The Enid Blyton Society

The first Enid Blyton books published in Armada were the two Adventurous Four books, the Naughtiest Girl books and the Mr Galliano circus series. Then they started on the St Clare, Mallory Towers and Five Find Outer books.
There is a marvellous website run by John Allsup called The Armada Paperbacks Website which has the covers for all these and all the other authors they published including Malcolm Saville and Frank Richards. Our very own Tony provided some of the covers for John to update his site.
John can often be found at book fairs in the North mostly with a cup of coffee in his hand. He is a charming man despite suffering with ill-health recently.

I presume that, like Banshee Towers, this marked the moment when those other Enid Blyton books mentioned went into paperback and were also never reprinted as hardbacks ever again - (apart from as Dean books, but not in the original wrappers etc) - but Banshee Towers was unique in this, because it is the only book in a major series never to be reprinted in hardback with wrapper (as far as I know - probably I'm wrong!)

This is why books like Galliano's Circus, Adventurous Four, Hollow Tree House, Naughtiest Girl, etc, are harder to find in hardback with wrappers, as they ceased to be printed in hardback in the early 1960's, whilst other series continued to be published in their original form for a decade after.

All the other series, such as Famous Five, Adventure, Secret Seven, Barney Books, continued to be printed in hardback versions for quite a few years after this. Even Five Are Together Again and Fun For The Secret Seven appear in hardback with dust wrappers for several imprints before the paperback versions arrived in the 1970's.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks Rob.

John Pickup wrote: There is a marvellous website run by John Allsup called The Armada Paperbacks Website which has the covers for all these and all the other authors they published including Malcolm Saville and Frank Richards. Our very own Tony provided some of the covers for John to update his site.

Thanks for that info John. I like Ian Regan's site too:

http://seriesbookart.co.uk/blyton/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Two very interesting websites, John and Pete.

When I clicked on the 'Return to Main Index' link on the Ian Reagan site, all I got was a symbol of a man digging on a red and black background. Very puzzling! Can anyone explain this?

pete9012S wrote:

sixret wrote:My copies of the first eight Famous Five books with white spine djs. They are not first edition although I have those titles in first edition without djs. I also have later printing of H&S illustrated spine djs.

Scroll down and you'll see my copy of Secret Island with dj(ultra scarce online). It is 1947 edition although I have a copy of first edition without dj.

https://imgur.com/gallery/uEQjC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enid-Blyton-T ... 7675.l2557" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The other 4 titles in Secret series in djs. They are not first edition although I have the copies of the first editions without djs.

https://imgur.com/gallery/PuCIi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lovely collection Sixret.Thank you for posting. I don't own any 'white spine' five's.I don't know whether to try and collect them all or not as they clash with my uniform 1950's onwards editions..

Very nice and excellent collection, Pete! From what I can see, all of them are wrapped with protective sleeve? That's the plus point.

I have to replace one or two titles in in my FF collection because their dust jackets are not in good condition(mostly wrinkled) like yours.

Yes,it's been like that for a long time for me too Eddie - I always have to go into the site using the link I posted above.

Moonraker wrote:

sixret wrote:My copy of Banshee Tower. Only £42. I already have it first edition but without dj.

Am I correct in thinking that Banshee Towers was only printed once (in hardback), so is only available as a first edition. Apologies if I'm mistaken.

I have the same thought like you, Nigel. There's no reprint for Banshee Tower as far as I know. Unless Tony says otherwise.

sixret wrote: I have to replace one or two titles in in my FF collection because their dust jackets are not in good condition(mostly wrinkled) like yours.

Two or three of my books are the later Brockhampton versions and like Rob mentioned earlier,I wonder should I try and replace them with the earlier Hodder versions with coloured endpapers illustrations etc...a collector's lot is never done,sigh!

I do sometimes wonder why the spines of the last four books changed colour from all the others too???

I love the Armada covers published in 1960s. They are beautiful so I have been collecting them(EB titles only). One title is still elude me i.e. Upper Fourth at Malory Towers. Until today, the book has been non-existent online.

Exactly, Pete. I have wondered the same thing. Only Tony could supply the answer to that. The change of colours is a nightmare to collectors who love uniformity.

pete9012S wrote:Yes,it's been like that for a long time for me too Eddie - I always have to go into the site using the link I posted above.

Thanks for your reply, Pete.

Regarding the spines,the USA versions seem even less uniform:

http://www.blytonbooks.co.uk/category/f ... rdd&page=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How many Five's were released in the USA out of the twenty one?

pete9012S wrote:

sixret wrote: I have to replace one or two titles in in my FF collection because their dust jackets are not in good condition(mostly wrinkled) like yours.

Two or three of my books are the later Brockhampton versions and like Rob mentioned earlier,I wonder should I try and replace them with the earlier Hodder versions with coloured endpapers illustrations etc...a collector's lot is never done,sigh!

I do sometimes wonder why the spines of the last four books changed colour from all the others too???

I always view the Brockhampton versions as being very second-rate! I'm still replacing a couple of mine with only black and white illustrations - because the added colour makes a big difference in my view - and also the printing of the illustrations is a lot clearer.

I've always wondered why the last four have different coloured spines, as well, Pete - annoying! It wouldn't have been so bad if every other book had a blue spine, so they looked better on the shelf!

I see that the seller has relisted the book - but as far as I can see hasn't made any changes whatsoever.

I rest my case!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Five-On-Treas ... SwC9VZfTXy

Incidentally, I just found another case of stretching the term "first edition" a little too far: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JANE-AUSTEN-1 ... 2458447594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone who knows anything about Jane Austen knows that the first edition of Northanger Abbey was published in 1817, not 1833... when you scroll down, it turns out this is merely the first edition to be published as a single volume. Or in other words, another case of "First Edition Thus".