The Enid Blyton Society

How do British meals work out? Breakfast, dinner, supper? I've always called them breakfast, lunch and dinner.

By the way, I LOVE your avatar, KayleighLouise!

Ming wrote:How do British meals work out? Breakfast, dinner, supper? I've always called them breakfast, lunch and dinner.

By the way, I LOVE your avatar, KayleighLouise!

Thanks that's only a few of my noddy memorabilia haha

I know in northern England they do things differently. The way I was bought up was breakfast lunch and dinner. One of my housemates at uni used to eat bread and butter with every dinner no matter what is was and he is from Newcastle. He said that's what they do but he might have been winding me up!
My mum always bought us up to have lunch at 12 but her dad always (and still does) had lunch at 1. Strange how things change

For me, it's breakfast, lunch/dinner, tea, supper. But dinner could occasionally be a posh tea, "Going out for dinner".

Fiona1986 wrote:For me, it's breakfast, lunch/dinner, tea, supper. But dinner could occasionally be a posh tea, "Going out for dinner".

It's the same for me, Fiona.

Supper used to be a biscuit with a glass of milk! We have breakfast (well we would if we had it!), lunch or dinner (depending if it's just a sandwich or something hot) and tea around six or seven o'clock. It used to be very much of a class thing. For the posh, Tea could be cucumber sandwiches and a pot of tea at 4pm, then dinner would be a cooked meal in the early evening. As well as class, the area of Britain also comes into the mix. As a child, we had a cooked lunch (called dinner), then b&b for tea, with, if we were lucky, lashings of cake! Lunch was a snack in the mid-morning. Supper, I have already described.

Moonraker wrote:For the posh, Tea could be cucumber sandwiches and a pot of tea at 4pm, then dinner would be a cooked meal in the early evening.

Oh dear, I am almost embarrassed to post after this remark, but I'm afraid I was brought up to have breakfast, lunch (1.00). tea (4.00!!!!) and supper 7.30 to 8.00. It was only referred to as Dinner if it was a formal meal at the dining table. Supper had the same timing as Dinner, but was an informal meal often on your lap in front of the TV.

High Tea at about 6.00 was a meal primarily for young children and Dinner was for the adults after the children had gone to bed. Nowadays high Tea and Dinner have just become tea and the whole family eat at about 6.00. I am sure the main reason for this was to save 'Mum' from having to cook twice which made a lot of sense.

KayleighLouise wrote:I only received my journal today and have just finished reading the Put Em Rights article. It was very interesting and I enjoyed the comparisons of the similar stories.its a story I've not read for years and may have to dig out of my bookshelf! Do you think that the way Enid deals with the issues of disability is a reflection of the times it was written in or am I being too forgiving in thinking they were more naïve of such issues back then?

It's hard to tell how much is a reflection of the times, how much is a reflection of Enid Blyton's views and how much is down to the demands of the plot! I'm glad you enjoyed the article, KayleighLouise. I find The Put-em-Rights a compelling read, though peculiar in parts!

Growing up in North Wales in the 1970s-80s we had breakfast, lunch (sometimes called dinner, e.g. "school dinners") and tea. Here in Essex we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. I remember one of my son's friends (aged seven at the time) looking puzzled when I invited him to come round after school and "stay for tea." He said, "What do you mean - am I going to drink tea with you?"

Tony Summerfield wrote:High Tea at about 6.00 was a meal primarily for young children and Dinner was for the adults after the children had gone to bed. Nowadays high Tea and Dinner have just become tea and the whole family eat at about 6.00. I am sure the main reason for this was to save 'Mum' from having to cook twice which made a lot of sense.

I know a mum who cooks a separate meal for her children but that's because they (apparently) won't eat ordinary meals - only things like pizza, fish fingers and chicken nuggets smothered in tomato sauce (actually, I grew up saying tomato sauce but it's called ketchup here!)

I was brought up to have breakfast, dinner and tea. Dinner was just after mid-day and a cooked meal. We came home from school to have it and then went back. Tea was sandwiches, salad, cakes etc. Supper if we had it was a drink of milk and a biscuit. When we progressed to high school we changed and had lunch at school (sandwiches) then cooked dinner at 6.00. We had it at that time so Dad could eat with us as well. Many people I know cook twice, the children having their meal about 5.00, the parents eating much later.

Our current routine depends on a number of factors. If it's a school day, then dinner is at 6.00. The children have their lunch at school, although at the high schools that's not until 1.20, so they've often eaten half of it at morning break. Weekends my husband always likes to have dinner mid-day on a Sunday, but as my daughter now has a job with various shift patterns, we'll have it either then or 6.00 to fit in with her.

I pretty certain that my mother used to cycle home from her office every day to a mid-day cooked dinner when she first went out to work in the late 1950s.

On a normal school day I have breakfast at 7.15 (bread and jam/cereal/roti and beef or chicken), something which I believe most Subcontinentals call 'tiffin' at 11.10 during break (can be anything), lunch (rice, pulse, meat/fish, and after being nagged, vegetables) at 3-ish, depending on whether I come home from school at 2.30 or 4.30. At 7 pm or thereabouts we have light snacks - not sure what that meal is called! It's usually fruits and either something savoury/fried or cake if my mum baked that day. Dinner (again, rice, meat, pulse, fish, etc) isn't until at least 10 pm.

But then my household isn't the ordinary household, as we ALL (yes, including my 6 y.o. brother) stay up quite late - the earliest we ever go to bed is midnight. And during weekends and vacations (I'm on winter break now, not that it's really a break - I'm working FAR TOO HARD on preparing for South Africa) the little discipline we have goes straight out of the window.

Oh, and sometimes we have midnight feasts.

Look what I've started! lol.

I have just finished reading the article on the Past and Present differences. I did mention in my last post about how I like reading it the way it was written and even though it might not be understandable or acceptable in todays society it shows how it was back then.

I can understand the view that the publishers want to get children to read their stories and so use modern and up to date situations, but as was said, how about the fact that they do not use mobile phones? Personally I think Enid's language should be left as it was written - I believe it will intrigue the reader to find out more. For example 'what is snoek?' It also shows how differently we address people now which enables children to realise how things have changed.

I think it is a good reflection of society back then and children should be open to the ideas of that. Otherwise they are simply stuck in the middle of what is true and what is not. I couldnt imagine, as a child, being allowed to ride off somewhere with a picnic and get involved in adults affairs, all of which excites me as a reader and allows your imagination to carry you there. Children should be encouraged to understand that the stories were written a long time ago so that they find it more believable. I am sure that many children are told by their parents or grandparents about being smacked when they were younger - my mum told me that she got smacked with a ruler on the hand at school and that neighbours used to smack her if she was naughty - something that is backed up with in Enid's books thus making me think it more believable.If I was a smart enough child I might question how some of the naughty children in her books got away without being smacked!

I can't say what it is like as a 'modern' child to read stories, as I am now 24 years old, but thinking back to when I was a child, I enjoyed reading her stories as they were. If anything it shows children how lucky they are that they arent allowed to be beaten by adults anymore!

It is only fiction after all and I do not think that the publishers should claim it is Enid's work then change it the way they have.
With regards to the comment I made about Anita's article where I said that maybe people back then just had no knowledge about disability it seems to occur again in this article where an author wrote about how someone had seemed to 'cure' another of listlessness. Maybe that is also another reflection of the times; today we are taught to be more understanding and accepting of others and really are just more educated in things

Ming wrote:I've always called them breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Likewise. Breakfast is between 8.30 and 9.00 and is always oatmeal and fruits. Lunch is between 12.00 and 12.30 and is either a sandwich or a salad, with yogurt. Dinner is between 7.00 and 7.30 and is something hot. No tea or coffee for me (I am referring exclusively to the beverages here) since I am intolerant to both. Any cakes etc. are had after dinner as dessert.

KayleighLouise wrote:Look what I've started! lol.

I think the discussion is very interesting actually! And welcome KayleighLouise!

Moving away from food... I finally got my paws on the latest issue of the journal...er...yesterday! Long story... It was a great read as always. Anita's take on the Put-Em-Rights was very thought provoking and very insightful. Equally interesting were Tony's article on the Carnegie Medal (is it named after Andrew Carnegie by any chance?), and Terry Gustafson's Bill's Diary. I hope there will be many more installments of the diary. The article on the Rilloby Fair Mystery was also great. I was really dismayed by the new illustrations for this book. They look dreadful, and have none of the charm of the originals!

Will finish the rest sometime today. Thanks Tony for putting together another great issue!

Ming wrote:Oh, and sometimes we have midnight feasts.

Are you having one tonight maybe? Isn't it past midnight already?

No, I just have trouble sleeping at nights - I'm pretty nocturnal. I think that's why getting up at 6 every day in Africa wasn't a problem at all, while waking up at 7 here every day is a real pain.

Also, my body clock is a bit messed up - I spent 2 days in hospital*, and slept through most of it, so am not tired enough to get into bed yet.

*My migraine took a turn for the worse, again. I apparently also have very deep veins, so it took three different tries to find a suitable vein for IV. My hands look like a morphine addict's.

I hope you are soon feeling well again.

Looking back through this journal thread reminds me that the index that I made needs updating. It hasn't been done since Journal 43.