Journal 59

[Wolfgang]

Tony, all in all I agree with you. I have the feeling though that the number of comic scenes increased with the later parts of the series which made things rather unbelievable. Igor from "Ship" and "Ray Uma" from "River" are pretty pathetic in my humble opinion. Interesting about the series is the fact that some books of the TV series contained lost scenes.

Watching the "Secret series" is okay, but not really memorable.

[Kate Mary]

I've spent a pleasant afternoon sitting in the sun in the conservatory and reading the Journal. I particularly enjoyed Robert's article on Tales of Toyland I read this book for the first time only a few years ago and would like to make a special plea to Tony, may we have the two 'missing' chapters, The Noah's Ark Tiger and Humming-Top Town reprinted in future editions of the Journal? I think (??) that they have only ever been published in Sunny Stories. I've really enjoyed the other articles I've read too.

[Francis]

I recognised the envelope and yes....Journal 59 had arrived. The front cover was delightful and the balance of articles inside was perfect. How wonderful to see so many of the forum members providing such wonderful articles. Great thanks to Tony for the organisation and design of such a such a brilliant journal.

After reading the editorial I jumped to Julie's 'My favourite villains' to see her choices and to ruminate on my own possible selections. Trust Julie to grab our interest so ably. I won't go though all the articles but suffice it to say that I thoroughly enjoyed all of them - they added so much to my knowledge and to things I wanted to know about - thank you Robert, John Henstock, Julie, Sheila, Nick, Anita, John Lester, John Pickup, Angela and. of course, Enid for such a wonderful read.

[Tony Summerfield]

I enjoyed Rob's article too, and it got me thinking about how Tales of Toyland was written. Starting when it did, it coincided with Sunny Stories becoming a fortnightly magazine as opposed to a weekly one. So chapters were published at least a fortnight apart and quite often a month apart and on two occasions six weeks apart. I therefore came up with the theory that unlike EB's normal novels this was probably written for when it was required rather than all in one go. This would explain why sometimes the chapters seem rather episodic. It would also be difficult to illustrate as often there was a month between chapters.

I think at this point I should both apologise and explain to Rob why I used Hilda McGavin's illustrations when he was waxing lyrical about Grace Lodge's illustrations! I had all three books in front of me whilst I was illustrating the article, and whilst I am also fond of Grace Lodge illustrations as many previous Journals will testify, I felt that the ones in this book were by and large far too small. I would have been putting them as their book size onto an A4 page which gets reduced to A5 when printed and they would have been the size of postage stamps had I used them. Also there were no captions to them and with this in mind I opted for the Hilda McGavin ilustrations.

As for the two missing chapters I think the best thing I can do is what I have done somewhere else in the Cave (though I can't remember where!!) and simply add them to the Tales of Toyland entry. I will see what I can do.

Whilst on this subject I think it worth adding that I think Shadow the Sheepdog was written in the same manner, as and when required rather than as a complete book in one go. I could be wrong about both books, but unfortunately like so many other things I can't check with Enid!

[Courtenay]

but unfortunately like so many other things I can't check with Enid!

No??

[Anita Bensoussane]

I have only had a chance to read The DVDs of Adventure article by John Henstock so far. It has several spoilers but is a very fair appraisal of that series. The overall response of, "initially jarring before becoming enjoyable" corresponds with my own feelings about the adaptations.

I'd agree with that too. It's a while since I watched the Cloud 9 Adventure DVDs but John Henstock's article has made me want to view them again. I must admit I was flabbergasted at Otto being a crook in The Valley of Adventure as he's such a sympathetic character in the book!

My only reservation about the Adventure Series is that I found one or two of the intended 'comic' scenes with some of the baddies as fairly cringe-worthy, but I guess that I don't fit into the intended viewing age group!

Tony, all in all I agree with you. I have the feeling though that the number of comic scenes increased with the later parts of the series which made things rather unbelievable. Igor from "Ship" and "Ray Uma" from "River" are pretty pathetic in my humble opinion.

Yes, and from memory I think Circus also had some silly scenes involving the villains.

I enjoyed Rob's article too, and it got me thinking about how it [Tales of Toyland] was written. Starting when it did, it coincided with Sunny Stories becoming a fortnightly magazine as opposed to a weekly one. So chapters were published at least a fortnight apart and quite often a month apart and on two occasions six weeks apart. I therefore came up with the theory that unlike EB's normal novels this was probably written for when it was required rather than all in one go. This would explain why sometimes the chapters seem rather episodic. It would also be difficult to illustrate as often there was a month between chapters.

Good points. As you say, that would help explain the inconsistent illustrations.

As for the two missing chapters I think the best thing I can do is what I have done somewhere else in the Cave (though I can't remember where!!) and simply add them to the Tales of Toyland entry. I will see what I can do.

That would be brilliant, Tony. It's a pity that those episodes weren't included in the book and it would be great to read them at last! I remember that you added the whole book of Let's Pretend! to the Cave.

I think it worth adding that I think Shadow the Sheepdog was written in the same manner, as and when required rather than as a complete book in one go.

That does seem likely as John Lester wrote in his article in Journal 45 that Shadow the Sheepdog was first serialised in two separate sequences of chapters in Sunny Stories, with the dramatic ending of the first sequence being used as the ending of the whole story when it was eventually published in book form.

Going back to Robert's article on Tales of Toyland, it provided food for thought. I agree that the book is interesting chiefly because of the "romance" between Tiptoe and Jolly. Even though it's about toys, as a child I felt I was getting a glimpse of the world of grown-up relationships! Funnily enough, I've never noticed before that we don't actually see Tiptoe and Jolly's wedding but are left to assume it has taken place!

My copy is a Dean & Son one, with a note in the front saying "Anita from Auntie Janet, January 1975", so I must have got it for my 5th birthday. At that age I was under the impression that Grace Lodge's illustrations would look even better if I coloured them in with wax crayons. Needless to say, I was wrong!

Like Robert, I enjoyed the additional stories that Dean inserted to pad out the volume. My favourites were very similar to Robert's - 'Do Hurry Up, Dinah!', 'We Don't Want to Go to Bed', 'The Beautiful Pattern' and 'A Tin of Yellow Polish'.

[Rob Houghton]

I enjoyed Rob's article too, and it got me thinking about how Tales of Toyland was written. Starting when it did, it coincided with Sunny Stories becoming a fortnightly magazine as opposed to a weekly one. So chapters were published at least a fortnight apart and quite often a month apart and on two occasions six weeks apart. I therefore came up with the theory that unlike EB's normal novels this was probably written for when it was required rather than all in one go. This would explain why sometimes the chapters seem rather episodic. It would also be difficult to illustrate as often there was a month between chapters.

That's very interesting - and does maybe explain the inconsistency of some of McGavin's illustrations. I was quite surprised when I researched into it for my article and found that some of the chapters of Tales of Toyland sometimes appeared as much as a month apart! Maybe that also explains why Jolly suggests marriage and then forgets all about it!

I think at this point I should both apologise and explain to Rob why I used Hilda McGavin's illustrations when he was waxing lyrical about Grace Lodge's illustrations! I had all three books in front of me whilst I was illustrating the article, and whilst I am also fond of Grace Lodge illustrations as many previous Journals will testify, I felt that the ones in this book were by and large far too small. I would have been putting them as their book size onto an A4 page which gets reduced to A5 when printed and they would have been the size of postage stamps had I used them. Also there were no captions to them and with this in mind I opted for the Hilda McGavin ilustrations.

Thanks for the explanation, Tony...I did wonder, but guessed it was probably for technical reasons. It at least gives everyone the chance to see Hilda McGavin's illustrations, as I'm guessing that most have only seen the Grace Lodge ones.

Being able to read the two 'missing' chapters would be brilliant! I'm sure there are many of us who have never seen them - and it seems odd they weren't included in the book.

Thanks for the kind words about my article - always appreciated.

[Rob Houghton]

I haven't read a lot of the Journal yet, but enjoyed the editorial, and also John Pickup's article, and Julie's. I was interested to see what Julie's favourite villains were - and I agree with many of them, although I think my favourite 'villain' isn't so much of a villain at all - Block - who I find sinister and creepy!

I'm enjoying John's Secret Seven article too - although I'm not sure I quite agree that there are two too many in the society. I used to think this about Pam and Barbara - but since reading the books again I've noticed that actually Pam and Barbara have more to do than I first imagined. Good article though, John.

I've also read my article - and I'm always my worst critic! I've noticed a few things I wasn't quite happy about, lol - but then I always do!

I also read Enid's 'From My window' article - always a highlight. I particularly noticed, this time, how good Enid is at painting pictures with words. I've always known this, of course, but this is a great example - its a very powerful piece of writing - and if ever people need proof of what a good writer Enid was, then they should read as many 'From my window' articles as they can.

Looking forward to reading the rest of The Journal throughout the next few days.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thinking further about Tales of Toyland, it has been mentioned before that Enid Blyton revisited some of the same themes in Noddy Goes to Toyland. It's interesting that one of the missing chapters is called 'The Noah's Ark Tiger' because Noddy Goes to Toyland features a Noah's Ark lion which scares a doll, and Noddy comes to her rescue. I wonder whether the missing Tales of Toyland episode is at all similar.

[Francis]

Tony, all in all I agree with you. I have the feeling though that the number of comic scenes increased with the later parts of the series which made things rather unbelievable. Igor from "Ship" and "Ray Uma" from "River" are pretty pathetic in my humble opinion. Interesting about the series is the fact that some books of the TV series contained lost scenes.

Watching the "Secret series" is okay, but not really memorable.

It always seemed to me that this is a curse of Blyton adaptions to TV. Children (and I am sure the rest of us) do not see the Adventure series as in any way comic. They are dramas with a great deal of menace in them - certainly the villains are desperate characters prepared to kill and maim. I was thrilled when I read the books as a child with a pleasurable sense of dread as I turned the pages.

[Courtenay]

I haven't seen the Adventure series TV adaptations, so I can't comment on those, but I quite agree with you, Francis, about the books not being at all comic and containing some very menacing scenes. I remember how shocked I was when I first read The Island of Adventure (only a couple of years ago!) and came to the part where Jo-Jo deliberately traps Bill and the boys in the flooding mine. As far as I can remember, in all the other Enid Blyton series I'd read as a child, the baddies might lock the children up, or point a gun or two, or threaten to poison Timmy. But nowhere else did I recall a villain not only openly threatening children with death, but actually carrying out that threat, so that the climax of the book had the heroes literally fleeing (or swimming) for their lives. There aren't too many comical possibilities at all in that.

[Tony Summerfield]

Being able to read the two 'missing' chapters would be brilliant! I'm sure there are many of us who have never seen them - and it seems odd they weren't included in the book.

Whilst I was digging out the two missing chapters I discovered another slight anomaly as Chapter 9 (IX) in the book, 'How Bruiny Came to Live Next Door', was not included in the Sunny Stories version!

[Courtenay]

I should add I hadn't seen the Hilda McGavin illustrations for Tales of Toyland before — they're quite delightful!

[Rob Houghton]

It always seemed to me that this is a curse of Blyton adaptions to TV.

I agree! This is something that dogged both versions of The Famous Five on TV. I particularly remember the 1970's version of Smuggler's Top being spoiled by the terribly comic portrayal of Mr Barling!

[Nicko]

I agree with the previous comments that some of the villains are OTT in the Cloud 9 Adventure series. I mentioned this to the producer Geoff Husson recently (tactful as always ) and he gave some interesting insights which should appear in a future journal.

It's an interesting point that perhaps there were 2 too many in The Secret Seven. I enjoy these books but Enid really didn't give the characters distinct personalities and cutting a couple of them probably wouldn't have hurt.