The Enid Blyton Society

Can any one help me?

Paul Austin wrote:Can any one help me?

     Maybe not directly in full detail; but as a general hint, I would suggest you look at editions printed before about 1970 - that seems, generally, to be when the rot really set in.
     If you have any doubts, it might be worth writing to the seller and asking them to take a look at the book and see if the characters are named Jill and Mary. Some sellers actually display sample pages of books on the page where they are selling the book, and this may include names of characters. I think some eBay sellers do this, and I feel pretty sure many books sold on Amazon do this too.

Regards, Michael.

The 1970's Dean version kept the original names - in fact the name change is relatively recent - 1990's - so anything before that should contain the real names. However, if you're talking 'original text' without any alterations, I think I would go for early editions - 1940's - 1960's, just to be sure.

i'm disabled and live with my parents so don't have much money. I was hoping someone here had copies they no longer needed and could part with them for free.

Perhaps that is something that could have been mentioned in the opening post. Just a thought, but people usually include those sort of details when making a request, especially if they looking for a freebie.

Also, unless someone in Australia has one, there'd be the overseas postage cost, which isn't cheap.

Perhaps you could try Australian eBay? This one is in Melbourne and is going for only $6, which is very reasonable (the equivalent of £3 here in Britain), though I can't see what the local postage is. It's the same edition I read as a child, which definitely had Jill and Mary: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/THE-ADVENTUR ... XQ3kNTiEgd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: Just scrolled down the page and it's $3 postage to anywhere in Australia, or can be picked up in person from Doncaster.