What If? Enid Blyton's Omnibus! 1953 (*plus*)

[GloomyGraham]

I remember buying the 1952 'Enid Blyton Omnibus' and wishing there were more of them.

It was good that some FF stories from magazines/annuals etc could later be published as "Five have a puzzling time" for fans of the series.

But imagine if the Omnibus could have been produced every year from 1952 until Enid stopped her magazine.

It could probably have resulted in at least another collection of stories about many series.

1952 Omni was:

- Adventurous Four
- Faraway Tree
- Galliano's Circus
- Naughtiest Girl
- Wishing Chair

Who would you choose for the 1953 (and beyond) Omni?

[Anita Bensoussane]

An interesting question, GloomyGraham. My first thought is that I'd have loved to see an 'of Adventure' story. The shorter format (four or five chapters) would mean that some of the features I love would have had to be modified - e.g. the gradual build-up, the complex and sweeping adventure, and the plentiful scenes focussing on friendship, family, banter and humour. It could have been done though, as Enid managed an Adventurous Four story in the 1952 volume.

Overall, I'd have liked the Enid Blyton's Omnibus! volumes to remain varied and to contain a mixture of adventure, mystery, fantasy and school stories, so here are my choices for 1953 and 1954:


1953:
1. An 'of Adventure' story (a short, sharp, stunning adventure which would need to get going quickly).

2. A Hop, Skip and Jump tale (these characters from The Enid Blyton book of Brownies are often overlooked, but Enid Blyton writes about them with consummate wit and sparkle).

3. A Find-Outers story (Enid Blyton wrote two Find-Outers short stories in the late 1950s/early 1960s, but allowing several chapters would give her more scope to create a puzzling mystery).

4. A Willow Farm story (a love of family and animals shines through in these books).

5. A Mr. Pink-Whistle tale (this would be more involved than usual, but with all the ingredients that make the stories so magical).



1954:
1. A Barney mystery/adventure (these books are full of atmosphere, emotion and antics as well as excitement, but I'm sure Enid could come up trumps even if limited to four or five chapters).

2. A Binkle and Flip tale (the two bunnies get up to all sorts of mischief and I still laugh out loud at some of their shenanigans!)

3. A Secret Seven mystery (Enid's tales of John Hollins the boy detective are short but effective, and this would be longer than those so I think it would work).

4. A story about St. Rollo's (Enid only wrote one book about this co-educational school - Mischief at St. Rollo's - so it would be interesting to have another one).

5. A story about Kit and co. from The Boy Next Door (a popular stand-alone novel - it would be fun to have a short adventure involving those characters).


The best of the original artists would provide the illustrations, of course, so we'd have Stuart Tresilian, Kathleen Nixon, Gilbert Dunlop, Dorothy Wheeler and other 'greats'.

[GloomyGraham]

I would have loved some of those too.

There could have been just 'A Weekend of Adventure' featuring Kiki and the kids.

If Enid had done 9 Omnis - repeating some of the favourite series - each of them might have got an extra title for readers - "The Adventure Collection" or similar.

I think publishers in the future would really have liked one more book for series like 'Adv4', 'Wishing Chair' or '6 Cousins' when they would have had three books instead of just a couple. Same with the 'Secret' series to even it out as 6.

I also think a few more John Hollins stories would have been great so they could have been collected together in a book or three.

And yes - another St Rollos. In fact almost all of those 'Mary Pollock' tales possibly deserved another story so they could be published as one title later on under Enid's name.

[GloomyGraham]

Since you have done the 53 & 54 editions, how about this for 1955?

I won't put a synopsis for each as I'm sure we can all imagine what they would have been like

1. Return to the Secret Island

2. What's That Brer Rabbit?

3. Half-Term at St Clares

4. Good Boy Shadow!

5. Back to Kidillin.

[GloomyGraham]

Here's another couple of short story ideas:

First Year At College (A Darrell story)
Fatty joins the Police Force
Our Riding School (Bill & Clarissa)

[Courtenay]

Oh wow, this honestly is making me wish all these further Omnibuses could have come about!

Most of the possible stories already suggested are ones I would want as well — especially an "... of Adventure" or Five Find-Outers short story. It would have been fascinating to see if Enid could pull off as engaging a story with those characters in only a few chapters as she always did when writing about them at length! I reckon she could have.

I would also absolutely love a new story about Kit and his friends from The Boy Next Door. That's one of my favourite Blyton "stand-alone" books — it's absolutely gripping, really, and it would be fantastic to have a sequel, even a short one. (I know we do have a couple of sequels written by EBS members, but I mean I'd love to see where Enid herself might have taken those characters next.)

Some of the "Mary Pollock" books definitely deserve a sequel. My favourite two are Smuggler Ben and The Children of Kidillin, which stand out as being among the few Enid Blyton books that are explicitly set during wartime. Maybe a sequel could be set soon after the war and have an adventure dealing with something from the war's aftermath, rather like the way The Valley of Adventure does?

I would also love something about Mr Pink-Whistle — maybe at least one slightly longer story about him, much the way a couple of Enid's first stories about him (in The Adventures of Mr Pink-Whistle) stretch over two chapters instead of just one.

And to crown it all off, my "dream" Omnibus would DEFINITELY have to feature at least one — and preferably several — short stories / cartoon strips of Noddy. (Sorry, Anita. )

[Katharine]

Some great suggestions - I'm not sure I could think of anything else to add, except perhaps a particular Noddy story. I think I read somewhere that there was a suggestion that Enid was thinking of a Noddy in Space book - that might have made an interesting little tale.

Strange to think that Enid died before anyone had set foot on the moon, so anything that she might have written would have been pure imagination, not fact.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, Enid Blyton wrote in her notebook in 1964 that she was planning another Noddy book called Noddy Goes to the Moon. Sadly, she was suffering from dementia by then and it was never written.

I'm loving all the omnibus suggestions! A Secret Island story would be super, as would a longer John Hollins tale, and it would be very interesting to meet the Kidillin and Smuggler Ben characters again. Smuggler Ben and The Children of Kidillin are my favourite Mary Pollock titles too, Courtenay. I suppose we could find a place for Noddy , though if we're looking at Toyland characters my personal preference would be for another story about Tiptoe, Jolly and co. (Tales of Toyland).

[GloomyGraham]

Sorry, I would be an upset little kid if the Omni had a Noddy story in it. i think there are already too many Noddy tales lol

I'm sure Enid could have written quite a good FFO story with only a few chapters. ''Mystery of the Missing Scarf" or something simple. No need for the Chief Inspector to be called in for a mystery less complex than normal.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry, I would be an upset little kid if the Omni had a Noddy story in it.

You'd be Even Gloomier Graham!

Actually, some readers might well have been upset by Enid Blyton's Omnibus! It was published in November 1952 but the contents had already been serialised in the magazine Sunny Stories between November 1951 and September 1952. Some children may have received the book as a present only to find that they'd read the stories before.

Your name has made me think that it would be good to see a new 'Holiday House' adventure in an omnibus!

[GloomyGraham]

You'd be Even Gloomier Graham!

Ces't Impossible!! (as some Mamzelles might say).

I thought the Omni stories being published first in Enid's magazine was a great idea, And wish it had continued.

5 new short stories from fairly popular series during the year to keep the magazine subscribers happy and then published as an Omni for the non-subscribers. New content for the magazine and a new book each year for non-magazine readers.

I thought it was much lamer when Enid published chapters of an upcoming FF story (etc) in the magazine.

I would have loved to have seen something like this so every three years there might have been a possible new book for a series at the conclusion of the run:

52 Faraway/Adv 4/Naughtiest Girl/Galliano/Shadow
53 Wishing Chair/Kidillin/St Clares/6 Cousins/Scamp
54 Pinkwhistle/Smuggler Ben/Malory Towers/Fenella/Willow Farm

So pretty much Fantasy/Adventure/School/Circus/Animal alternating each year.

Repeating these until 1960 could have resulted in an extra book for each title - especially those shorter Mary Pollock titles.

Keep Enid's most popular series (eg FF, S7 & FFO) for short stories in her (no doubt lucrative) other annuals (eg Boots, Australian etc) to provide further titles ('Five Find-Outers Adventures' etc) for those series published further down the track.

I would have loved to have seen more tales from some of her standalone books which are some of my favourites - Holiday House, Red-Roofs, Green Hedges, 6 Bad Boys - the list goes on....

Oh - if only I was her editor/assistant back then!! lol

Oh - but Enid - no more Noddy!

[Anita Bensoussane]

The magazine Sunny Stories was a George Newnes publication. Newnes only very rarely gave Enid Blyton permission to include stories featuring characters associated with other publishers, which is why the contents of the Omnibus! all relate to books published by Newnes. Enid found this limiting and she finished with Sunny Stories in February 1953, starting Enid Blyton's Magazine in March 1953. This was published by Evans Brothers, who allowed her more leeway to do her own thing and include characters from books brought out by a range of publishers.

From 1954 to 1957, there was an Enid Blyton's Magazine Annual each September. The first one consisted of material which had already appeared in the magazine, leading young readers to complain. After that, Enid wrote new stories for the annuals and the remaining three had 'Everything is new!' emblazoned on the cover. It makes sense to me for the annuals to contain fresh material. As children, my sister and I used to read Jinty every week and received the annual as a present each year for about four years. We'd have been most put out if the annuals had contained stories we'd already read!