I think Enid probably wasn’t the mother Imogen needed & Imogen may later not have been best suited for boarding life. In my opinion & experience, full boarding only truly suits a surprisingly small number. This doesn’t mean Enid was necessarily a bad mother. She was very much of her time &am...

Pete, thank you for posting the 'which of my characters are real' article, had never seen before and a treat!

Yes, I married Bill Smugs and my job has sprung from my passion for all the Blyton mysteries/adventures I have ever absorbed .

Perhaps he was indeed working with the intelligence services! They were around...

I remember reading in 'A Child at Green Hedges' (I think)? that the River Thames burst its banks and flooded Old Thatch in 1949? I was reminded due to similar flooding know and wondered whether it wasn't as uncommon in the past as some suggest? Or if this was unusual etc? I think I read that water c...

Many gentleman born in the early 1900s cultivated a pipe I think it was very fashionable at one point. Certainly I remember my grandfather smoking his pipe every evening - sometimes the yellow smoke filled the room and I could hardly breathe but happy memories nonetheless

Thank you Kate, I think I would be willing to pay handsomely for either copy - I so want to share books like this with my children Why have they not been immortalised? Why do class teachers read Captain Underpants or Horrid Henry when they could be reading Caterpillar Hall...I could go on... :) Off ...

I wish we could like posts as I'd like several here - especially Anita's. As for the vocabulary not being ambitious who could forget 'a fusillade of barks' or something like that. I don't think I've ever seen another writer use 'fusillade' and I am quite widely read. I think if any primary child use...

Fascinating, Bavers. Thanks so much for posting and I don't doubt that many here will be intrigued by this. Very sad though too. No doubt all involved suffered.

I agree, Anita, really interesting.

I think Mary is a bit like Ann - a sort of safe, traditional default sort of middle name for the time? It's possible not much thought went into it.

Imogen now is quite popular definitely a top 100 girls name I think.

When Marnie Was There is a book that makes me cry every time I read it. Not that it's sad just exactly as Anita describes and it pulls at my heartstrings & makes me weep. My daughter was very amused! I am reading The Thorny Paradise - Writers on Writing for Children (while I remember as a bit of...

One of my favourites too, Anita. I would love to try to bring some of these to the attention of children at primary school as books like Marnie are life enriching gems. (I made the comment re: family history on the blog - for me all seemed plausible but perhaps I am a bit blinkered when it comes to ...

This is an outstanding blog highlighting so many forgotten treasures. I have just read Jessamy below, great read. Love the idea of the cupboard and tree being key symbols and facilitators of the magic and time travel. http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.sg/2009/03/jessamy-for-timeslip-tuesday.html&quo...

Imogen wasn't widely used I think or particularly in vogue either in the 40s or 50s or in the 70s when I was in school. There was one girl called Imogen in our school and I remember thinking her slightly mysterious and exotic. Of course now it's become much more popular. I wonder too if Enid didn't ...

Hi - I have been trying to source this book. A lady called Charlotte who has an excellent blog writes charmingly about it. By the way Charlotte's' blog is utterly brilliant and lists some absolutely wonderful children's books so many miss and so many adults wish they had read as children. She also h...