing Cat disappeared to my friend and it was many years before I got another copy!
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I think I would have kept 'The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters' too, daisy! It sounds more exciting than 'The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat'! ;-) I still prefer Spiteful letters to Disappearing Cat today. :-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 was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by John Pickup »

The first Blyton book I read was definitely a Secret Seven but I can't remember which one. The first Famous Five book I read was Five On Kirrin Island Again.
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Yak »

Haha It was actually me who started the original thread asking this and I said pretty much exactly the same thing as I said yesterday. I genuinely did not remember having asked before.
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I see that my reply was totally different back at the start of this thread! However, although I mention 'Fireside Tales' - which was one of my first books I owned, I think The Book of Brownies just pipped it. Fireside Tales may well be the first book I read independently though - and definitely the first book I coloured most of the illustrations in! :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 was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by pete9012S »

Yak wrote:I genuinely did not remember having asked before...
Get a grip Yak! :wink:
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Yak »

LOL it's odd .. I remember so, so clearly being given the book - I can remember the ROOM I was in at the time - and yet I could not remember having asked this question before. Selective memory ..

The funny thing was, I didn't realise that it was not the first book in the series because it was called SECOND form .. I opened the book up and saw a picture at the front and assumed that it was from a previous book (it wasn't) and that's why I asked my mum about it.
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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by Aussie Sue »

Daisy wrote:The first Enid Blyton book I read was "The Secret Island" - as far as I can remember. I bought it with a book token when I was nine.
Daisy I envy you reading The Secret Island as a child. Despite reading most EB series as a child I had never heard of The Secret Island until I started collecting more seriously as an adult. When I read it I adored it and know I would have loved it as a child.

But I did have the great fun of introducing it to my grandchildren and it has been a real favourite for all of them and has been read and re-read many times.

My first Enid Blyton book was The Folk of the Faraway Tree and I was totally hooked on Enid Blyton books from that day on. I was given this book as a birthday present and still have it. It is totally battered as it was handed around to all my friends and class over and over and been read hundreds of times. Probably the most treasured book in my collection.

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Re: What was the first Blyton book you read?

Post by pete9012S »

I love this thread. It intrigues me that some can remember exactly which Blyton was their first, and others find that memory is lost forever in the mists of time.

Perhaps it's a little like asking if you can remember the name of the very first boy/girl you ever kissed...
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Re: First Enid Blyton books you read

Post by Eddie Muir »

I posted the following on this thread in 2009, Pete. I think it’s worth another airing:
Eddie Muir wrote: I was inspired to start this thread by Irene who mentioned on the enidblyton.net message board that the first Enid Blyton book she read was Don't Be Silly, Mr Twiddle. This started me wondering which book or books were the first Blyton books read by other enthusiasts. As I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums, the first book I remember reading was Chuff the Chimney Sweep and other stories, first published by Pitkin in 1949. My memory of this book dates back to 1951 when I was about seven years old and lived in my home town, Stourport-on-Severn and it was given to me as either a birthday or Christmas present. I still have a tatty, but precious copy of this book - not my original book, but one that I have acquired in more recent times. Other of my Enid Blyton firsts include Five On A Treasure Island, The Mystery of the Vanished Prince and The Family at Red Roofs. Which book or books introduced other forum members to the delights of Enid Blyton?
I’m not sure about the first girl I kissed, but I do remember having a sweetheart called Gillian when I was about seven years old and a pupil at Tan Lane Infant School in Stourport-on-Severn, Pete. Happy days! :D
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