The Enid Blyton Society

Spent last night having a jolly good read. Its a tribute to the journal's size and content that I am still only about halfway through despite several hours of perusal.

As always I read David Cook's excellent FFO article first, it was his usual great dissection of the latest book plus this time we also got a review of the first short story Just a Spot of Bother which I, alas, have never read as my Big Enid Blyton Book is the newer, chopped version. I shall have to remedy this at some point. Next up was Rob Houghton's article. The Adventures of Scamp is the only Mary Pollock book that I have never read. I have read Shadow the Sheepdog however, and didn't rate it very highly for many of the reasons Rob suggests, principally its episodic, short story nature. So it was interesting to read the comparisons between the two books but I am not really any keener to read Scamp now that I know it's broadly similar to Shadow.

Anita's write up of The EBS day was superb despite the sight of my own ugly mug grinning out from the page. It was wonderful that she managed to get quotes in from everyone which perfectly illustrated each bit of the event. We can only cross our fingers and hope that the uncertainty surrounding the Day's future is resolved. Bill's Diary next; a great and unique idea which lends a new perspective to this long time favourite book. Interesting that the Isle of Gloom is reckoned to be Lundy Island. I would never have thought of that. I always thought Lundy was a bit far off from the coast to be viable for kids to row to. Though I've never been there so perhaps I'm wrong.

How realistic are Enid's books? William Ferguson gave us an interesting and unusual article which told us that actually they are not that far fetched after all. Together with the usual colour sections and period illustrations this is a truly memorable journal indeed. I'll hopefully read the rest of it tonight, in the meantime thanks yet again to Tony Summerfield and all the writers for another superb read. I have no doubt at all that EBS Journals will one day be expensive collectors items.

Julie, I'm glad you received your copy despite your lack of gates. Sorry to hear they were scrapped. Could have been worse. My parents had a small wooden gate. As the front path was on a slight slope my aunt and I were rollerskating down the path, using the gate to stop ourselves. Unfortunately on one occasion the gate didn't stop my aunt and she ended up in a tangled heap on the pavement surrounded by bits of wood. It was beyond repair so ended up on their open fire that evening

Having now read a good half of The Journal (I'm savouring it!) including David Cook's excellent article, I just thought I'd add as a footnote that 'Just a Spot of Bother' the Find Outer short story is also included in a slightly earlier anthology of Enid's stories, called 'My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book'. Unfortunately, I only have the abridged version of 'My Big EB book', but I do have two copies of 'My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book'. Both short stories of FFO also appear in 'Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury', as David says.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Bill's Diary' as i mentioned before, and it really, for me, is the highlight of this issue, along with the resume of the 'Day'.

Robert Houghton wrote:I just thought I'd add as a footnote that 'Just a Spot of Bother' the Find Outer short story is also included in a slightly earlier anthology of Enid's stories, called 'My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book'.

I am probably misunderstanding you here, Rob, but David Cook was right in his details. The Big Enid Blyton Book was published in 1961, but My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book was published in 1964, which makes it a later anthology rather than an earlier one. As I am sure you know it was simply an abridged version of the original book.

Tony Summerfield wrote:

Robert Houghton wrote:I just thought I'd add as a footnote that 'Just a Spot of Bother' the Find Outer short story is also included in a slightly earlier anthology of Enid's stories, called 'My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book'.

I am probably misunderstanding you here, Rob, but David Cook was right in his details. The Big Enid Blyton Book was published in 1961, but My Favourite Enid Blyton Story Book was published in 1964, which makes it a later anthology rather than an earlier one. As I am sure you know it was simply an abridged version of the original book.

Sorry, i wasnt too clear: I did think that after I'd posted my message. I was thinking of the later version of 'The Big Enid Blyton Book', which hasnt got the FFO story in it, rather than the first edition, which has ! So I was calling it an 'earlier anthology' compared to the 1970's version...But of course it is still really a later version!!

...Now I'm thoroughly confused!!

Finished journal 42 at last, what a whopper of a read it was, lasted for ages. Unbelievable value for money. I thoroughly enjoyed John Lester's book review of British Childrens Fiction in the Second World War. This article combined two of my favourite subjects, namely, Enid Blyton and World War 2 history. It was definitely thought provoking though I thought the comparison between Five Run Away Together and Lord of the Flies was stretching things a bit. That bit felt like something from that famous anecdotage tome perhaps.

I enjoyed Anita's review of The Naughtiest Girl; the story of her discovering the word feeble for the first time rang bells with me. I discovered literally hundreds of words for the first time by encountering them in Blyton books. Many thanks to Tony for bringing us things that we would otherwise never get to see, namely, the story about the Merryheart family which was a delightful early tale from the lady herself about an idyllic seaside holiday. Written in 1928 it was full of period touches such as Char-a-Banc rides and "automatic machines" on the pier which had to be fed pennies to make them work. What would Enid make of a modern amusement arcade I wonder. Paying to use the bathing tents to change in was also a delightful touch illustrating just how much has changed in the past 80 years. The From My Window article was excellent, I do love Enid's pearls of wisdom and she has a point. Gardens do indeed say a lot about the residents of a house. Did anyone else notice her unusual use of the word "wee" in the piece? This is a Scottish and Northern Irish thing to say and to my knowledge I have never read it used in any Blyton book before, not even when she was creating a Scottish character. It just struck me as odd.

The other little bits in the journal were fascinating as always, Fred Clampitt's story in particular was very touching. Number 42 can take a very proud place in the Journal hall of fame so a big thanks again to Tony and all the writers for this excellent piece of work.

I have yet to read my copy of Journal 42, the contents look very promising indeed.

Lucky Star wrote:The From My Window article was excellent, I do love Enid's pearls of wisdom and she has a point. Gardens do indeed say a lot about the residents of a house. Did anyone else notice her unusual use of the word "wee" in the piece? This is a Scottish and Northern Irish thing to say and to my knowledge I have never read it used in any Blyton book before, not even when she was creating a Scottish character. It just struck me as odd.

The word "wee" doesn't seem too out of place as it fits the tweeness and quaintness that characterise some of Blyton's 'From My Window' articles (I don't mean that as a criticism - I enjoy the old-fashioned "gushing" feel that some of the passages have, while also admiring Enid's humour, powers of observation and ability to hit the nail on the head). At the time of writing that piece Enid was married to Hugh, who was Scottish, so perhaps he used the word "wee" a lot and it rubbed off on her?

I'll have more to say on this excellent Journal when I have more time.

I can confirm that my copy has arrived. Looks like It is packed with great articles!

My journal arrived just in time for me to take it away with me on a weeks holiday. As usual it was a great read. And it was lovely to read about the E.D. Day and see some of the photos. Excellent review, Anita. Thanks to all who wrote all the excellent articles. And thanks, Tony for journal number 42.

I enjoyed reading this Journal, and thanks to all the contributors and editor!

   I have the Armada paperback mentioned by David Cook in his article and it is also one of my favourite covers, so nice to see it get a mention. The text illustrations are by Lilian Buchanan so they are the originals. I didn’t read all of the Just a Spot of Bother article, as I haven’t read the story and hope to get the 2 short stories one day.
Bill’s diary was a good idea, a novel way of writing.

The review of the book on children’s fiction in the Second World War was interesting indeed and what a bulky book it must be: 700 pages. I would be interested in reading it and seeing what he has to say about the other authors mentioned. The suggestion that the Five’s treatment of Edgar influenced Golding’s Lord of the Flies is in contrast to the Adventurous Four theory. I don’t know what to think!

Enid had some very definite ideas about gardens and people’s characters! The Garden Theory is a generalisation, some people are not keen gardeners and do not have “green fingers”.

Talking about learning new words – I had to look up perspicacity (p 53) to check the meaning, but had no such problem with the word vuvuzelas (p 3)!
Now the Journal Index needs updating…

I too thoroughly enjoyed 'Bill's Diary'. What an imaginative idea! And Robert Houghton's article has made me want to reread The Adventures of Scamp and Shadow the Sheep-Dog, to see how the two compare.

It's fascinating that Fred Clampitt's mother, Louie, may have played a part in getting Enid Blyton noticed by the BBC. And how nice that there's a link to the forthcoming article by Jilly Tilsley Benham. I also enjoyed 'My Grandmother' by Jennifer Harrison. These personal accounts are unique and illuminating slices of history.

The book reviewed by John Lester (British Children's Fiction in the Second World War by Owen Dudley Edwards) sounds intriguing, if on the expensive side. I got talking to John at the Enid Blyton Day and he said that he had enjoyed Owen Dudley Edwards' analysis of the work of other authors as well as Blyton.

David Chambers' contributions are always packed with information, and 'Loose Ends' is no exception. Interesting to learn more not only about the Attenboroughs' connection to the Thompsons, but to publishers Hodder & Stoughton. Interesting too about the Fisher/Buckley connection, and the Thompson connection to the Leicester Advertiser.

'A Holiday by the Sea' reads like a typical 1920s Enid Blyton story, similar in style to some of her Birns books with its simple narrative, even though this story was written specifically for use in the classroom (the fact that there was a "Things to Do" section, with suggestions for different age-groups, adds extra interest). Various elements were also used later in other "seaside" stories. I like the old-fashioned flavour of these early pieces although nothing out of the ordinary happens. In 'Holiday By the Sea' I was struck by the derivative names (Jack and Jill and Baby Bunting are a reminder of the nursery-rhymes and even Merryheart is a bit "folksy") and by the references to bathing tents, a char-a-banc ride and pierrots (pierrots also feature in The Rubadub Mystery, of course). I notice that it says "A Tale of the Merryheart Family," implying that Enid Blyton may have intended to write more than one tale about that family for Child Education.

Thanks, Tony, for another bumper Journal!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Thanks, Tony, for another bumper Journal!

Hear! Hear! It's always a joy to read!

I just received my first issue of the journal which is amazing since i only joined last thursday and live in the USA... I just had to say it is phenominal and much much much more impressive than i imagined. Anyway i now get to go down the secret passage .... Hoorrah!

Good for you, joining the Society, David. Welcome aboard. Let's hope there's many more Enid Blyton Days, and that one day you might even make it across the water and join us at Loddon Hall.