Journal 37

What did you think of the latest Journal?
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RDMorrell
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Re: Journal 37

Post by RDMorrell »

I've now finished the Journal off, so for my 200th post in these forums, here are a few more thoughts:

In the article about Jo the gipsy girl, the Five all look very grown up in Eileen Soper's illustrations! Julian and Dick look about 16 or 17, and even Anne looks around 14! Jo looks about 12 though. No wonder Dick asks, "What's the matter with you, kid?" at one stage. In the illustration that depicts this, she is a kid compared to him!

There's almost a little romance between Dick and Jo (which others have picked up on in the past), and you can't help thinking that it might well have blossomed a few years down the line. I liked how John Lester highlighted Dick's kindness to Jo and contrasted it with the way the other members of the Five, even the normally sweet Anne, treated her.

The Mysterious Car is a cracking good story and definitely the best of the three main Blyton entries in this Journal, at least for me. As someone who enjoyed "number plate spotting" as a boy myself (although not in the way that Peter and Jack did it), the story had a certain resonance with me. Not all that much danger in this particular adventure, but certainly some clever detective work! Overall, it was a most enjoyable and plausible little story. Having had a train set as well when I was younger, I also liked the scene where they played with trains.

The names are obviously reminiscent of the two main male characters in the Secret Seven series (I wonder if Enid had The Mysterious Car somewhere at the back of her mind when she was creating the SS series?). The detective work with the number plates also reminded me of one of the SS books, although I forget which one (it's about the fourth or fifth novel, I think).

Loved the letter by the Bury schoolboy, and like Tony, I would have loved to see their projects as well! Bravo to the teacher who assigned that!

I'm sure others will agree that this has been another first-rate Journal, and I look forward to reading some more thoughts on it. Meanwhile, I'm eagerly anticipating Journal 38 already! :wink:
Best Regards

ROWAN M.

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Re: Journal 37

Post by Tony Summerfield »

RDMorrell wrote:The "Proper Knight" story was somewhat marred by a larger number of typos than usual. I don't know if these typos were in the original version, but they were a bit distracting.
My apologies for this, there were four typos in it (if this constitutes a larger number than usual) and I am sorry it marred the story for you. My fault entirely, it is always difficult to proof read your own material as you tend to read what you meant to type rather than what you did type, and you notice them immediately you see the printed article! I am sorry this marred the story for you, I hope it didn't ruin it for everyone else as well! :oops:
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Lucky Star »

Everyone is entitled to make the odd Typo, especially when they do as much work as you do Tony. I have'nt read that particular piece yet but the journal overall looks just as amazing as it always does. Roll on a peaceful weekend for reading it cover to cover. :D
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Re: Journal 37

Post by RDMorrell »

I wouldn't go so far as to say the typos ruined it entirely, just slightly spoiled it. I am pretty pedantic though, so maybe others won't be as bothered. There were some typos elsewhere as well, but they weren't quite as jarring for some reason. I do agree that it's not easy to spot mistakes in your own work!

The typos weren't the only reason why I didn't especially like the story though (that said, I was certainly interested to read a piece of Enid's writing intended for adults, and thank you, Tony, for putting it in). It was rather sadder than what I'm used to with her, and I was a little frustrated by the lack of communication between the boy and his parents (although that was probably part of the point of the story). The parents didn't explain to him what a modern "knight" is, and he didn't tell them that he had been expecting his father to suddenly start acting like a medieval knight, so it ends up with all this bad feeling between them, which rather literally concludes the story on a sour note!
Best Regards

ROWAN M.

A room without books is like a body without a soul - Cicero
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I should perhaps have added, Rowan, that some of the words that you may have thought were typos, such as 'shorley' were as written and deliberate. It is a strange story with an even stranger ending, but to my mind it had a major flaw in it - surely his parents would have noticed that Drayson was dressed up in all his finery for a special occasion.
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

RDMorrell wrote: In the article about Jo the gipsy girl, the Five all look very grown up in Eileen Soper's illustrations! Julian and Dick look about 16 or 17,
In my hard back book Julian is actually 16, as Enid writes Aunt Fanny, saying, :Julian is sixteen now and he can cope with anything that turns up.:

So you were spot on with Julian's age Rowan :D

8)
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Philip Mannering »

Julie2owlsdene wrote:
RDMorrell wrote: In the article about Jo the gipsy girl, the Five all look very grown up in Eileen Soper's illustrations! Julian and Dick look about 16 or 17,
In my hard back book Julian is actually 16, as Enid writes Aunt Fanny, saying, :Julian is sixteen now and he can cope with anything that turns up.:

So you were spot on with Julian's age Rowan :D

8)
I don't think modern editions have that sentence. :evil: From memory, I think it said, "Julian is almost grown-up now and...." Removing age references. Why? I find that a pointless change. :roll:
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Like others, I thought 'The Mysterious Car' was a nice early story and was surprised by the "modern-sounding" topic of the police laying speed traps for motorists. I also enjoyed the rather stange adult tale, 'A Proper Knight,' despite the flaw in the plot! It has a Victorian/Edwardian flavour to it - the highly-strung, imaginative young child, the sentimentality, the old-fashioned phrasing of some sentences, the clothes and the creepy house (young Drayson seems to spend hours at a time alone, with no nurse/nanny.) Quite an unnerving story with that chilling ending, but I enjoyed reading it and it showed Enid Blyton's interest in child psychology.

'The Enjoyment of Poetry' made interesting reading. I liked the way Enid appealed to children to "begin to be a poet" by observing things closely and feeling for them. I was pleased to see her quoting Yeats' 'I will arise now, and go to Innisfree...,' which always makes me think of The Secret Island.

Great to see an informative article by Tony on an early Blyton volume. The illustrations for Let's Pretend look so typically 1920s and the book would appear to be an amusing and unusual read.

Robert Houghton examined the peculiarities of The Boys' and Girls' Circus Book in some depth. My copy is the 1949 one (conventional novel size, retitled Enid Blyton's Circus Book) and I hadn't known that the original contained a cardboard circus cutout - that sounds like an attractive novelty item.

Like Rowan, I enjoyed reading the letter from Ben Wilkinson, Bury. It's lovely that he and his classmates wrote additional Faraway Tree chapters, inventing their own lands. I realise that in that case the task was set by the teacher, but Enid Blyton's books really do stir young readers' imaginations and foster creativity. I wrote several Blyton-inspired stories as a child as well as playing games based on the books.

I was surprised by the first sentence of Selwyn Goodacre's article on the Wishing-Chair books ( "Adventures of the Wishing-Chair is generally accepted to be Enid Blyton's first full-length story for children"), since The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies is considerably earlier, having been published in 1926. I'm not even sure whether Enid Blyton conceived of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair as a novel from the beginning. It could be said to consist of a number of short(ish) stories, some running to several chapters, which may explain why it is so episodic in nature as Selwyn Goodacre points out. I agree with him that The Wishing-Chair Again, published thirteen years later, is far more skilfully-constructed. I too used to be puzzled by the line about Peter and Mollie visiting "the Prince and Princess they had once rescued" - an incident which hadn't been mentioned in the book. It was in a discussion on these Forums that I learnt that the first edition of Adventures of the Wishing-Chair had 36 chapters, a number of which were removed from subsequent printings. It was in some of these lost chapters that the children and Chinky had rescued Prince Merry and Princess Sylfai (in chapters titled 'The Witch's Cat,' 'The Dear-Me Goblin,' 'The Adventure of the Green Enchanter' and 'Peter's Own Adventure.') These chapters, together with other lesser-known Wishing-Chair material, have now been collected in a volume called More Wishing-Chair Stories.

Journal 37 was a thumping good read as usual, and it was great that Enid herself submitted several pieces! Thanks, Tony.

Anita
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Pippa-Stef »

I got my journal the other day! :D

Thanks Tony!
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Enikyoga »

In some of her publications, even Enid Blyton committed some typos, though only about one in the whole book and this was done on a non-electronic typewriter. Maybe if she had, had a personal computer, that typo would have disappeared. For example, in the American edition of Mystery Island (1963), there is a sentence that goes, “Well, he’s not nice, and we’ll never go to Gloom, and it we did get there...” (P.45). There was also another typo in the 1967 edition of The Island of Adventure (which was of course the official name of Mystery Island). I am trying to look for it, when I come across it again, I will let you know. At times, I wonder whether the typos were those of the author or publisher or both...
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Enikyoga wrote:In some of her publications, even Enid Blyton committed some typos, though only about one in the whole book and this was done on a non-electronic typewriter.
I am not sure that I follow your logic here. If you find typos in a book or magazine they wouldn't have been Enid Blyton's typos, but the typesetter's! :roll:
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Moonraker »

Most of what I would have said about this splendid edition has been eloquently written above! I never read the Journal from cover to cover, I always pick out the articles that I think will interest me most, then return to the others, always eventually reading everything!

My Star Prize this time goes to John Lester for his fantastic article, Jo: The Five's Gipsy Ally. What a brilliant idea to single out a main supporting character, and do the works on her!

I also particularly enjoyed (as I always do) David Cook's sixth part in his Five Find-Outers & Dog series; made particularly relevant in timing to coincide with Julie's portrayal of an elderly Hilary in her own fan-fic story now showing on enidblyton.net! I loved The Mysterious Car, as others have said, how Secret Seven! Tony's Let's Pretend was fascinating - I'm so glad that I am not the only one to shout at the wireless when errors are made! As always, Anita writes with conviction, and has made an unknown (to me) story make its way to my wish-list!

I found A Proper Knight to be far more suited to children than to adults. As did Tony, I found the 'dressing-up' to be far fetched, and I also found the conclusion to be most unsatisfactory.

I have my own thoughts on The Famous Five's Survival Guide, which I shall share with you at a later date.

All in all, a cracking good read. Thanks, as always, to the wonderful contributors and to Tony himself for editing and distributing it. This was made all the more praiseworthy this time, as our poor Society Organiser was nursing a sore shoulder, so needed Barney's assistance all the more. Thanks to you both!
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Re: Journal 37

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

As Nigel says, most has been said about this splendid full packed journal. It is really a good read. I too agree I just loved The Mysterious Car.

As I read Robert's article, and came across him quoting Tony, as saying, 'only a seance would produce the answer...' and it got me thinking then, I wonder if anyone anywhere has ever done a seance to contact Enid and ask all the questions everyone would love to ask :D

8)
Julian gave an exclamation and nudged George.
"See that? It's the black Bentley again. KMF 102!"

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Re: Journal 37

Post by Moonraker »

Julie2owlsdene wrote:I wonder if anyone anywhere has ever done a seance to contact Enid and ask all the questions everyone would love to ask
I have held immensely successful seances in the past, but not for 30 years. I have read the Tarot and used the Ouija board, with amazing results. After the furore with the Exorcist, all of my occult possessions were burnt!

Is there anybody there?

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Re: Journal 37

Post by Lenoir »

My copy was in my post box today, so it took 8 days which isn’t bad at all.
Nice illustration on the cover, and quite amusing too.
Looking forward to reading it.
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