Journal 27

[Rob Houghton]

As usual I thought i would be the first to give congrats to Tony on the latest 'journal' - as usual full of interesting articles.

i particularly look forward to reading Anita's 'Six Bad Boys' - one of my favourite novels, as well as the continuing series on the 'Adventure' books.

The photographs of the 'Day' are very good quality indeed, and its good to see the coloured centre pages showing the 'flower' books - four of which have so far evaded me since I began collecting seriously back in 2000.

Nice to see the puzzle page back again too, though it looks a little too puzzling for me!

Thanks, Tony, for putting together another quality issue.

[Neasa]

just recieved mine today. can't wait to have a good read of it! Looks brilliant as usual!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I love it when we have a puzzle page, and I had great fun working out the Charactergrams. I intend to have a go at the Campsite problem too, though I usually find "logic" puzzles rather frustrating. Word puzzles are more my thing.

The club badges on the back cover look very attractive and I enjoyed reading Jenny Balston's article about her club/magazine activities - "Do You Belong to the Famous Five Club?"

I also have to agree with Terry Gustofson that Enid Blyton's books "exude common sense," and that her simplicity is "one of her most attractive qualities."

David Chambers' article was outstanding once again, and I was especially interested in his comments about the influence of Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopaedia on Enid Blyton. I had that set of encyclopaedias as a child - still have them, in fact - and relied upon them for many a school project, as well as spending hours dipping into them. There is a poetry and depth to the essays and stories in those volumes that is lacking in most modern encyclopaedias.

Anita

[Raci]

I love it when we have a puzzle page, and I had great fun working out the Charactergrams. I intend to have a go at the Campsite problem too, though I usually find "logic" puzzles rather frustrating. Word puzzles are more my thing.

I too loved the puzzle page but the opposite way round.
I really liked the campsite logic problem - I'll just have to wait a couple of months to see if I got it right
I've done a few of the annagrams but I'm finding them much harder Still plenty of time left to work out the others!

Thanks to everyone though it was another great read!

[Miranda]

I have just joined the EB Society, and this was the first copy of the magazine I have read. I thought it was excellent - packed full of interesting, well-written articles. I particularly enjoyed the synopsis of "The Six Bad Boys"; a book I haven't yet read but will look out for.

[Errol]

I recently received back copies of Numbers 25, 26 and 27, and rather than start a new topic, I thought I'd just add a comment here.

Thought comments on these issues will, of course, be a bit behind the times for most people, I would nevertheless once again like to say thanks to Tony, not only for making this wonderful material available to us, but also for the excellent presentation of the publications. They're superb in all respects.

To try to single out any individual items for specific comment would be no easy task, because the standard is equally high throughout. As usual, I was struck by the beautiful artwork. The reproductions of the older Enid Blyton book covers were very pleasing, and I especially liked the cover of "Silver and Gold" on the front of Journal No. 25. Seeing Stuart Tresilian's excellent drawings for the Adventure series in David Cook's discussions of this series is always a delight.

Among the other highlights, I must also mention that I especially liked Jenny Balston's reminiscences in "Do You Belong to the Famous Five Club?" in No. 27. It was very enjoyable in painting a real picture of real memories of earlier days.

Thanks to all, and especially Tony.

Regards,
Errol

[Tony Summerfield]

Hello Errol,

Thank you so much for your kind comments about the various Journals. I am particularly pleased that you singled out Jenny Balston's article as I have just received the sad news from her twin sister, Sue, that Jenny died in January.

Jenny contributed a number of articles to Journals over the years and her enthusiasm for Enid Blyton will be greatly missed.

Best wishes
Tony

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm sorry to hear of the death of Jenny Balston. Her enthusiasm really shone through in her articles. As well as the article in Journal 27, I particularly remember Jenny's excellent article on House-at-the-Corner, which was printed in the Journal a few years back.

[Errol]

Hi Tony

It's so sad to hear about Jenny. The only article of hers I know is the one in Journal No. 27, which to my mind captures the essence of one of the primary functions of the Society, that of rekindling memories. I will look out particularly for more of her articles in other back issues as I get them.

Please extend condolences to Sue and the family.

Regards,
Errol

[Moonraker]

It's so sad to hear about Jenny. The only article of hers I know is the one in Journal No. 27, which to my mind captures the essence of one of the primary functions of the Society, that of rekindling memories.

May I add my condolances. I echo your sentiment about the article in question and our society. A privilege to belong.

[Katharine]

I'm glad I found this thread specifically for Journal 27, so that I was aware of the sad news about Jenny Balston - I'll start by commenting on her very enjoyable article about her memories of Enid Blyton books and magazines. I was only 2 when Enid died, so never experienced the thrill of seeing brand new books appearing, so it is always interesting to read the experience of people who enjoyed her books etc as they were produced.

The rest of the journal was the usual interesting mix of articles.

To start with Anita's review of The Six Bad Boys - it's a book I think I've only read once as an adult. It was good to be reminded of the book and how it differs from most of Enid's other works. Definitely one I want to re-read at some point.

I was interested to read in Robert Houghton's review of the Family Series about the order in which the last two books were written/published - I shall bear that in mind if/when I have a re-read to see if they make a little more sense.

Terry Gustofen and David Chambers both submitted articles about possible influences/connections regarding Enid Blyton and other works - always interesting to read other people's thoughts about what may have influenced Enid's writing and/or how she may have influenced others.

I really enjoyed Paulo Ferreira's photos from the Enid Blyton Day of that year as they included many of the stall holders. I've often read their names, such as Sue Bell in discussions of book purchases, and seen their adverts in the journals, so it was nice to be able to put some faces to those names. I expect I saw some of them at the day that I attended, but there was so much to see that I didn't take it all in.

The double page spread of the Flower books was a lovely sight - I know they will be in The Cave, but it was good to see them all side by side rather than having to look at them all individually. I don't think I'd realised just how many there are (8), as I think I've only got a couple.

The same thought applies to the back page of the various Enid Blyton badges that have been produced over the years - sadly I don't have any of those.

I wonder what happened to the 2 child actors from the Noddy play in the photo?

David Cook and Lisa Newton's continuing articles were as interesting as their previous ones, and John Atkins completed his look at the story 'What Happened Over the Wall' - and yes, I did spot the 'mistake' in the illustrations. I found his comments interesting from the point of view that a story that he'd read and enjoyed as a child showed itself to have a few little flaws in the plot when viewed as an adult. Sadly that's something I've experienced myself with other stories - still it doesn't seem to have dampened our enjoyment of Enid's books.

Sheila Ray contributed 2 articles to this journal (I really must get around to reading her book which I have on my shelves!). I wonder if anyone here has a copy of the 'New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' that she mentions. Somehow at £7,500 a copy (in 2004) I don't expect many of us own it!

She also mentions another couple of Society publications - I wonder if they are still about? I have a few of the Folly ones, but again they are something I have yet to read.

I'm still puzzling over the quiz page - I hope the answers appear in the next journal. I don't know if I've missed an insert or skipped a couple of pages, but I couldn't find the answers to a couple of previous crosswords in earlier journals.

Finally onto to Eddie Muir's trip to Old Thatch - how lovely that David Hawthorne allowed him take some photos. I wonder if the current owners are aware of the connection with Enid Blyton and if they will ever consider opening the gardens again?

Time for reading something else before hunting out Journal 28 - I'm getting up to date very slowly.

[Boatbuilder]

'New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' that she mentions. Somehow at £7,500 a copy (in 2004) I don't expect many of us own it!

REALLY! Well I'm off to our local auctioneers tomorrow then.

I wish.

On second thoughts.....

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar ... reducation

[pete9012S]

I'm really enjoying reading your comments on past Journals Katharine. Thank you.

We will be away for two weeks in March (f my brother can cover for my absence), so tomorrow I will endeavour to search out Journal 27 and the next half a dozen or so Journals that follow it to take away with me.