Journal 34

[Moonraker]

Sorry I haven't added my two penn'orth yet, but only just completing 96 hours at work, with just one day off in the middle, I haven't had much time to read it, let alone write about it!

Every Journal seems to me to be the best yet. This one is no exception. There is not one article that hasn't fascinated me in this edition. Much of what I wanted to say has already been said, so I will not re-iterate!

The highlights for me are John's Come to the Circus, although the sub-title, A Study in Psychology, almost put me off! It has fuelled my desire to read this book - I haven't read it, so it will be really fascinating to read a new Blyton! I must make a note to search eBay! David's Find-Outers' article continued his excellent series on these books - highlighting those dreadful illustrations, yet in themselves, part of the nostalgic ambience of the novels. Anita always surpasses herself (what a woman - a true legend in our circle) and her comparisons and resemblances made really fascinating reading. If Anita hadn't been born, Enid would surely have invented her! Very well done, old thing.

A great edition; thanks (that word is so overused and is not strong enough to do justice) again to Tony for his work in getting it from the pens of the contributors to our letter boxes. Tony, you might only be the builder, but you're a true brick!

[Lenoir]

Thanks for the encouraging comments.
I’ve been enjoying journal articles by Anita and Robert (and other well-known contributors) for many years now!

A great journal, as always. Tony’s editorial sets the scene for what is to come.
I know the Find Outers series well so I can identify with the comments made in David Cook’s article. Well, actually, I might have to read Secret Room again as I evidently don’t know that one quite as well as I thought. Interesting to see that it is the shortest book. I thought it might be, but it’s not always obvious when looking at the book itself, as my paperback versions of the first 3 books all have the same number of pages. I suppose the layout and font sizes, and number of illustrations can be used to pad a book out.

Come to the circus! The Four Cousins and The Children at Green Meadows are books I haven’t read, so this is all new to me and these insightful articles make me want to read the books. It would then be nice to re-read the articles and ‘compare notes’. These books are not available here at the moment though – not new anyway. Maybe one of my local second-hand shops will have them one day: I’ve collected many old books over the years that way.

If Anita hadn't been born, Enid would surely have invented her!*

Tony, you might only be the builder, but you're a true brick!

*or the other way around!

I like those comments!

[Rob Houghton]

I must admit 'The Four Cousins' was quite hard to come by even here in the UK - I didnt have a copy and knew I would eventually need one for the article, so I had to buy one off the net - £18.00 for a first edition in a wrapper. It's a very nice copy, and it was missing from my collection, but it was still pretty expensive for the size of it, especially when a first edition of 'The Birthday Kitten' cost me only £7.00 in a similar condition!.

Just shows how dedicated I am to writing my Journal articles!!

[noddy13]

Hi everyone.
Tony, the loss is entirely mine that I haven't logged on to the forum since July (as you so subtly made it a point to remind me). I really regret that I wasn't able to enjoy the last 4 or 5 months of what must have been truly enjoyable and entertaining stuff.
I also feel bad that I have missed out on the Journal, and you may see me pining and whining outside your window tonight.

I hope I can visit more often now... and be a part of a world thats probably more real and definitely nicer than the one we generally are a part of.

Anita, Nigel, Ming ... guys ....nice to see you are all still at the top of your game.

[Rob Houghton]

hey! Welcome back, Noddy13. Hope you stay around for a while. It's good to have you back.

[noddy13]

Hi Robert, thank you. As everyone seems to be having such a good time, it may be rather difficult to stay away. Yup, I think I will hang around for a long long time.
It's good to be back.

[Lucky Star]

Good to hear from you again Noddy13. Its been too long.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Good to see you back, Prabhu! Hope you're able to visit a lot more often and join in the fun.

Anita

[Keith Robinson]

Hey there, Prabhu! I was just talking about you the other day. You were the subject of one of my blog posts after your review was stolen by a fiendish rotter:

Rotters who steal website content

Sorry folks, hope you can forgive me for hijacking the thread, poaching, etc.

I'm still only halfway through the Journal -- I read about half on the day it arrived (the 23rd), then put it down for a minute... and somehow haven't found a moment to pick it up since! But what I've read so far has been great. As usual it seems I'm way too late in commenting, but I can easily echo all the praise from above. As Tony said, the contributions come from others, so well done to all those that "got published" this time round; but thanks to you too, Tony, for all your hard work. I really think you should work harder though, to produce a monthly Journal.

[Moonraker]

Great to see you back, Prabhu, old thing. What have you been up to? Your reviews have been stolen in your absence, but Keith has struck his revenge! Hope all is well with you anyway.

[noddy13]

Robert, Anita, Lucky Star, Keith, Nigel, Viv, Ming... all you guys... you make a body feel very welcome. Now I know why I missed logging on. Anyway, I will stop being yet another hijacker..and leave it at that.

Did not know about the thefts that happened, but can either mean the reviews are worthless and consigned to the thief's bin or valuable enough for him to steal. (my bets on the former). Either way, he cant steal ME away from this gathering.

Cheers,... and once again, sorry for robbing this forum to say hello.

Prabhu

[Ming]

Ha ha, hello you!! I really liked Keith's image of "This review has been stolen from EnidBlyton.net" - priceless!!

[Moonraker]

As you say, me old cockatoo, priceless indeed. Woe betide anyone who tries to get the better of Keith!

[Lenoir]

I thought I’d have a search for some of the books mentioned in Journal 34.
I used Navrang. The prices are reasonable and they have a big selection to pick from. However, a lot of titles seem to be out of stock. For example, I searched for “children at green meadows Enid Blyton” and it said “out of stock”, but it did return a lot of other very relevant titles like “the Rubadub Mystery” (available) and “Vegetarian curries” (available, but not what I ordered.).

Then I searched for “four cousins”, and it came back with the O’Sullivan Twins (out of stock), William Again (out of stock, and not even written by Enid).

I guess that’s one way of saying “We don’t have that one Sir, but can we interest you in this (not that we have it in stock, mind you).”!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Most Enid Blyton books ordered from Navrang would be bowdlerized versions, minus illustrations in some cases, so tracking down second-hand copies is probably your best bet anyway.

Anita