Journal 78

[Katharine]

I'd forgotten about the latest Journal, it arrived last Saturday, literally a few minutes before we were due to set off for a week's holiday, so I just undid the flap of the envelope to check what it is, and it's still sitting in the hallway waiting to be opened up properly.

I must remember to rescue it before it gets buried under the usual pile of junk mail.

[pete9012S]

Well, I've only read the first two articles so far, but they were great!


In Praise of Ern by Helen Richards (4)

Smashing stuff Helen. Thank you. It was nice to view Ern's character development through the series from your own personal perspective.

I always tend to see things through Fatty's eyes.
Growing up I had a large shed at the bottom of our massive garden. A small group of friends and lots of extremely generous relatives showering me with pocket money.

We pooled all our money together to buy ices, fudge, sweets, toffee etc to eat in our shed.


The Telescope and the Castle by John Pickup (14)

A great article from John. Especially as this was the book that turned me on to The Secret Seven.
It was my brother Mike's copy that I read surreptitiously, as I viewed the Seven Books as being for younger children...



My brother's edition that got me into The Secret seven

How wrong I was. I loved this book.
I was able to buy brand new Blyton's as I had pocket money, a Saturday job in my Dad's business and heaps of generous relatives.
My relatives bought me brand new Blyton books as well.

I loved my local library, but for some reason, I never got any Blyton books out. It was all Willard Price, The Hardy Boys, The Cherry's, Malcolm Saville, Bobby Brewster etc that I read from the library.
All the library books were immaculate hardbacks too!


Burgess Sharrocks 1960


Derek Lucas 1972


Eric R. Parker 1960

Once again, thanks to Helen & John for getting my Journal read off to a cracking start.

Time to dip back into the Journal now to uncover more treasures!

[Chrissie777]

Correct Chrissie!

[Boodi 2]

My copy of Journal 78 finally arrived two hours ago, just as we were sitting down to a late lunch. It looks most impressive as always and I am really looking forward to reading it, especially the very aptly entitled "Summer Sizzlers", as well as "In Praise of Ern" and "Fatty and Buster"!!! I must admit that I also got a pleasant surprise at seeing my name in there for the first time, as I was really afraid that my article might be considered "too horsey" for publication (which I would have understood). Once again, many thanks to Tony and all the contributors for such a great journal.

[Hannah]

Mine is still not here . Seeing that your journal arrived, Boodi, I hope it will arrive soon.

[Wolfgang]

Mine hasn't arrived yet, either.

[Kate Mary]

There are some cracking articles in the latest Journal but I was disappointed with this issue in one respect, but more of that later. I am fascinated by Enid's early work in periodicals so anything written by David Chambers I enjoy very much, I'm greatly in awe of David's research I hope he continues to make new discoveries and shares them with us in the Journal. (By the bye I heartily recommend the Merry Moments booklets they are available in the Society shop and are well worth buying).

Anita's article on summer themed short stories was brilliant as ever, I always have to seek out the stories she mentions and read them for myself. I have six of the nine she covered, I must look out for the collections the remaining three are in.

I thoroughly enjoyed In Praise of Ern, Fatty and Buster, The Telescope and the Castle, The First Six Fives and John Lester's review of seasonal issues of Sunny Stories, in fact all of them, with special mention of In Praise of Boodi by Monique Federsel. The Six Cousins books are favourites of mine too and was fascinated to read about the history of Icelandic ponies in Britain.

But I was disappointed that we had no uncollected short story by Enid herself in this issue, not even a Teachers' World letter or From My Window column, I did however like the story from Merry Moments and the Hampshire Advertiser whether or not it's by Enid.

My thanks to all the contributors, even if I didn't mention your article I read and enjoyed them all. And thanks to Tony for putting it all together, but please can we have a story next time?

[Judith Crabb]

Happy day! The earliest my Summer journal has ever arrived.
(It will help me forget my chilblains just imagining the heat-wave in the UK which is getting a bit of attention here in South Australia.)

[Aussie Sue]

My Journal arrived today too. Thank you Tony for contacting me regarding my new address. I really appreciate that, there are still many 'change of address' I need to do. I think I might head to bed a bit earlier tonight to give me a chance to read it.

Hope you are all coping with the weather, covid continuing is bad enough without having weather problems too.
cheers
Sue

[Fiona1986]

Even though I'm not a big Secret Seven fan I enjoyed John's article (I didn't realise it was JP until Pete posted above!). I've read all the SS but have the vaguest of memories of most of the contents. This one put me in mind of a mix between Five Have a Wonderful Time and The Mystery of Banshee Towers.

[Hannah]

My journal arrived today too.
I've not yet looked at it more closely but plan to read it next Wednesday at the latest when I will spend many hours on a train.

[Chrissie777]

We pooled all our money together to buy ices, fudge, sweets, toffee etc to eat in our shed.

Pete, this reminds me of a great children's book I read when I was a child. It's volume 1 of the Melendy Family series set in 1940's New York City, "The Saturdays" by Elizabeth Enright, niece of Frank Lloyd Wright.
A group of siblings lives in New York and as they each get very little pocket money, so every Saturday they pool it and one of the kids can do something exciting in town.

[Judith Crabb]

Such seem the rich pickings of this journal I decided to read it through from cover to cover and read the first three last night. Having just completed reading the Find-Outers series I was particularly receptive to Helen Richards 'In praise of Ern', an excellent character study of that engaging character. I was a little surprised that she bucked the trend and was not dismissive of 'Banshee Towers', even wishing that the series had continued. This title published in 1961 I read for the first time this year. 'Good Old Secret Seven', published in 1960 and dear to John Pickup, I've never read at all. As a thirteen-year-old by 1961 the only Blyton I was reading and re-reading were the school stories, Barney and the Adventure series. John's detailed account of 'Good Old Secret Seven' in 'The Telescope and the Castle' made me realize that there is a startling plot similarity between this novel and Banshee Towers - both plots involve art theft, surely not common among children's books. (Can anyone think of any others - there must be a few?) My last read last night was Tim Venning's enjoyable topographically rich take on 'Five Get into Trouble', probably in my top ten Blytons, certainly in my top twenty.
And I've only started reading this journal.

[Boodi 2]

There are indeed rich pickings in this journal, thus I am trying to make it last longer by not reading all the articles in one sitting! I enjoyed "Five Get Into Trouble" and with the exception of "When Brer Rabbit Melted" all the excellent Summer Sizzlers were new to me, as are Rough and Fluff. As a great 'fan of Ern I was captivated by "In Praise of Ern" and in view of his influence (at least for me) it is surprising that he only appeared in just five books. I too wonder if the change in his personality and how the Find Outers switch from looking down on and making fun of him to admiring and accepting him was planned by Enid Blyton when she first introduced him or if it just happened automatically and by chance? Once again, many thanks to Tony and all who contributed to Journal 78 for an excellent read.

[Judith Crabb]

The rest of the Journal proved as I expected it to be, a really good read, Anita as usual succeeding in amazing us with the variety of Blyton's short stories, the summery nature of this lot echoed in John Lester's similar look at Summer as it appeared in some Sunny Stories. Of special interest were David Chambers' 'Uncharted Beginnings' which require detective skills not to mention luck to solve. I'd have to agree with Angela about Blyton's debt to Wodehouse. Her humour is often quite Wodehousian. And John Henstock's 'The First Six Fives' was a rare treat. Reading Monique Federsel's article has put my two Six Cousins titles which I have never read on the top of my reading heap. I think I'm going to enjoy them immensely.