Journal 80

[Kate Mary]

Another brilliant edition of the Journal. Some highlights for me were Syndicated Stories and Blyton Books That Never Were, I love finding out about obscure corners of Enid’s work. The Disappearing Prizes was a nice little story and didn’t deserve to languish in obscurity for more than 75 years, I’m glad it saw the light of day again, (there are some lovely uncollected Eileen Soper illustrations in the Cave for these stories, check them out). And what a treat to read Every Child’s Book of Prince Charles and Princess Anne, I never thought to see this and it was a nice idea to put it in the Journal just before King Charles’ coronation.

Ring O’Bells Mystery is a favourite of mine and I enjoyed John Pickup’s article, it’s time for a re-read I think. The same goes for some Famous Five’s after reading Tim Venning’s and John Henstock’s articles. And I loved Judith Crabb’s piece on the Mystery series illustrated with some wonderful Mary Gernat pictures.

Enough of my ramblings! I would just like to say thank you to all the contributors, I read this Journal from cover to cover and enjoyed everything, my thanks also to Tony for editing this smashing little magazine.

[Bertie]

Only just finished the latest Journal, as I lent it to my mum first and one of her friends then saw it and wanted to borrow it as well!

We all thoroughly enjoyed it. Both their favourite section was one that, admittedly, I skim read a little - the piece about Charles and Anne. They both loved the article.

For my part, I'm mainly interested in the articles about the half dozen or so adventure series that I've read and re-read for years. So I really enjoyed this edition of the Journal as much of it was about those: The Detective Fiction article about the first 7 Fatty books; The Ring O'Bells article; The second six Fives - about Famous Five books 7-12; And, even though it's one of my least favourite of the first dozen FF books, the article about Five on A Hike Together. Great stuff from all contributors!

And, as others have said, it's always nice to read a new story - especially a detective one like 'The Disappearing Prizes.' Very enjoyable bonus story.

I think this is only my 4th Journal and I've enjoyed them all, but this one was my favourite as there was so much of it about all my favourite series.

[Judith Crabb]

Sometimes I'm not sure with which article to start my comments about the Journal but this time it is easy - the 16 page reprint illustrated from photographs of 'Every Child's Book of Prince Charles and Princess Anne', another of Tony's inspired choices. The parallel between Queen Elizabeth and the (uncrowned) queen of children's books is remarkable. Both were working mothers, the official narrative, espoused by Enid Blyton here and in her 'The Story of Our Queen', being one of cosy domesticity and happy children in spite of the onerous duties of their mothers. Much later, in both cases, we find that these re-assuring pictures were rather wide of the mark. There is even a parallel between the removal of the Royal Family from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace on the accession of Elizabeth II and the removal of the Pollocks from Old Thatch to Green Hedges: 'Queen Elizabeth was afraid that the move to strange nurseries might upset the two small children' so 'the new nurseries were arranged very much like the old ones'. Apparently Enid's children were never entirely happy with their own removal. However, hindsight does not detract from the delightful picture which Enid paints of life in the royal nursery and the piece ends in a note of pride in 'our sturdy little Prince, and our enchanting little Princess'. We know that only fairy tales can conclude on such a note.

[Moonraker]

though it should be pointed out that it was Tony who got most of the speakers for the Enid Blyton Days.

Yes, I was beginning to think that Tony wasn't involved in the Days at all!

I have been away, so will add my thoughts to this thread later.

[Judith Crabb]

Time for another 'In praise of Journal 80'. It is for me especially good this time. The cover illustrations are so attractive (we Australian kids never got the rear wrapper picture on our Magic Faraway Tree jackets because the Australian publisher used the space to advertise other Blyton titles). Tony's editorial reminds us of our luck in having such a persistent editor. Most privately circulated magazines succumb long before issue 80. I enjoyed Anita's article about their visit to Chichester to watch the Famous Five musical. It sounds to me a bit like those performances when I wait for interval so that I can leave without being noticed, but Anita as always was fair in pointing out the positives. Timmy sounds great which reminds me of a excellent performance I saw of Two Gentlemen of Verona in which a real dog completely upstaged the rest of the cast and seemed to be enjoying every moment. Like me most of the audience will have forgotten much else about the night, but we'll never forget that dog.
Like Anita I solved the puzzle of The Disappearing Prizes but maybe only because 'The Jackdaw of Rheims' was on a High School English syllabus.
Inspired by John Pickup 'Return to Ring o' Bells' I have put my copy on my desk among the current five titles I am reading. His articles have made me aware that I must have read the Barney books less frequently than all my other favourite series, perhaps because I owned fewer, and I'll start remedying that with 'Ring 'o Bells'. To be continued...

[Moonraker]

I have now finished #80.

Another fabulous issue. I am running out of superlatives to post on every article - they are all so entertaining, and I haven't the time to write in-depth notes on all articles, so thank you to all our contributors.

Just a few points of special note. Anita's "New Musical" sounded as if it would have had me rushing for the exit! To be honest, I found the railway journey would have been so much more interesting to me! If I'd have accompanied Tony and you, I would have stayed on the train! (This comment is directed at the musical, not Anita's article!)

John's Return to Ring O' Bells sounded like a title for a continuation novel! A fascinating and interesting article.

I really enjoyed Tim Venning's Five on a Hike Together - one of my favourite Five's - even if he did refer to Blue Pond Farm as Blue Pool Farm a few times! Nevertheless, another really good article.

Thanks to all, and to Tony for editing and all the other chores he does to get the Journal to our doormats.

[John Pickup]

Another fascinating Journal and I agree with our editor's decision to allocate quite a few of the pages to the Every Child's Book of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Some lovely photographs and a laugh out loud moment when Enid writes, (about Charles) he discovered how to grow teeth. I bet a lot of parents rued the day that their own children discovered they could do that!

Judith Crabb writes a comprehensive and stimulating article about the FFO and how the balance of power shifted from Larry to Fatty. The series really took off with Spiteful Letters and the comparison to Christie's Moving Finger is a good one.

Musicals were never my thing but I appreciate Anita's review of the proceedings even if she was disappointed with the production as a whole.

Books That Never Were is what the Journal is all about. How else would we get to see the contents of Enid's short story workbook and the letter from the National Magazine Company?

John Henstock writes interestingly about the second set of Five books which contain many of my favourites, Trouble, Hike and Wonderful Time. I wish Jo could have featured more in the series, but I agree with John when he says Dick develops as a character in Fall Into Adventure.

From My Window is beautiful. It's quite obvious that Enid is enthralled by nature and wildlife and thanks to her writings, so are we. I love how she writes the birds are practicing for the great singing festival in February, March and April. When I used to cycle to work in the mornings, to hear the dawn chorus was magical.

Tim Venning captures the feeling of Hike very well. It's always been a spooky book with the bells ringing and Two Trees.

Once again, the Journal allows us to see Enid's personal entries in her short story workbook regarding the four longer stories and their eventual destination. Some great detective work reveals the papers where they were published. It's great to see the excerpts from the papers involved as well as the Eileen Soper illustrations.

The Disappearing Prizes is a fine story if somewhat predictable. But we wouldn't be reading it at all if it wasn't for the Journal.

And finally, the lovely Mary Pollock covers on the back page. I've got one, The Children of Kidillin with the price, 1s 6d on the front. I do own Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle but with Enid's own name as author.

Many thanks to all the contributors for their fine work and especially to Tony for compiling, editing and producing another magnificent Journal.
Also, I would like to thank those who have made kind comments about my own offering.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's very interesting reading everyone's comments. Like you, John, I always love seeing letters to/from Enid Blyton, and her workbook entries.

Anita's "New Musical" sounded as if it would have had me rushing for the exit! To be honest, I found the railway journey would have been so much more interesting to me! If I'd have accompanied Tony and you, I would have stayed on the train! (This comment is directed at the musical, not Anita's article!)

[Judith Crabb]

The first in the new series 'Enid Blyton Books That Never Were!' appeals to the detective in me as does the article on 'Syndicated Stories' which has the bonus supplement of the long story 'The Disappearing Prizes'. If the journal this time was the literary equivalent of one of those delicious cakes that Cook produced for whatever mob of children happened to be featured in the story, the articles by John Henstock and Tim Venning about some of my favourite 'Fives' were the icing, very decorative too with the excellent illustrations. And I'm so pleased that a Society Member Vanessa Tobin has gone into print with 'Five Have Plenty of Character', and that Patrick Swadling shared his memories of Enid Blyton Days. It is so important to get these memories recorded.
This journal will be a hard act to follow, but I suspect Tony will be up to it.

[Judith Crabb]

Thanks to John Pickup I've just returned from re-reading 'Ring o' Bells', as I suspected, one of Blyton's best. I realised that the illustrations which Tony selected for John's article are not all by Gilbert Dunlop, though all are in the excellent style of Dunlop. I've just started re-reading 'Rubadub', and hope to read John's take on this in the future.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I agree that it's one of Enid Blyton's best books, Judith. The illustrations used for the article are all by Gilbert Dunlop, though some are less familiar as they come from the Sunny Stories serialisation.

[Julie2owlsdene]

A well packed Journal and some lovely articles. I loved reading them all, so thanks to all who contributed and to Tony for putting together Journal 80 for us all to enjoy.

It was really nice to read Enid's - Charles and Anne. And to see those lovely old photos. Nice account from Anita of the F.F. Musical. It's not something I would see myself, nor the Malory Towers musical. I think I just prefer to read the books.

But loved all the articles very much.

Thanks again to all.

[Anita Bensoussane]

You're right that nothing beats the books, Julie! However, I'm always curious to see how Enid Blyton's stories are presented on stage and screen.

The 2019 Malory Towers musical was magical and inspiring, but the 2022 Famous Five musical failed to capture my heart. The characters in the Malory Towers musical were still the characters we know so well - Darrell bright and keen and hot-tempered, Gwen vain and spiteful, Mary-Lou kind-hearted yet timid, etc. I recognised them immediately and felt that I'd entered the storybook world. In the Famous Five musical, the characters of the children weren't strongly established and they didn't seem very much like the Five we know from the books, so I never had the feeling of being transported to Kirrin.

[Judith Crabb]

Thanks Anita for the information about the source of illustrations which Tony used for 'Return to Ring o' Bells'. It's the first time I've become aware that the serialisations in Sunny Stories were 'extra-illustrated'. No wonder people are so keen to collect Sunny Stories.
I'm rather pleased that my ignorance lead me to say only that the illustrations were 'in the style of' Dunlop', thinking that perhaps follow-up illustrations were commissioned (like those Noddy illustrators who followed on from Beek). I'm glad I didn't say I thought they were inferior! That would have been embarrassing.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Heh - though I suppose it's possible that an artist could produce inferior illustrations for certain publications, if given less time to do them!