Another masterpiece. Tony is (again) to be congratulated in producing this bumper edition. Ming and Barbara on the cover as well - almost as much an accolade as being on the front of the Radio Times!
Anita's article,
The Children at Green Meadows and the Woman at Green Hedges was of particular interest to me, as I had just read it for, I think, the first time. I greatly enjoyed the book, it seemed a bit like a FF novel, but without the mystery. Here we could revel in the delights of Green Meadows and focus on the social issues without worrying about who is flashing on the cliff! I too saw many connections between Green Meadows and Green Hedges - it was good to see them confirmed in Anita's writing.
Another stomping performance from David Cook. His second part of his article on my favourite band - The Five Find-Outers and Dog. David gives us a great plot summary - although I don't usually like to see the solution given away; still, I guess most of us have read the books, but maybe a spoiler warning should be present? I suppose though that David is so in depth with this article that he feels the need to comment on the final solution. Looking at the cover of
Burnt Cottage reinforces my belief that the cottage on the back should be the one on fire - it fits the descriptive narrative far better than the one on the front. David also gave us a fascinating insight to Tapping, Enid's own gardener. This is a series of articles I find difficult to wait for!
When I first saw the heading,
Firearms, my first thought was here's another Gordon Lupson! However, it was really interesting. To someone who doesn't know one end of a gun to the other, I found it totally absorbing. Thanks to John Atkins, I now know my pistols from my revolvers!
Terry Gustafson's
The Enchanted Wood was another great read. My favourite of all the magical/fantasy series of Enid's, I was spellbound! I will enjoy re-reading this series far more after digesting the content of this excellent article.
These treasures were followed by wonderful articles on the often maligned
Secret Seven series, and Part Ten of Robert's series on the younger Family Books. Great illustrations accompanied these great articles, oh, what happy reading!
Finally, the subject matter of the cover illustration - Ming in Blytonland. I have said much about Ming in the past, so I won't re-iterate my opinion of her here. Suffice to say, she fully lived up to expectations. We can all learn lessons from her intense devotion to the Society and the works of Blyton. She can also teach us that nothing is impossible if we have the will and determination to achieve our goals. Well done, Ming.
Thanks everyone, from the contributors to the old fellow himself.
What
would Julian say?
Footnote: I had inadvertently closed the tab, thereby deleting this post before submitting it. Thanks to following instructions from Ming, I re-discovered it in the closed tabs section of the History folder. Thanks, Ming.
Slough!!! 
Your comments made me chuckle, as did Betjeman's poem. Another Betjeman poem - Myfanwy - always reminds me of Enid Blyton and of other authors who wrote about girls' schools or girls' stories in general: 
