What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

The books! Over seven hundred of them and still counting...
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

interesting! I've never found the rivalry between Goon and Fatty at all repetitive! Then again, I know I'm lucky that I still tend to enjoy every Enid Blyton book even as an adult - in fact most of them I enjoy even more than when I was a kid!

Holly Lane is one of my favourite Find Outer books - and one of the five or six I first read as a child. :-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Shanku
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Shanku »

Interesting to see the similarities there Rob. I love them too...always have and always will.

Holly Lane, Missing Necklace, Pantomime Cat and Spiteful Letters are the first FF&D book I read and they (the characters, especially Fatty and Bets, and books) are my favourites. They were part of a birthday present and I still have those books all these 4 decades later.

I have picked up the series again and am going through them back to back for the nth time and just this time Goon and Fatty together are really getting on my nerves.

Persevere, I shall :D
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Shanku wrote:
I have picked up the series again and am going through them back to back for the nth time and just this time Goon and Fatty together are really getting on my nerves.

Persevere, I shall :D
I can understand that if you're reading them for the 'nth' time. I've only read them back to back once before, and other than that I've read some titles five or six times but some only one or two!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Stephen
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Stephen »

I've finished The Mystery Of The Missing Man. I WANTED to like it but couldn't really get into it. Bearing in mind I'd never read it before, it was essentially a new FFO book for me. But with Fatty exercising and dieting in order to get slim, a "tiresome" girl staying with him and irritating him so much that he has to keep escaping from her, and a conference of beetle enthusiasts, it sometimes felt more like a comedy sketch show than one of this great series that Enid Blyton began more than a decade earlier!

On the other hand, the idea of an escaped convict does sound like a great idea for a FFO book. However, it does seem a little bit ridiculous that Chief Inspector Jenks would involve Fatty from the outset. It's one thing to inadvertently stumble across a mystery at the local fair. It's another for a senior police officer to tell a teenage boy who fancies himself as a detective to look out for a violent fugitive and hope he doesn't put himself in any danger!

Also, what was Fatty's problem with Eunice? She was perhaps in-your-face, but she didn't seem like a horrible person. The way they shunned her was a bit like the way the Secret Seven treated Susie. The main difference is that Fatty is supposed to be far more rational than Peter! He comes across as a bit unlikeable here.

As it happens, my next book is The Mystery Of The Burnt Cottage. It wasn't my first read FFO, but I'd say it's one of my favourites. It's quite a complex plot, and yet at the same time easy for a young child to understand.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

Another great review -thanks Stephen.

Image
Eunice - Other dreamboats are available.. :wink:
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

Why is the bloke on the left carrying a miniature TARDIS? :shock: :P
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

Shanku wrote:The Mystery of Holly Lane. Fatty has just had the last laugh as Mr. Goon opens his shed door to find his own black cat instead of Buster!

I am going through all the Mystery series - Old Clear Orf and Fatty's rivalry is now quite repetitive and finding myself skipping pages. :roll:
Ooh no, Fatty and Clear Orf's spats are one of the best things about the FO books! :D
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by IceMaiden »

Courtenay wrote:
pete9012S wrote: Image
Why is the bloke on the left carrying a miniature TARDIS? :shock: :P
Great minds Courtenay, I was just thinking the same thing myself :mrgreen:
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I'm just an old fashioned girl with an old fashioned mind
Not sophisticated, I'm the sweet and simple kind
I want an old fashioned house, with an old fashioned fence
And A̶n̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶s̶h̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶a̶i̶r̶e̶
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Shanku
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Shanku »

Another one in the TMOT Strange Messages: When inquiring with Mrs. Trotteville if she knew of a Mr. Smith at Barton Grange, she confirms to Fatty that she has lived in Peterswood for 19 years.

I thought the Trotteville family moved there at the beginning of Burnt Cottage. It has certainly not been 19 years since.

Am I missing something?
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Daisy »

No, that is another anomaly. I suppose Enid had forgotten about having made Fatty a newcomer to begin with.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I remember puzzling over the "nineteen years" statement as a child and then shrugging my shoulders and accepting it must be a mistake, as Fatty clearly wasn't meant to be in his thirties in The Mystery of the Strange Messages! :shock:
Stephen wrote:I've finished The Mystery Of The Missing Man. I WANTED to like it but couldn't really get into it. Bearing in mind I'd never read it before, it was essentially a new FFO book for me. But with Fatty exercising and dieting in order to get slim, a "tiresome" girl staying with him and irritating him so much that he has to keep escaping from her, and a conference of beetle enthusiasts, it sometimes felt more like a comedy sketch show than one of this great series that Enid Blyton began more than a decade earlier!
I must admit I enjoy the scenes with Eunice and the beetle enthusiasts. They're lively and quirky. It's alarming to think of Fatty dieting though. He wouldn't be Fatty any more if he slimmed down! :lol:

Eunice does come across as strident and overbearing but it would have been good to see the Find-Outers giving her more of a chance.

Overall, I'm fond of The Mystery of the Missing Man. It's full of colour and rather clever.

IceMaiden, I agree that The Secret of Killimooin is a wonderful book - dreamy and fairytale-like in parts, as well as truly adventurous. The story takes a bit of time to get going, but once it does it's riveting and sweeps the reader into a magnificent and mysterious world.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Its always interesting to see how we all have such different views! I really enjoy Missing Man, and in my view Eunice is, like Susie and Curious Connie, one of Enid's best characters. She leaps off the page, and is so much stronger than any other child character in the Find Outers books - stronger even than Fatty. I would have loved to see her appearing in more books. A great comic character. Enid was so good at giving us these likeable aggravating characters. I'd rather have had less Ern Goon and more Eunice. :D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Nigel D »

Five Are Together Again. It’s a bit lame, isn’t it ? I’ve been reading comments on here and it does seem like common consensus. Shame such a wonderful series of books fizzled out. Same with Banshee Towers which, imo, is even worse.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Lenoir »

Yes the last Fives book isn't quite up to scratch.
But I like the fact that George and Timmy made one last trip to the island and so the series ended off quite nicely. Back to its beginnings in a sense, with George doing her own thing with her dog, like it was before the three cousins arrived in the first book.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

I haven't read Five Are Together Again, so can't comment, but I read Banshee Towers as a child, with no idea that it was the last FFO book Enid ever wrote (let alone that she was on a real decline by then, mentally and creatively), and I can honestly say I didn't notice anything too bad about it. It certainly wasn't and isn't the best Find-Outers book by a long shot, but it has its good points, and there are others in the series that I also find a bit patchy compared to the really strong ones. I still haven't read every single book in the series and I'm saving my re-read of Banshee Towers till last, but when I get to it I'll be interested to see if I do notice a big decline in quality compared to the rest. As I said, I've never thought it was a brilliant book, but it definitely has its moments.

Mind you, my read-through of the entire series is still stuck on Invisible Thief, which I did find a massive let-down the first time I read it a few years ago and haven't yet been able to bring myself to pick it up again! I must get on with it and see what I think the second time — I might be a bit more forgiving. :wink:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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