Errors in the books

[Stephen]

In 'The Mystery of Holly Lane' - at least in the 1969 Dragon edition - there's a chapter entitled 'A Chat With Wilfred - And A Surprise'. Well the surprise appears to be that the character is actually called Wilfrid! The word 'Wilfred' does actually appear once but then reverts back to Wilfrid two paragraphs later.

Elsewhere, Fatty's real name once appears as 'Frederik'!

[Rob Houghton]

Interesting! That was obviously a later error - as in my 1957 hardback version the chapter is called 'A Chat With Wilfrid - And A Surpise'.

I've always felt 'Wilfrid' is spelled wrong, lol! Surely it SHOULD be 'Wilfred'?

[Daisy]

Enid uses "Wilfrid" in "Five have a Mystery to Solve" as well.

[Rob Houghton]

i'd forgotten that! Maybe its an old-fashioned way of spelling 'Wilfred'? One thing I know, my 'spell checker' doesn't like 'Wilfid' lol!

[Anita Bensoussane]

There are characters called Wilfrid in The Mystery of the Strange Messages and The Adventures of Mr. Pink-Whistle too. Wilfrid is the older spelling of the name. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon name Wilfrið (pronounced Wilfrith).

[Rob Houghton]

Ah yes! I should have known that, as I'm very keen on Anglo-Saxon/Viking history.

[Courtenay]

Elsewhere, Fatty's real name once appears as 'Frederik'!

Almost looks like he could be going a bit Viking as well...

[Daisy]

Elsewhere, Fatty's real name once appears as 'Frederik'!

Almost looks like he could be going a bit Viking as well...

I notice a good many typos in the books and guess this is just one of those.

[Stephen]

This might not have been a mistake when it was written, but in 'The Secret Seven' (as in the first book of the series), they decide to make "Weekdays" their password as there are seven days in a week, and they're the Secret Seven. Though Peter points out there are only six weekdays. Well that's still one more than I'm used to! Was Saturday considered a normal working day back in the late 1940s?

Also, when the boys decide to wear white to disguise themselves as snowmen, Janet asks Peter "What about your head - how are you going to hide your dark hair?" Well the only SS illustrations I've seen are by Derek Lucas, who clearly depicts Peter with fair hair.

[IceMaiden]

Just finished Moon Castle last night and noticed the spelling of 'realise' on page 216 is spelled 'realize'. I was taught that 'ize' is the American way (realize, modernize, authorize) compared to the British English of 'ise' (realise, modernise, authorise) so although it's not technically incorrect, surely Enid wouldn't have used US spelling? It would be like me pronouncing 'zebra' as 'zeebra', it's not actually wrong but I just wouldn't do it .

[Anita Bensoussane]

I think that both "ise" and "ize" are seen quite frequently in British English. The original spelling for word endings of that kind was "ize", and it may be that American English has been more reluctant than British English to adopt "ise". That would explain why some people think of the "ize" ending as "American".

[deepeabee]

In Spain, following the Cambridge syllabus, we have to tell the children that ise is the British way and ize is American. So are words that we would spell with a double l and the American way would be just one l.

[IceMaiden]

Yes that's what I was taught which is why it threw me to see 'American English' in an Enid Blyton book! .

[Stephen]

In the 1968 Armada edition of 'The Valley of Adventure', Kiki appears to change gender for a paragraph. It's just after the children look into what appears to be a cave of finely dressed people - not realising they're statues. Kiki lands on the head of a woman and starts to peck her hair...

The children held their breath again. What would the woman do to Kiki - enchant him with her strange eyes, cast a spell on him and turn him into stone?

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's interesting, Stephen. I just checked my 1979 Piccolo paperback edition and Kiki is referred to as "her" in that sentence.