Hachette Reverting to Classic Text for the Famous Five!

[Rob Houghton]

I have a feeling it wasn't considered "cool" for older children to wear shorts in the 1970s - they were mainly worn by younger ones. The publishers probably thought that bringing in jeans would make the characters more contemporary and more appealing to readers.

Yes - I must admit I didn't wear shorts after about the age of 5 or 6 - and wasn't persuaded to wear them again until I was about 12! Even then, I rarely wore them outside the house.

[Katharine]

I'm trying to think back that far. I think probably most children at the target age group wouldn't have worn shorts, other than for sports activities. Girls might have worn hot pants, but I'm pretty certain George would have produced one of her famous scowls at the thought of those.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's funny that Hodder (in their Knight paperbacks) brought jeans into the Famous Five stories in the 1970s and gave the Secret Seven anoraks in some books, while other publishers such as Armada and Piccolo were happy for Enid Blyton's characters to stay in shorts and jerseys. As a child, I preferred it when characters in books didn't wear the same things that I wore. I enjoyed reading about the different clothes in Enid Blyton, E. Nesbit, Noel Streatfeild, Johanna Spyri, Laura Ingalls Wilder, L. M. Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett, etc. It was fun to hear about organdie frocks, bonnets, goloshes, Norfolk suits and other things that weren't part of my daily life.

[Rob Houghton]

I agree, Anita. I think this might be where some of the 'magic' has gone from the modern versions. As well as the clothes, I enjoyed hearing about people called Bessie and Dame Slap and Fanny and other names I'd never come across. Wearing shorts and listening to the wireless and talking of 'gypsies' and words such as 'gosh!' and Jolly good' etc, all added to the feeling that these books weren't just normal every-day stuff but something special.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, that sums it up well. I loved the feeling of entering a world which mirrored ours to some extent but was also full of unfamiliar things and different perspectives.

[Darrell71]

Yes, I think there are way too many 'modern' books out there if you want something 'relatable' or whatever, but for me, growing up half in the States and half in India, never having visited UK or even Europe, I think, till 2012, (except transit stops at Frankfurt which doesn't count), part of the magic of Enid Blyton was the totally different world children my age lived in. The language, clothes, different words for everyday things, etc all are a part of that, so I don't really mind if they're wearing things I've never even seen.

[Rob Houghton]

I think that's a very good point indeed. For all of Blytons lifetime and since, her books have been amazingly popular in other areas of the world, where food and costume and even countryside and transport and weather and customs are totally different, and yet Enid cut through all of these and was still just as popular as in England, if not more so. Her books take us into a different world, and that's the secret of her success. It proves that publishers don't need to make her work 'more relatable' - it always has been, whatever the country or era.

[Katharine]

The only thing I would say in the defence of the 1970s changes, was that when I was growing up at that time, I was aware of a strong anti-Blyton feeling. Also, when I look back over that period of time, it was a time very much of 'chuck out everything old and modernise it'. Huge parts of my home town were bulldozed to make way for futuristic buildings, food became instant and processed, synthetic materials were marketed as being so much better than nature fabrics etc. Even our currency and measuring systems were changed to decimal/metric.

Maybe if the FF and SS hadn't been updated at that time, they would have faded into the past, whereas at least they have remained in print. I think the problem facing text changes is how much to change them. It's one thing to change the odd word that might cause offence, but it's another to try and update them so much that they begin to become something completely different, in the hope they will appeal to more children.

People have different tastes in literature, and I think it's unlikely that there will ever be a book that will appeal to 100% of children. After all, I doubt all the rewriting/updating in the world will ever make Anita become Noddy's No. Fan.

Hopefully the latest changes will get the balance right.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Your remark about Noddy reminds me that I once wrote a Journal article comparing three or four 1980s Macdonald Purnell Noddy books (which were quite heavily abridged) with the original tales. As I'd always found the originals a bit long-winded, I wondered if I might actually prefer the Macdonald Purnell versions - despite the garish Edgar Hodges pictures which weren't a patch on the charming illustrations by Beek and co. However, I came down firmly on the side of the full-length books. The style of the abridged editions was choppy and much of the gentle humour and quirky characterisation had been lost. A story is about more than just the plot, and it's a shame to tamper with Enid Blyton's beautifully flowing prose.

[Rob Houghton]

This immediately becomes apparent when one compares the original text of the opening paragraphs of 'Five On A Treasure Island' with the 2010 edition. I think we've compared these before elsewhere. The 2010 version took all of Blyton's poetry and natural rhythm and style out and replaced it instead with bland prose that anyone could have written.

For example -

original -

"Mother, have you heard about our summer holidays yet?" asked Julian, at the breakfast table. "Can we go to Polseath as usual?"

"I'm afraid not," said his mother. "They are quite full up this year."

The three children at the breakfast table looked at one another in great disappointment. They did so love the house at Polseath. The beach was so lovely there too, and the bathing was fine'

Note the last paragraph, which has a certain lilt to it. In the 2010 version this 'poetic lilt' was removed to make the dialogue more bland and to the point.

"Mum, have you decided about our summer holidays yet?" said Julian, at the breakfast table. "Can we go to Polseath as usual?"

"I'm afraid not," said his mother. "They're full up this year."

The three children at the breakfast table looked at one another in great disappointment. They loved the house at Polseath, and the beach was perfect for swimming.'

Later on, the 2010 revision made some curious changes...such as turning Anne's dolls into 'soft toys' -

original version -

"Don't you simply hate being a girl?" asked George.

"No, of course not," said Anne. "You see - I do like pretty frocks - and I love my dolls - and you can't do that if you're a boy."

"Pooh! Fancy bothering about pretty frocks," said George, in a scornful voice. "And dolls! Well, you are a baby, that's all I can say."

2010 -

"Don't you hate being a girl?" asked George.

"No, of course not," said Anne. "You see - I like pretty dresses - and I love my soft toys."

"Who cares about pretty dresses?" said George, in a scornful voice. "And toys! Well, you are a baby, that's all I can say!"

and so on...

Thank goodness they've now been consigned to the dustbins of time!

[Courtenay]

One change I find particularly silly in the now-thankfully-discarded 2010 text is "Mother, have you heard about our summer holidays yet?" becoming "Mum, have you decided about our summer holidays yet?" It's as if someone looked at it and thought "Ooh, we can't have it that the children's mother has merely heard about their options for the summer holidays. That suggests she's a powerless domesticated housewife of the 1940s. We not only need her to be 'Mum', we need her to have decided about their holidays. These books need more Female Empowerment in them so they don't teach girls of today to be passive and ineffectual like women of Enid Blyton's time were." I'm sorry, but that's the only thought-process I can imagine being behind such a needless change.

[Katharine]

An interesting thought Courtenay.

I would assume that in the 1940s, the family would have written to the boarding house and then received a written reply to say it was full. Therefore they would 'hear'. Modern life would involve a quick phone call, or nowadays an internet booking. However I'd be surprised if children would take that much notice of the exact words.

Personally I think the change is silly, because if by using the word 'decided' it suggests that Julian's mother/parents have made a decision about Polseath, whereas it's out of their hands because there aren't any vacancies. If the powers that be really wanted to change the sentence, then I think it would have made more sense along these lines;-

'I'm afraid not' said his mother, 'They are full up this year and we couldn't find anywhere else we liked/could afford/had a vacancy'.

[Courtenay]

Personally I think the change is silly, because if by using the word 'decided' it suggests that Julian's mother/parents have made a decision about Polseath, whereas it's out of their hands because there aren't any vacancies.

Yes, that's the other thing I was thinking, but couldn't quite put it into words just now!

[alice Moo]

I got my hopes up that this was a return to Ms Blyton's original text. Alas no, I'll stick to collecting second hand copies (pre 70's ones) as usual then.

[Ross Gowland]

I have a feeling it wasn't considered "cool" for older children to wear shorts in the 1970s - they were mainly worn by younger ones. The publishers probably thought that bringing in jeans would make the characters more contemporary and more appealing to readers.

That's exactly my recollection. Shorts were for the summer only and an embarrassment once you got to the age of seven or eight. It amazes me when I read stories now of high school boys demanding the right to wear shorts as part of their summer uniform. After the age of eight, I wore long trousers all year round: black or grey trousers for school; jeans at home. I'd have refused to wear grey school shorts after that. That was for the likes of Winker Watson or BBC kids dramas set in wartime, not real life. Turning up to my comprehensive in shorts would've been as unthinkable as wearing a tutu or grass skirt.

Shows how fashions can come and go and then come again.