Journal 81

[Kate Mary]

Journal 81 is poised and ready to go chaps, it popped up yesterday on the website and is, as always, full of good things. Happy summer reading.

[John Pickup]

A lovely Grace Lodge cover to enjoy. Let's not forget the huge amount of work Tony puts into every issue.

[pete9012S]

Thank you very much for that lovely info Kate Mary and John P.
I look forward to this exciting new Journal.
Here's a peek at the cover and contents with a link to the cave:


https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/jou ... isissue=81

[Julie2owlsdene]

Looks a great read. Looking forward to the Journal popping through my door. Well done, Tony.

[Boodi 2]

Brilliant news and really looking forward to receiving it. As always, many thanks to Tony and all the contributors for such a wonderful publication.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Love the summery cover! Can't wait to read it!

[Lucky Star]

Great cover and excellent contents list. Can't wait.

[Bertie]

Looks good.
As usual, I'm most looking forward to the articles about the Mystery/Adventure series that I love - so delighted to see some about Fatty, the Famous Five, and Rubadub.

[Courtenay]

This is sounding excellent... well done Tony as always!!

[Kate Mary]

The Journal landed on my doormat this morning with a satisfying thump. I haven’t time to do it justice at the moment, my husband has only just come out of hospital, but in the coming days I shall have a leisurely read in the garden if the weather bucks up. It looks a super issue.

[Jack400]

The journal's just arrived here too

[Boatbuilder]

And here as well.

[Bertie]

Mine arrived today as well.

[Lucky Star]

I have arrived home to find my copy lying in wait for me on the mat. Looks absolutely delightful.

[timv]

My Journal arrived yesterday; really nice and evocative cover. This recent series of Journals has had really good artwork; all credit to Tony for bringing these artists' work back into the public eye.

I'm just starting to read through the articles; 'The Boys' and Girls' Circus Book' is a revelation to me, as I'd assumed from the title that it was a collection of stories about circus characters not a novel. The '.... Book' title is usually used for annuals , ie collections of stories brought out for Christmas each year, and was still being used in this way when I first had this sort of book as a Christmas present in the 1960s. It leads to me wondering whether there was any hard and fast 'guideline' rules for particular publishers about which books were called 'Annuals' and which were known as 'The ... Book' or 'The Bumper Book of...', 'The Boys/ Girls' Book of... ' etc; were the 'Annuals' titles an indication of a book being one in a regular series with the same characters, and the other titles used for everything else?

Was the use for this particular title in 1939 a sign that the book was meant to tap into the same market, or just a 'fall back' to distinguish it from the then current Galliano series? Calling it 'The Enid Blyton Book of Circus Stories' would indicate a collection of stories about different people - as the central characters were the same throughout and were used a 'peg'' to hold a series of stories about life at the same circus together, something different was needed. Perhaps everyone was so distracted by the War that the editor and/or Enid just fell back on a familiar format title. But you can see in the contents what was bubbling around in Enid's imagination just then and what she had written recently or was about to do - there's the 'Runaway Kids are helped by a slightly older and experienced insider' like Jack is with the others in Secret Island, the characters reminiscent of past and future Galliano Circus figures (the 'parrot woman' appears in Circus Days Again), and the 'Authorities from the Children's Home hunt for Our Heroes/ Heroines' as in 'Three Boys and A Circus'. The 'Emigration to the (then) Colonies of Adult Guardian' theme at the start is like Fenny's guardian leaving her to Aunt Lou and Uncle Ursie in Come To The Circus. Fascinating!

Also, this book is a good example of 'Enid Being Inclusive' with all her characters of disparate origins coming together in the circus, so it deserves to be flagged up on that account as important teaching for young children about accepting people of different origins and not being judgemental ; and the 'Big Brother' meddling of the authorities, with good intentions but not for the subjects' actual benefit, is still a live issue and struck me for the first time when I read 'Three Boys and a Circus' aged about seven. Nowadays I suppose the idea of any large, non-European animals in the circus doing tricks - looked after or not - would put editors off re-issuing it!