I thoroughly enjoyed
Journal 68.
Tony's editorial piqued my interest and made me chuckle, though it's sad that the number of subscribers is declining.
Thanks for people's comments on my own article. I find Anne particularly interesting in
Five on a Treasure Island as she hasn't yet been dubbed "a good little housewife" and she's more adventurous, artful and resourceful than people generally give her credit for.
Rob's 'Cookery Book' article on the mysteries is lively and entertaining. As a child, I also thought that good children's books had to involve cooks, gardeners and bedtime bells! I included ingredients like that in my own stories without thinking twice about it, despite that fact that they didn't feature in my daily life! I even chose names like Doreen, Nora, Bob and Len for my characters, believing that those were the right kinds of names for 'book children'! The Stanley Lloyd picture for 'The Lonely Old House' is striking - let's hope that branch holds!
The letters written in 1942 to illustrator Horace Knowles are quite startling. Knowles did some marvellous work for fantasy tales but it's hard to imagine what his Famous Five illustrations might have been like. His style is heavy, rich and intricate - brilliant for titles like
The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies and
The Land of Far-Beyond but a world away from the light fluidity of Eileen Soper's Famous Five pictures. The Mr. Pink-Whistle comment is puzzling. Oh, and it's delightful to see Enid Blyton saying to Horace Knowles, "You are a brick..."!
'The Unlucky Feather' is an imaginative story and Knowles' surreal drawings suit it perfectly. I particularly like the picture showing the king, complete with flowing beard, sitting down suddenly on a pig!
In Tim Venning's article on the 1970s Famous Five TV series it's interesting to read how the the programme-makers dealt with the problem of the tunnel in
Five Go Off to Camp. Surely Chris Wilkinson can't have been born in 1941 though, if he played the part of Jock!
Bob from
The Six Bad Boys is one of my favourite characters and I agree with John Henstock and Basil Henriques that it's a "really excellent" and "absolutely brilliant" book. The novel is beautifully structured and the story of Bob tugs at the heartstrings.
Did Enid Blyton do the sketch of Old Thatch herself at the top of the article for
Nature Lover? I like it when she waxes lyrical about nature, writing of April's "springing exultance" and of the moor-hens "going like clockwork birds." I hadn't heard that you should "turn your silver over for luck" upon hearing the first cuckoo.
The Ladies' Year Book 1929 gives us a fascinating glimpse of Enid's life in the year she and Hugh moved from Elfin Cottage to Old Thatch. It helps us build a picture of their life to hear about Whist Drives, frozen pipes, press dinners, the Thompsons offering the Pollocks their estate offices, the hiring and firing of domestic staff, the Sayers coming to visit, buying Old Thatch (for £2,750!), etc. Gosh, what a description of Daisy (not our Daisy, I hasten to add!) "looking so evil... as if she absolutely hated me. She will go off her head one day if she doesn't mind." And then there's poor Malloy, who is described as "rather a rabbit"! I love Tony's quips and comments beneath the entries!
Winfried Secker's article is wide-ranging, with a thoughtful appraisal of authors like Erich Kastner and Astrid Lindgren as well as Enid Blyton.
'You're Mean' is a detailed story, psychologically interesting, with a strong moral message. I'd have enjoyed it if I'd come across it as a child.
The book flyer for
Enid Blyton's Nature Lessons is lovely and I like the picture of Enid in a reflective mood. Good to see the photo from the family album and the cover of
Let's Garden too. Great stuff!
