The Enid Blyton Society

Julie2owlsdene wrote: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.

Thank you.... I am busy downloading and converting all the seriels for my ebook reader. New Blytonian series written by REAL fans rather than modernised commercial stuff...heaven!! I may make it back to the homeland on day to see you all for EBD.... get Anne to visit and I'll especially arrange it ... Never Imagined Julian (Marcus) would be quite so .. well... BIG!!!!

David

Welcome to the Society - enjoy the Journal!

At long last I have finally got around to commenting on Journal 42. I never seem to have enough hours in the day and always burn the candle at both ends so to speak. As usual a bumper issue packed end to end with quality. I have been receiving the EBS Journal for over three years now and have yet to receive a dud copy!

It really is difficult to favour one article over any other as the regular contibutors such as Anita Bensousanne, David Cook, Robert Houghton, Terry Gustafson plus many others produce very consistant enjoyable articles that stand up to many repeat reading sessions. One of my favoutite aspects of the Journal however are items that Enid herself wrote long before her writing became mainstream. One such example is an article published in Teachers World back in 1925, From My Window-No 8 Gardens. In less than two pages Enid extolled the delights of viewing back gardens and judging the characters of the owners, preferably from a train window! This is of course a pastime as fascinating now as it was 85 years ago. Quite what Enid would make of my character if she saw my back garden is anybody's guess. (For the record it is low maintenance with a patio, lawn and colour provided by many hanging baskets attached to my fences and sheds!)

Enid goes on to make reference to overgrown gardens probably owned by untidy indolent families. I can only imagine that Enid would reach for the smelling salts if she could see what some families are like in the Britain of 2010. One of the great joys of reading an article written nearly a century ago is finding so many similarities to today. This for me is the icing on the cake as far as the EBS Journal is concerned, access to an earlier Blyton era that would set the scene for the prolific 1940's/ 50's golden age that was to come.

Thank you once again Tony for a superb Journal.

I rather think I haven't commented, either. The fact is, due to the high quality of the contributors and Tony's design and editing skills, it appears monotonous to keep rolling out the same accolades season after season! The Journal is a wonderful read, I would pay £30 pa to be priviledged to receive it and can not understand why quite a large number of people don't re-subscribe. Maybe they lead busy lives and drift away from the Land of Blyton. Happily, Tony receives many subscriptions from new members, so the numbers keep up.

Perhaps a DD instruction would be of help, Tony? People would then have to un-subscribe rather than re-subscribe.

Hi everyone

Some very late thoughts on Journal 42.

Congratulations to Tony for another exceptional publication, as others have already said. We are very privileged to get color plates - they really add another dimension to the overall presentation.

All the articles were fascinating to read, including Jennifer Harrison's article about her grandmother, the ingenious Bill's Diary, the continuing series on the Five Find-Outers, the article on the Enid Blyton Day (I am envious of all attendees!) and Anita's second article on the Naughtiest Girl - her insights takes appreciation of the series to another level.

Anita learned new words from Blyton (eg feeble) and I have now learned a new word from Anita - 'maudlin'.

Anita correctly points out that Joan Lesley and Joan Townsend are one and the same. By way of contrast, Eva Rice, in her book Who's Who in Enid Blyton, did not notice the typo in the names, listing them as two separate characters.

Lastly, it is always amusing to read Elizabeth exclaiming "Was I afraid when our car crashed into the bank?" Blyton didn't often write ambiguously, but each time I read this sentence I wonder whether Elizabeth survived a car crash into the local bank in the main street!

booklover wrote:Hi everyone

Hi, Booklover! It's nice to read your comments.

booklover wrote:Anita learned new words from Blyton (eg feeble) and I have now learned a new word from Anita - 'maudlin'.

booklover wrote:Anita correctly points out that Joan Lesley and Joan Townsend are one and the same. By way of contrast, Eva Rice, in her book Who's Who in Enid Blyton, did not notice the typo in the names, listing them as two separate characters.

It's a pity that Eva Rice's book was somewhat hastily compiled, resulting in the character lists being incomplete, idiosyncratic and occasionally incorrect. Eva's lively, witty style means that her book is still an entertaining read, though.

booklover wrote:Lastly, it is always amusing to read Elizabeth exclaiming "Was I afraid when our car crashed into the bank?" Blyton didn't often write ambiguously, but each time I read this sentence I wonder whether Elizabeth survived a car crash into the local bank in the main street!

Same here!

I'm currently reading Journal 42. By the time this journal was issued, I had finally joined the forums, but don't think I'd subscribed to the journals yet. I know I asked for the subscription for a birthday present for a year or two, and eventually dug deep into the coffers and paid for it myself.

As always, it's an interesting mixture of articles, and I'll comment on those when I've a bit more time, but as I've just read the write up of the Enid Blyton Day that year, I felt I had to comment.

I read it with a mixture of emotions: envy at not being able to attend myself; sadness at the mention of several people who used to post but who no longer appear on the forums; major disappointment at missing meeting with 'Julian' and 'Dick', pleasure at the mention (and photos) of several members of the society who I have been able to meet at various times. My favourite part of the whole article though was the mention of Moonraker getting lost on the way to the picnic afterwards - nice to know that somethings never change. Ah happy memories.