Readathon 20/04/20 - Mystery of the Strange Messages

[Anita Bensoussane]

As you say, Tim, Mr. Smith/Canley was in the wrong and he would almost certainly receive some kind of penalty for not reporting regularly to the police as required (though we never find out what). Having been a traitor in the past, he was lucky to have been given a second chance and would have been expected to comply with the law on release from prison.

Having said that, Goon's approach leaves an extremely nasty taste in the mouth as he openly relishes shocking the old couple with the news that he knows of their real identity, and takes a perverse pleasure in witnessing their distress. He describes to Fatty and Ern - with pride! - how he shoved Mrs. Smith aside, forced Mr. Smith out of bed despite the man's illness and ordered the couple to pack up and go. Most unprofessional. When Goon says he expects to receive a Letter of Commendation for his work on this case, I heartily agree with Fatty when he replies, "Well, you wouldn't get one from me."

[Irene Malory Towers]

I love all the poems but I am not offering to do my own.
I had noticed the part about Ern eating in the kitchen and the others eating in the dining room. I accept that as a sign of those times. Just as in when in Five Fall into Adventure and they meet Jo for the first time she eats in the kitchen with Joanne the cook, but the others eat in the dining room !
Nowadays we cringe but that was just the custom in those days. When I joined the Royal Mail 25 years ago it wasn't much after they had different canteens for the workers ! and the management. And that was in the 90's.
I have wondered though what on earth those middle class mums did with their time. They only had one or two kids, who were often at boarding school, they didn't work and they had a cook and housemaid to help them. So what on earth were they doing all day. Sounds a great life.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I have wondered though what on earth those middle class mums did with their time. They only had one or two kids, who were often at boarding school, they didn't work and they had a cook and housemaid to help them. So what on earth were they doing all day.

I expect Mrs. Trotteville's "good works" involve writing to all sorts of people in authority, holding meetings and tea-parties, organising sales and other events like plays and concerts, making crafts to sell, etc. While general housekeeping would be left to the staff, she would probably also enjoy things like needlework and picking and arranging flowers for the house. In Strange Messages we learn that she's making some curtains and she says Mrs. Smith will be able to help her. I seem to recall that Bridge is mentioned in another book, though I think Mr. and Mrs. Trotteville both play that with friends in the evening.

Very interesting too to see that note of moral ambivalence about Mr Smith / Canley — I was quite surprised, as Enid's usual attitude towards traitors is pretty much that they should hang. Also, with this book being published only 12 years after the end of WW2 and with the Cold War now well underway, I can imagine even young readers could easily understand that selling secrets of war planes to the enemy was a very, very, very serious matter.

It is funny that Five Go to Billycock Hill was published in the same year as The Mystery of the Strange Messages (1957), yet the attitude towards traitors is completely different:

Julian switched off the news and looked at the others soberly. "Well - that's that! Crashed, both of them! That was because of the storm, I suppose. Well, at least no enemy will be able to get hold of the new devices that were incorporated in the planes."

"But - that means Toby's cousin is drowned - or killed," said Anne, her face very white.

"Yes. But remember, if he flew away in that plane, he was a traitor to his country," said Dick gravely. "And traitors deserve to die."

"But Toby's cousin didn't seem like a traitor," said George. "He seemed so - well, so very British, and I can't say anything finer than that. I feel as if I shall never trust my judgment of anyone again. I liked him so very much."

[Courtenay]

Ah, that's it, thanks, Anita — I knew there was a place somewhere where another of Enid's characters declared that "traitors deserve to die". How strange that she published that in the same year!!

I wonder which of the two books came first, do we know? Maybe, whichever one came first, it drew comments from readers (or their parents) — whether Billycock Hill was first and they said Enid was being too harsh on traitors, or Strange Messages was first and they said she was being too lenient — and so she wrote another book featuring a "traitor" and changed her tune?

Changing the subject, there was one little exchange between Fatty and Bets that I thought was very sweet (and certainly fuels the theory, as taken up by certain fan fiction writers, that their relationship later took a romantic turn...):

"Bets, aren't you going to have an ice-cream? You'd better feed yourself up, because I'm going to make you take the pot-plant to old Mr. Grimble!"
"Oh no!" said Bets. "Why can't one of the others?"
"Because you have a very nice smile, Bets, enough to melt even the crabbed old heart of a fierce head gardener!" said Fatty.
Bets laughed. "You might be Irish, Fatty, with all your blarney!" she said.

I thought that was quite a mature and cheeky comeback from young Bets, which suggests she's finally growing up a bit!

[Lenoir]

I read this book a few months ago.
I can imagine Mrs Trottevilles "good works" coming in very useful in a Lockdown situation. She would be supervising the making and distribution of masks, organising essential food items for the poor, etc.

[Perce]

When the FFO and Ern were at Fairlin Hall, Pip was initially on the lookout and he said (in my 1966 edition of the book) that he would whistle "Over the Sea to Skye" if he saw anyone coming towards the house.

This interested me as a Scot because, although I'm familiar with the tune, I wondered if this text has changed in more recent publications of the book or remained the same? Is the tune well enough known outside Scotland so that readers will still know what Pip would be whistling? Or is there Scottish blood in the Hilton lineage and this tune was chosen purely to confuse any English and Burmese chaps who may have been prowling around!!

[Irene Malory Towers]

In the Kindle version of the Mystery of the Strange Messages it has missed out that line from Bets exclaiming about Fattie being Irish, "Bets laughed. "You might be Irish, Fatty, with all your blarney!" she said. So which is the original, presumably it was in the original. I wonder the Irish part was taken out. Do you think the PC brigade think that is is insensitive to the Irish !

[Anita Bensoussane]

Fancy an incidental remark like that being removed! You may be right that it was considered un-PC, Irene, or perhaps it was thought that today's children wouldn't understand it (though I'd have thought the meaning was obvious from the context).

As far as I know, 'Over the Sea to Skye' is well-known throughout the UK, Perce. It's one of those songs that's been part of my life forever and I don't remember when or where I first heard it. I found myself humming the tune after reading the passage in which Pip says he'll use it as a signal.

[Perce]

I found myself humming the tune after reading the passage in which Pip says he'll use it as a signal.

Thanks Anita, at least I can now get the image out of my head of Pip wearing a kilt, wielding a claymore, and shouting at the two men, "Whit wan o' yez ure gonnae take me oan?" [translate: Which one of you would like to take me on? [in a fight]]

[Lucky Star]

In the Kindle version of the Mystery of the Strange Messages it has missed out that line from Bets exclaiming about Fattie being Irish, "Bets laughed. "You might be Irish, Fatty, with all your blarney!" she said. So which is the original, presumably it was in the original. I wonder the Irish part was taken out. Do you think the PC brigade think that is is insensitive to the Irish !

Grrr I hate it when the books are bowdlerised like that. As an Irishman I take absolutely no exception to that remark. In fact growing up in Dublin and reading the books I was always delighted to come across the rare references to Ireland in them. I would however be inclined to agree that it is probably misplaced Political Correctness which is responsible.

[Courtenay]

As far as I know, 'Over the Sea to Skye' is well-known throughout the UK, Perce. It's one of those songs that's been part of my life forever and I don't remember when or where I first heard it.

And overseas too. My mum had at least two different versions of it on cassette when I was little and we learned to play it on the recorder when I was at school! I've always known it as the Skye Boat Song. Just went into a rendition of it myself and choked up a little — partly because it took me back to when I was really little, and partly because it reminded me of how, several years ago, I visited the actual site of the Battle of Culloden, where there's a brilliant visitor centre run by the National Trust of Scotland. Really brings out what a horrible war the Jacobite Rising was, despite all the (mainly Victorian) poetic attempts to romanticise it.

Grrr I hate it when the books are bowdlerised like that. As an Irishman I take absolutely no exception to that remark. In fact growing up in Dublin and reading the books I was always delighted to come across the rare references to Ireland in them. I would however be inclined to agree that it is probably misplaced Political Correctness which is responsible.

Yes, and despite the fact that Bets' remark to Fatty is actually quite complimentary!!

[Wolfgang]

In the Kindle version of the Mystery of the Strange Messages it has missed out that line from Bets exclaiming about Fattie being Irish, "Bets laughed. "You might be Irish, Fatty, with all your blarney!" she said. So which is the original, presumably it was in the original. I wonder the Irish part was taken out. Do you think the PC brigade think that is is insensitive to the Irish !

In the old German translation, the Irish part is completely missing. after Bets laughed, she said she'd do it. In the new official translation she says thank you for the compliment.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks Anita, at least I can now get the image out of my head of Pip wearing a kilt, wielding a claymore, and shouting at the two men, "Whit wan o' yez ure gonnae take me oan?" [translate: Which one of you would like to take me on? [in a fight]]

I've just been thinking back over some of the little details that add life and colour to the book. I chuckled, for example, at Mrs. Hicks' reaction to learning that Ern composed poems:

"I write poetry, Mrs. Hicks," he said.
"Well, I shouldn't think that's very difficult, is it?" said Mrs. Hicks. "I'd write it meself if I had time."

How deflating!

Whether Enid Blyton deliberately included the Book of Revelation's "number of the Beast" in the baddies' car number (AJK 6660), I don't know. It raised a smile though!

There's a delightful piece of description when Mrs. Trotteville goes to Fatty's shed to confront him about the trouble caused by his rag-and-bone man disguise, and then stalks off back to the house:

And away she went up the garden path, her skirts whisking angrily over the edges of the border.

Such a succinct and powerful image of someone who is absolutely brimful of anger!

Another memorable episode is when Fatty finds copies of the Rangoon Weekly with words snipped from them. This is a pivotal moment and we're told that Fatty "gazed at them in rapture." It struck me that "rapture" is the perfect word for that deep surge of pleasure and satisfaction which comes from solving a knotty problem at long last. I also like the way Enid Blyton plays around with the notion of the cut pieces of newspaper resembling pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, with solving a mystery being like putting a jigsaw together. That idea is used in several books but it's particularly apt here:

The jigsaw of the mystery was fitting together now. Fatty had quite a lot of the pieces. Not many were missing!.. "Funny mystery this - all made up of bits and pieces..."

Enid Blyton's writing displays a wonderful naturalness and a great sense of comic timing.

[pete9012S]

I thought I would compare Bets asking what anonymous letters are in the two books. I remember this disturbed me a bit at the time when I was young. Why did Bets ask the same question again I asked myself.

The only solution I can offer now much later in defence of Enid is that she most often stated that all her series books were complete in themselves - so maybe she wanted new younger readers eleven years later to understand this 'big' word.
Maybe she also forgot?

One point that did irritate me when I read the Find-Outers slightly out of sequence was how one or more books referred to all the Mysteries they had solved, giving some of the plots away.
I can't remember which book did this, can you??? - but I remember being a bit peeved with Enid as a young lad, thinking I wish you hadn't done that!!!



04. The Mystery Of The Spiteful Letters - 1946

‘Pip! I’ve found out everything, simply everything!’cried Bets. ‘And there is a mystery to solve - a kind we haven’t had before.’
Sounds of laughter floated up from the drive. It was the others coming. ‘Wait a bit,’said Pip, excited. ‘Wait till the others come up. Then you can tell the whole lot. Golly, you must have done well, Bets!’
The others saw at once from Bets’face that she had news for them. ‘Good old Bets!’said Fatty. ‘Go on, Betsy. Spill the beans!’
Bets told them everything. ‘Somebody wrote a nonnimus letter to Gladys,’she said. ‘What is a nonnimus letter, Fatty?’
Fatty grinned. ‘You mean an anonymous letter, Bets,’he said. ‘A letter sent without the name of the sender at the bottom - usually a beastly cowardly sort of letter, saying things that the writer wouldn’t dare to say to any one’s face. So poor Gladys got an anonymous letter, did she?’
‘Yes,’said Bets. ‘I don’t know what it said though. It upset her. Mrs. Moon got out of her what it was and made her go and see Mother and Daddy about it. And they rang up Mr. Goon.’
‘And he came popping along, his eyes bulging with delight because he’d got a mystery to solve that we didn’t know about!’said Fatty. ‘So there’s an anonymous letter-writer somewhere here, is there? A nasty, cowardly letter-writer - well, here’s our mystery, Find-Outers! WHO is the writer of the “nonnimus”letters?’
‘We shall never be able to find that out,’said Daisy. ‘How on earth could we?’

14. The Mystery of the Strange Messages - 1957

“Where will you put the notes next?” he said sarcastically. “Go on, tell me. Where? I’d like to know, then I could look there.”
“Well, let’s see,” said Fatty, frowning hard. “What about inside a watering-can—if you’ve got one, have you Mr. Goon. Or in your shopping-basket…”
“Or on his dressing-table,” said Larry, joining in. “He wouldn’t have to go and look for a note there. It would be right under his nose.”
Mr. Goon had gone purple. He looked round threateningly, and Bets half-thought she would make a dash out of the door. She didn’t like Mr. Goon when he looked like that!
“That’s not funny,” said Mr. Goon, angrily. “Not at all funny. It only makes me more certain than ever that you’ve planned those silly notes together.”
“Mr. Goon, we haven’t the least idea what you’re talking about,” said Fatty, seeing that the policeman really had some serious complaint to do with notes sent to him. “Suppose you tell us what you’ve come about—and we’ll tell you quite honestly whether we know anything about it or not.”
“Well, I know you’re mixed up in it, Master Frederick,” said Goon. “It—it smells of you. Just the sort of thing you’d do, to make a bit of fun for the others. But sending anonymous notes isn’t funny. It’s wrong.”
“What are anonymous notes?” asked Bets. “I don’t quite know.”
“They’re letters sent by someone who is afraid to put his name at the end,” explained Fatty. “Usually anonymous notes have no address and no signature—and they’re only sent by mean, cowardly people. Isn’t that so, Mr. Goon?”
“That is so,” said the policeman. “And I tell you straight, Master Frederick, that you’ve described yourself good and proper, if you sent those notes!”
“Well, I didn’t.” said Fatty, beginning to lose patience. “For goodness’ sake, Mr. Goon, come to the point, and tell us what’s happened. We’re completely in the dark.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” said Goon, and took the four notes from his pocket, each in their envelopes

[Irene Malory Towers]

I hate it too when newer editions miss out parts of the original text. In my Kindle version Bets doesn't even thank Fatty, I know that in the Mystery of the Disappearing Cat Tupping is worse than in my Kindle version when he tears out Bets' "stolen" strawberry runners, and in the Mystery of the Hidden House (where I have got an old version thank goodness) Goon no longer canes Ern. (Not that I want him to, but it should be included to show what a nasty person Goon can be at times).
In the Island of Adventure they have also removed certain descriptions of Jo describing him as black, not sure what as I have an original version. That is more acceptable to remove these phrases as I can see they would be offensive. But I think you have to read them in their original context , a lot of contemporary writers such as Agatha Christie books and other writers would often slip in rather racist and insensitive comments about Blacks, Oriental people, Jews, Gays etc. I don't condone it but I try and accept that this was acceptable writing in these days.
Agatha Christie is one of my favourite (adult) authors but I do cringe at her comments but generally it does not detract me from my enjoyment of her books.