Journal 75

[Daisy]

I've received my journal now ... great editorial which made my chuckle! Having had a visitor, I've been unable to delve any further, but that will soon be remedied.

[Anita Bensoussane]

As for Noddy's editorial, it's more entertaining than his books!

Did you write it?

No - it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good if I'd written it!

[pete9012S]

Drat! I was sure I was correct!

[John Pickup]

I've made a start on Journal 75 with its gorgeous cover and the amazing editorial by Noddy. I find him a bit of a moaner, nothing like our usual editor!
Never having read Fifth Formers of St Clares, I quickly became acquainted with the characters, thanks to Anita's descriptions. Mentioning fagging and shared studies reminded me of the Billy Bunter books and Greyfriars School which is probably the equivalent of St Clares for boys.
Anita paints a vivid picture of Miss Willcox, a really unpleasant teacher who is obviously more interested in herself than her charges. The book appears to focus on the petty jealousies, the rivalries and pressures that many of the girls are subjected to.
After reading the article I was surprised that Anita found the book a bit of a let down and she asks if others have experienced this when returning to a favourite book after a fairly long period. I can't think of a book that has done that but there's always a chance it will happen.
John Lester writes an interesting article about the Mary Mouse books of which I have no knowledge at all. He brings the series to life very well and I always like an article that has a bibliography at the end. I must admit to taking an instant dislike to Mr Fierce, who throws the Doll family out when they are unable to pay the rent.
I've got a 1941 edition of Enid's The Children Of Kidillin where she appears on the cover as Mary Pollock. It's a slim little volume with the price on the front marked at 1/6 which is 7 and 1/2p I believe.
Julie introduces us to the characters and we are soon into the action. It must be over 10 years since I last read it and Julie's description has made me want to revisit it again. It is one of the few books where Enid mentions the war directly as the story revolves round the German spies. There are only 12 chapters but Enid, very capably, deals with the adventure in her own inimitable style.
That's all I have read up to now, I shall continue with it after the weekend.

[Kate Mary]

What a cracker of a Journal! So far I've read Judith Crabb's excellent piece on islands in Blyton and LT Meade books. I've never read any Meade but I know she was very popular at the end of the 19th century, Enid must have read some of her huge output. I've also enjoyed Julie's article on The Children of Kidillin, it's years since I've read it so Julie has inspired me to read it again. And what a splendid bit of detective work by David Chambers finding where The Packman in Sicily was originally read. I presume the birthday party was for The Bible Society, the article didn't make it quite clear. Anyway, lots more to enjoy but I'm trying to pace myself.

[Judith Crabb]

Thanks for the kind words Anita and Kate Mary. I'm still waiting for my journal so I can't reciprocate yet. I haven't read a lot of L.T. Meade but have found her a very surprising writer. Recently I thought I'd tackle 'The Lady Cake-Maker'. What could go wrong I thought?
I love cake and insight into a centuries-old trade would be fascinating. I found out that the novel is an excursion into the gothic-horror mode in which a young and attractive widowed mother becomes the target of a homicidal maniac obsessed with heart surgery. Happy ending of course, but....

[Jack400]

Nine has also arrived. So far I've only read Noddy's editorial (hilarious), Tim' s FF article- always interesting, and the article on new books about EB. One in the eye for all the critics seeing that there's so much interest in her life and times, how much interest in her critics I wonder? Well done and thanks to all involved in J75.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Arrived home last night after a few days away to see my Journal on the door mat waiting for me. Will look forward to reading the Journal this afternoon sitting outside in the sunshine, but under a huge umbrella.

[Boodi 2]

I have just joined the society and am really looking forward to receiving the Journal, as it sounds like a great read!!!

[timv]

I've now read my copy of the Journal; thanks as always to Tony for his hard work on this, and to my fellow-contributors. This is the last of my Famous Five 1978 series articles, but I have plenty of material on the FF 1995-6 series and the Island of Adventure films (mainly the 1981 one) and if I can track down a few more of the sites involved I will be doing more articles on them.

Plenty of thought-provoking material here in a bumper issue. I was interested to read about Viv's Ginger Pop tours from William, which mentions some of the places around Corfe and Swanage which I have looked at myself over the years and gives a few new ideas eg the Blue Pool as Merran Lake. (I have my own ideas for the 'Merran Hills', in a far different location which fits the long caravan journey from the Home Counties to a hilly district with caves and remote farms, but did Enid ever go to the Welsh borders?) The Naughtiest Girl series is one where I have only read the first book so new info on that was useful, and I had heard of the Mary Mouse books as a small child but never came across any of them. Judith 's piece on EB and Islands was really thought-provoking, as I'd never heard of Elizabeth Meade's 'Four On An Island' except for the title; it certainly looks like an inspiration for The Secret Island , as being of the right era for Enid to have read it as a girl and having similarities with the characters and plot. My other thought as to inspiration for the Secret Island - on the layout of the lake and island - is 1880s Wiltshire naturalist Richard Jefferies' best-seller 'Bevis; The Story of a Boy', a favourite of A A Milne's (born 1884): the geography of 'Bevis' is very like Lake Wildwood.

I agree that the Late Victorian children's story writers are often under-rated, not least as they have not been reprinted for many years (a few favourites excepted) - and my research for my School Stories book shows that the critics were busy attacking them for 'poor writing', 'simplistic and repetitive plots', 'moralising', and ' too many sensational plots with stock characters' long before they set on Enid. (Angela Brazil was the usual target, as the one whose books lasted longest as they were reprinted well into the 1940s unlike Meade's.) The idea of Enid picking up and remembering plots which she had read as a girl is one I've considered likely too; I found close similarities between Enid's fire rescue drama in the second St Clare's book and Angela Brazil's plotline of 'controversial girl in trouble at school redeems herself by proving to be a heroine in a fire when a friend is trapped in the sanatorium by a fire on the stairs' in 'A Fourth Form Friendship', pub 1911. We could do with more reprints of some of these books - they have strong and clever characterization in many cases, as well as being good social history.

Anita's piece on Fifth Form at St Clare's is brilliant and agrees with my own vague disquiet about some of the 'messages' that Enid was consciously or unconsciously putting out in this series - unlike Malory Towers where more unusual girls are generally helped to fit in or at least only modestly teased. In St Clare's more people are left to 'sink or swim' and usually do the former, or at best muddle along uneasily like Alma and Pauline; notably the MT fantasist Daphne is able to fit into her form after her humiliating exposure as a fraud and a (probably compulsive) thief, but Pauline is marginalised permanently after Angela (a truly horrible but realistic type) exposes her. Similarly, at MT Darrell shows that she is worthy of being Head Girl by helping others unasked (Ruth and Connie in the Fourth Form), a bit like assorted heroines and Head Girls in Elinor Brent Dyer's Chalet School series - most famously, the ubiquitous Mary-Lou Trelawney. As Anita reminds us, sorting out the many problems at St C's in the final book is due to luck, in that Mamzelle's amusing misadventures on the night of the midnight feast reveal what is going on - a failure of pastoral care, if in reality very likely in a big and busy school.

The CS ethos is helping others and being responsible and 'decent'; Miss Grayling presents a similar moral ethos for MT in her inspiring words to new girls, but at St Clare's there's much less community spirit . The O'Sullivan twins, I agree, hardly do anything positive to show that they will be good Head Girl material, and are far less dominant than Bobby or Carlotta or as 'wise' as Hilary; rather, they are chosen as they are less risky than any of the others in contention. Realistic, probably, but a missed chance? I had not remembered that Miss Wilcox ridiculing Anne-Marie's poems followed her having her own book of poetry rejected by the publishers - this shows her in an even worse light as spiteful as well as vain and jealous. The episode which I most noticed in the series as a prime example of the girls leaving 'outsiders' to sink and not bothering to understand them was in the Claudine book, where nobody realises or cares that working-class 'charity girl' Eileen (as a domestic staff member's daughter not paying the fees) must have been really worried about her brother not having money and too scared of telling her aggressive and demanding mother this if she ended up stealing cash from the latter. Instead, Eileen is left on her own, boycotted as 'not one of us', and leaves virtually unnoticed or cared about - grimly realistic for snobbish and thoughtless 1940s boarding-school types but a bit surprising for the nicer twins and Alison or the ex-circus girl Carlotta? At MT, there's more sympathy shown to equally 'disgraced' thief and runaway Jo Jones, including by the Head. Arguably, St Clare's is a 'harsher' and more realistic series than MT, and more 'real' than Enid's critics allow - it is not all sweetness and light, far from it, and only if you are in the 'charmed circle' in the twins' form do you enjoy the school!

[Chrissie777]

My EBS Journal arrived yesterday in Massachusetts. Thank you, Tony, and to everybody who contributed articles for this issue.
I'm looking forward to reading it starting tonight.

[Lucky Star]

What a wonderful issue of The Journal number 75 was. That of course comes as no surprise; I cannot remember there ever being any bad issue The Journal.

Following Noddy's amusing editorial I was delighted to see the return of Anita's articles. I have to admit that St Clare's is the only major Blyton series that I have never read. I managed Malory Towers as a young boy but grew out of "girls stories" before I could go any further than that. I do have several of the books on my shelves at the moment but not the whole series. I've been fairly remiss in not tracking down the remainder so that I can finally read this series in order. Anita's article certainly whetted the appetite for that and I'm now watching some copies on ebay. An excellent analysis as always from Anita who freely admitted she was a little disappointed with the book on this re-read. She mentions several reasons for this but to me, although the book sounds like it has many flaws in it's characters it also seems to run the whole gamut of child emotions. Anita decries some of the cruel humour and snobbishness of some pupils but such things exist in real life in every school. Some Blyton school stories have been accused of being all "jolly hockey sticks" type affairs. Fifth Formers of St Clare's sounds like it delves much deeper. Another possible riposte to those who accuse Blyton of oversimplifying perhaps? I'll hopefully wade into the series shortly so will find out for myself. A most enjoyable read anyway.

Again I have never read the Mary Mouse stories so these were all new to me but as always John Lester produced a fun and informative article. How odd that her series ran for so many books but is virtually unknown today. Sounds like a real pity.

Julie's review of The Children of Kidillin brought back many great memories of this book. I only read this one as an adult but it still sticks firmly in my memory as a great and typical Blyton seaside story. Albeit with the great twist that it's one of Enid's very few books set in the war. As someone with an interest in the Home Front situation during those years I was pleased to see it being given the Blyton treatment.

I've just read above that this was Tim Venning's last entry to his FF 78 Tv locations series. What a shame. This has been a most enjoyable run of articles and part ten finished on a good high note examining in particular the Five Go Down to the Sea episode, one of my own favourites.

Islands on my Mind by Judith Crabb was a fascinating read. I too love Enid's islands and it was great to read of the comparisons with L.T.Meade's Four on an Island which I am now seeking a cheap copy of as it sounds right up my street.

In addition to TimV's TV series focus there was then Angela Canning's Five go Down to the Sea article to enjoy. I think this book joins the lengthy re-read list after this. I also enjoyed reading the solution of the ten year mystery of The Packman of Sicily. Excellent detective work from David Chambers and a great little story too.

William Ferguson's Ginger Pop article brought back fond memories of my own visit to Corfe Castle, Swanage and the inimitable Ginger Pop shop. What a pity it's gone. I knew that Viv ran guided tours but not that they were so good.

Together with lots of material from the lady herself and all the usual crop of wonderful and well chosen illustrations and ephemera Journal 75 was a joy and pleasure to read. Thanks as always to all the contributors and our one and only (real) editor for putting it all together in such a high quality publication. A worthy three quarter century entry to this great magazine. Roll on 76.

[Julie2owlsdene]

A lovely well packed Journal to read over the last few hot days. I hadn't realized that Noddy was coming up for 72, but then sadly, I've not got any or have read any Noddy books. Sorry Noddy, but I did read your editorial.

Lovely articles from all the contributors. I haven't read St Clare's for many years now, so can't really comment on how I would feel if I gave this series a re-read now being much older. Maybe one day I will open those pages of the St Clare's. I did love them when I first read them and read them many times, but my love of mystery and adventure books of Enid's are my main love.

Reading William Ferguson's article, I didn't know that Viv had done her tours over a few days. I remember many years back one I did with Viv in Corfe, but that was only a few hours. Made interesting reading, but sadly, William, you spelled the name of 'my house' incorrectly. It's Owl's Dene, not Deane.

Lovely article by Pat Swadling, and very interesting to see that Sir Tim Rice and his daughter had attended an Enid Blyton Day back in 2003. Had me thinking back to the wonderful Blyton Days I'd been lucky enough to attend, and meet up with some lovely people.

All in all a really enjoyable Journal once again. Thanks Tony, and to all the contributors.

[Boodi 2]

My first copy of the journal has just arrived and I am absolutely delighted with it, especially the editorial. Having only joined the society earlier this week I had not expected that the journal would arrive so quickly, so many thanks to all the contributors and especially to Tony for his excellent work and for being so efficient.

[Chrissie777]

Boodi 2, I'm sure you'll enjoy the journal!
I subscribed around 2013 and always look forward to the next issue.