Enid Blyton Day 2010

[Lucky Star]

would there be fireworks?!!

Guaranteed. We should be able to organise a mudslinging contest as well.

[Tony Summerfield]

As far as suggesting possible speakers at next year's EB Day, I would strongly suggest two possiblilities. One is Nicholas Tucker who has written a couple of articles and books in which Enid Blyton has been included. ......I am leaning towards a speaker like Dr. Andrew Norman, author of "Enid Blyton and Her Enchantment with Dorset" that was published as recent as 2005.

Both Nicholas Tucker and Andrew Norman have attended Enid Blyton Days in the past. Both came to pick up ideas for books that they were writing, but the Society got no credit when Nicholas Tucker included one of the talks from our Day in his book. I phoned Andrew Norman shortly after his book was published the year after his visit and invited him to come to the Day with a pile of his books, as I thought they would sell well if he was there to sign them. His reply to this was, "I don't think I can be bothered."

[Fiona1986]

...the Society got no credit when Nicholas Tucker included one of the talks from our Day in his book. I phoned Andrew Norman shortly after his book was published the year after his visit and invited him to come to the Day with a pile of his books, as I thought they would sell well if he was there to sign them. His reply to this was, "I don't think I can be bothered."

Rotten so-and-sos, the pair of them
The EB day would be better off without them I say!

[Julie2owlsdene]

His reply to this was, "I don't think I can be bothered."

Such enthusiasum is just over whelming!!! I think I need to go and lie down

[Moonraker]

I might lie down too, but I don't think I can be bothered. Anyway, must brush up on my pyrotechnics...

[RDMorrell]

I could procrastinate, but I don't think I can be bothered.

[Kiki's new mam]

Hello, we are new to this forum, but long time fans of Enid Blyton.
I loved her a kid, (and still do) and my 11 year old sister adores her books. Between us we have a massive collection of nearly all her books, we have the 1970's Famous Five series on DVD, also the 3 adventure series on DVD, and numerous Famous Five Jigsaw puzzles and card game.
We adore going into charity shops to see what Enid Blyton things can be found.
We would love to come to the Enid Blyton day in May. Is it definately scheduled for the 15th of May?
There will be 5 of us coming, me my 2 young sisters and parents. - Can anyone reccomend a good place to stay for a night or 2? Like a Travel Lodge or a Holiday Inn? We will be travelling all the way from Nottinghamshire, so a place to stay will be great.
Any more information on the Enid Blyton day would be greatly appreciated!

And yes, we really do have a parrot called KIKI!!!!

Love Debbie and Leila

[Wayne Pyer]

Hi Debbie and Leila.

Welcome to the forums. I know you will enjoy this site.

If you have not already done so, i would highly recommend subscribing to the society journel, which is fantastic value for money.

I'm sure one of the others will be able to help with your accommodation query.

Wayne, from South Wales.

[Lucky Star]

Hi and welcome Kikis New Mam. The Enid Blyton day is a wonderful affair usually consisting of a few great speakers, perhaps a film or radio excerpt and a massive book fair of Blytonian books and memorabilia. If you read the threads dedicated to recent year's days you should get a flavour of the superb atmosphere of the event. Alternatively click on the Society Website link at the top of the page and follow the link to the official society reviews of past events. There are also lots of photos there. All Blyton fans are heartily welcome and, indeed, meeting up with fellow fans and having great discussions is a major part of the attraction.

If you Google Twyford Accomodation you will find a list of options in the town. Alternatively Twyford is just 5 minutes by train from Reading which is a large town containing all the large chain hotels. It looks as though it will definitely be May 15th but Tony, the society organiser, would be the best person to confirm this. No doubt he will just as soon as he emerges from The Cave of Books where he labours mightily on our behalf. Hope to see you there next year.

[Kiki's new mam]

Thank you Wayne and Lucky star

We have subscribed to the secret society journal, and have already enjoyed reading through 2 issues of it.
I have been looking at the photo's of the past few years of the Enid Blyton day, and me and Leila are very excited at the thought of coming, as we know we will love it.......all those books and memorabilia!!

Is there any word if Marcus Harris and Gary Russull are able to come this year? We would be so over the moon if we could meet them, but even if they can't make it, we know it will be a great day!

I will have a google on Twyford to see what accomodation we can come up with.

Thanks again!

Debbie and Leila

[Tony Summerfield]

As I feel at the moment, I would rather leave the search for speakers to someone else next year. It is getting increasingly difficult to find good speakers who have something meaningful to say about Enid Blyton and her work and this year gave me many sleepless nights.

This is from the very first post in this thread that I wrote almost five months ago. Two weeks after this in the editorial of Journal 39 I wrote the following:- "I feel that perhaps the time has come to have a new organiser with some fresh ideas and I am open to suggestions."

The forum post produced several suggestions of what I could do to try and get speakers and the Journal editorial didn't produce any response at all. So four months later we are still at square one. The day is indeed pencilled in for May 15th, but that is as far as it goes. It seems that everybody is perfectly happy to leave everything to me to organise but I'm afraid that I feel that it is just too much to do on top of everything else.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I am willing to help, but I don't want the Enid Blyton Society Day to be seen as a Ginger Pop event.

Viv

[Tony Summerfield]

I am willing to help, but I don't want the Enid Blyton Society Day to be seen as a Ginger Pop event.

Viv

We are aiming at a completely different clientele, Viv. Ginger Pop events are very well organised but are largely aimed at children with things such as searching for clues and taking finger prints. You have a wonderful natural setting, which the National Trust promote strongly as the original setting for the Famous Five and you have absolutely no worries about ticket sales.

Our audience is largely adults who know a good deal about Enid Blyton (most take the Journal) and a large majority of them come to hear some good speakers. Filling in the afternoon is really no problem and we can even get by if a speaker backs out at the last moment as was the case this year, we even had a further video to show that we didn't have time for! We do have to think about selling tickets though, apart from anything else to be fair to both dealers and caterers. For this to happen we really need one high profile speaker for the morning, a 'name'.

Obviously everybody is aware of some of the high profile speakers that we have had in the past, but what might not be so apparent is the number of people I have approached who have turned me down or not even replied. Most of these I have approached directly, if you are trying to go through agents you are starting to talk 'big bucks', and no matter how many tickets we sold it would guarantee that we made a loss.

You will notice that rather than simply cancelling the day I have left all options open at present. If someone like Helena Bonham Carter said that she would love to come and talk to us about how she prepared for playing Enid Blyton in the BBC4 film, we would have an EB Day, but although one can dream I guess this is a bit unlikely.

To some extent we are victims of our own success in the past. Most other author related events do not expect to get about 130 people attending and are perfectly happy if 30 to 40 people turn up, but their charges are considerably higher than ours and the event would be organised in a completely different way.

[Moonraker]

Way back when, when Michael Rouse and Norman Wright (I think) started the annual Enid Blyton Days, young Tony was but a lad -- well, a few years younger than he now is! Living so close to him, I am privileged to see first hand much of his preparatory work in getting speakers to the event. I know that last year was an enormous struggle -- even after contacting someone, getting a commitment, even a reply, was really difficult. As we all know, even at the eleventh hour someone dropped out.

Speaking personally, I am not sure than any 'help' would really lighten Tony's load by much at all. As I see it, the main obstacle to cross is acquiring speakers. We only need three or four, which doesn't seem that hard to achieve - in theory. In reality, we know it is different. To get a firm commitment of an appearance doesn't guarantee an appearance! One of the strengths of this Society is in its organiser. We are indeed unbelievably fortunate in having an organiser who dedicates his life to the Society; who else could devote so many hours to the job in hand. Just (I say, 'just!') to edit, publish and distribute the Journal and collect subscriptions - as well as answer the dozens of emails and letters of enquiry that flood into HQ is a daunting task for one man, let alone organise the Day as well.

As I see it, there are three options. Firstly, we carry on as before, and Tony works himself into an early grave. Secondly, the Day is cancelled next year, which might make it impossible to ever have another. Thirdly, Tony relinqueshes all responsibility, and someone else takes over the organisation of the event. Maybe there is a fourth option - we just have a greatly reduced-scale event, where we hire a small room and just 'chat amongst ourselves' and watch a Famous Five video. I feel that this would not appeal to the membership at large though, I think only the forum members would probably be interested in a chat and a picnic!

It's a hard choice, but all things must move on. I can't really think of anyone who could organise a successful event in the manner to which we have been accustomed. Possibly a committee - this could be split into people responsible for different aspects of the Day. I really think though that the main stumbling block is in acquiring suitable speakers. If Tony finds that nigh on impossible, I can't think of any way that another person would find it otherwise.

[Ming]

We could always have Tony and Anita as speakers and enlighten as on some issues...

All joking aside, I suppose you are working far too hard. Are any speakers confirmed at the moment, even if they are not a big 'name'? Is Imogen willing to speak at the Day, perhaps on some memories of Barbara Stoney, her childhood, etc.?

It's a pity about the speakers, but I suppose forum members would be content with a good old chinwag!