The Enid Blyton Society

Is there a canal nearby, John?

There is water, yes!

Is anyone else wanting to join us in Plymouth to see the exhibition?

I never make plans far ahead, so I'll let you know a week before.

Feel free to start a new thread for the Plymouth Exhibition if you like. Otherwise I could change the title of this topic to include Plymouth, but it might be less confusing to have a fresh thread.

Everytime I see this thread title, I first think of baked beans.

There is (or was) a kind of confectionery in Australia like Smarties or M&Ms - chocolate buttons in a colourful shell - called Beanies, so that's what it keeps reminding me of! (I can't remember Beanies being sold in packets, but at Easter you could get a chocolate Humpty Dumpty full of Beanies, which is where I remember them from - not sure if they're still around.)

Over here there was a similar thing - Humpty Dumpty filled with smarties.

Aren't woollen hats also called beanies?

I believe so - especially in America.

And in Australia.

Today I visited the Canterbury exhibition with my mother. We both spent a very happy hour wandering around it. I made lots of notes this time. I also saw a video which I hadn't noticed before - a remaking of the 1970's TV series titles - starring Poppy. I really enjoyed it, it looked like a lot of fun, sadly the volume was rather low, so I was unable to hear what she says, and had to read the subtitles.

I haven't time to scroll back tonight to look at questions raised earlier in this thread, but I think there was some question over whether items belonging to the EBS were originals or copies. The art work for The Sea of Adventure and The Castle of Adventure were 'Giclee' copies. There were a number of family photos of Enid, such as her with her typewriter, and as a one year old, which were copies. There was a school report written by Enid from 1922, which I believe was the original, and unless I've mis-read my notes, there were her notes on most of the Malory Towers books, which also appeared to be the originals. Plus there were a few of her diaries.

As far as I could see, most, if not all the Noddy artwork was on loan from 'Classic Media', and there were a lots of books and other bits and pieces belonging to the 'Enid Blyton Estate - Hatchette Group'. Plus a few items loaned by individuals.

Finally, there definitely wasn't a SS shed, the sections were:-

School Days
Toyland
Magic Faraway Tree
Family Life
Green Hedges
Nature & Garden

Plus 2 sections which didn't appear to have names, but which featured a FF time line, and a display of books printed in different languages.

I think my favourite bits were the Eileen Soper nature prints which were doted about. I've decided that if my family want to buy me something special for my 50th birthday next year, they can buy me the set of those - the were absolutely beautiful.

I'm really glad I had a second opportunity to visit the exhibition, and hope that everyone seeing it in Plymouth will enjoy it too.

Thanks for the update, Katharine. Glad you managed to get back for a second viewing.

I'm looking forward to seeing it in Plymouth.

That was a very observant account, Katharine.It sounds to me as if all the Society stuff were copies. The photos were all from my scans, as was the report and all the school notes as I have the originals here. They have all six of my Tresilian originals but the two on display were just copies and they also have original Soper artwork from me which you don't mention so it sounds as if that wasn't there, as well as Beek's own painting of the Noddy village and that also sounds as if it wasn't there. I am not sure how much of the Noddy artwork would have been sent by Classic Media, but they would have been credited as they own the Noddy copyright.

I notice that you make no mention of the Famous Five timeline, but if that was there it was something that I did for the first Famous Five Annual and it was taken from that.

Thanks Tony. Interesting to hear that the report etc. were copies, as they didn't look as if they were - not that I'm doubting you, just reflecting on the quality of the copy. Some of the photos looked as though they had been enlarged, but were still good quality given their age. To my untrained eye, the copies of Stuart Tresilian's work could easily have been originals, shame there wasn't room for them all. There was one piece of Eileen Soper's work which I forgot to mention - two pages from Five on Finniston Farm, I don't think there was any more of her original work, but plenty of examples of her drawings, such as the nature plates and copies of book copies, illustrations in the EB magazine etc.

I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered the Noddy village, as that's something I'd love to own for myself, I was tempted to by a print that was listed on E-Bay a few years back, so I don't think that was there either. There was a Giclee copy of Harmsdeen Beek's letter to Enid. I did start to list all the Noddy artwork from Classic Media, but there was so much, I didn't bother with it all, there were at least 10 pieces.

Julie, I hope you enjoy the exhibition when it arrives in Plymouth, although be warned, there is a Faraway Tree section, but not very much about the FFO from I can remember.