The Enid Blyton Society

I managed two but I still yearn for more!

Here, here!

Enid Blyton Days are very special occasions and I hope there will be many more in future years!

Just think - more great talks, more booksellers, more delightful people and especially more picnics!

Sounds wonderful, Francis!

Francis wrote:Just think - more great talks, more booksellers, more delightful people and especially more picnics!

I don't know which bit I'd look forward to the most. If I had the money, I'd love to indulge myself and buy some of the rare (and expensive) books that were on display. Although I think I'd have to invest in a glass fronted display cabinet first - no sticking them on the general bookcase for fear someone might breath on them! Maybe that lovely gentleman who showed me his Nature Plates would decide he could bear to part with them and I could make him an offer.

Reading back in the older journals, I'd love to see some previous speakers return. I'd also like to get to chance to speak to all those people who I didn't speak to, or perhaps only briefly said hello to last time.

As for picnics, well, I certainly wouldn't say no to some more Tiffin!

Don't mention the Tiffin - what a triumph they were. Looking at all those wonderful books is a bit like looking at a sweet shop window as a child. So near and yet so far!

Francis wrote:Looking at all those wonderful books is a bit like looking at a sweet shop window as a child. So near and yet so far!

Yes, I know what you mean about the book stalls, Francis. It's just great looking at them all, and wishing!!

I too would like to hear some of the speakers I've not seen before, yet I do understand for those who have attended for a good few years they don't want any repeats! But sometimes, it's nice to have a few repeats, we're so used to them especially on the TV!!

Even if there was no speakers I'd still enjoy the day, just being with like minded people and all those books, heaven!

I think this nostalgic discussion on EB Days is summing up the problem of holding any future days very nicely.

I agree that the dealers provide a very attractive exhibition, but they come to sell books and if nobody is going to buy their books there is not much point in them coming, looking at it from their point of view.

With no dealers you are immediately reducing your potential audience considerably, probably to the extent that it would no longer be a worthwhile day for the caterers.

So what have we got left, people who come to chat with friends and those that specifically come to listen to the speakers. Finding speakers with something relevant to say has got increasingly more difficult as the years have gone on. We have been very lucky over the years as we have had some great speakers, such as Ken Howard, Gyles Brandreth and Tim Rice, but all of these were one-off speakers and none of them would want to come again. With no fresh speakers you are reducing your audience even further.

So we are left with those who would like to come and chat with friends. As the organiser of this day I would probably be able to recognise about 40 people some of whom have been coming regularly for many years, specifically to listen to the speakers. If you take the speakers and the dealers away what are you left with?

The answer is about 25 people who come to meet up with friends. But is a large impersonal, empty hall really the place to do this? Personally I would have thought that an informal meeting at Old Thatch in 2011 was a much better option and hopefully a similar meeting in Beckenham in 20213 will prove the same.

Time will tell, but for the reasons I have mentioned above, I suspect that the days of 160 people meeting at Loddon Hall may well be over.

Tony, I can appreciate the difficulties you have. I did buy a few bits and pieces on the day, so I didn't just browse, but I probably didn't spend more than about £20 - £25 in total, so the sellers wouldn't do more than cover their costs if everyone did the same. I guess if I'd got £100 or more to spend on a rare book, I'd probably be prepared to travel some distance to pick it up anyway. Certainly a couple of the sellers live within an hour or two from where I live.

As for the speakers, as long as it wasn't the same ones every year, hopefully people wouldn't mind repeats, but as you say, some of them were one offs, and sadly I know that several people who I would have loved to hear speak are no longer alive.

If it turns into more of a general gathering of friends, I don't know whether people would be prepared to spend £10 just to have a cup of coffee in a hall and chat.

Of course if the sellers priced their books more reasonably I'm sure they would sell a lot more of them and make more money...

Katharine wrote:If it turns into more of a general gathering of friends, I don't know whether people would be prepared to spend £10 just to have a cup of coffee in a hall and chat.

I am sure you are right, and you can forget the coffee!! We obviously couldn't charge £10 with nothing to show for it and of course you have to take into account the considerable travelling expenses for some.

One thing that I didn't mention above is the cost of the venue itself, we need a pretty good turnout or we guarantee making a loss!

I should perhaps add that all our speakers have generously given their services free (although I have paid travelling expenses for one or two - a taxi from Lincoln for Helen Cresswell wasn't exactly cheap!). I have approached one or two over the years who want a minimum of £500 for a talk - another guaranteed loss!

I fully understand the dilema that Tony must face trying to organize such a day, etc etc. And the bit that makes me sad is Tony's end words -

Time will tell, but for the reasons I have mentioned above, I suspect that the days of 160 people meeting at Loddon Hall may well be over.

I'm just sorry I didn't know of the Society and the E.B. Days when it all started out. But then I didn't have a computer either!! I hadn't even seen a forum until I joined the Society back in about 2007. Gosh don't I sound like a dinausaur!!!!

And I'm sorry that despite being on the forums since 2007 I didn't make it to a day until 2012.

Fiona1986 wrote:Of course if the sellers priced their books more reasonably I'm sure they would sell a lot more of them and make more money...

I have often thought this myself. Some of the prices are extremely off-putting.

It's true that The Day is a complex balance of factors including the bookdealers, the speakers, the caterers and the friends and fellow Blytonites. Tony has, for many years, managed to get the balance right between these diverse elements but if you remove any of them the thing will start to unravel pretty rapidly I would imagine. Unfortunately we forumites are only a small group at the EBS Day and probably not even representative of the wider view. We would generally be prepared to meet up anywhere just for a chat and a drink but the wider society is not. Smaller localised gatherings are probably the way to go for the future.