The Enid Blyton Society

Being a new member to the site, and not having contributed much of anything, I'm a little wary of making a suggestion so soon. But having made such great use of the book listing in my purchases (my great thanks to the person who has put so much time and effort into that), I was thinking that perhaps a similar listing of the various Film, TV, and radio? adaptations of Enid Blyton's work might be a good idea?

I realise that there is a forum dedicated to this, and before I read it I was only aware of the 2 Famous Five series', The 'Adventure' series made in New Zealand, and The Castle of Adventure adaptation with Gareth Hunt as Bill Cunningham, and of course, Noddy, now I find that there have been more of the books televised, and a handy list might help those who would also like to collect the television and film adaptations of her work.

If I'm speaking out of turn, or this has already been discussed to death, please feel free to give me a sharp rap on my beak...

You're certainly not speaking out of turn Nearby. All sensible suggestions are welcomed here and I'm sure Tony Summerfield the society organiser, who compiles the book listing, will be pleased to hear that you found it useful. He seems to have his hands full at the moment scanning in literally thousands of images of illustrations and covers but your idea is a good one and a definitive list of what is available on video/DVD would be a good thing to have.

You are not speaking out of turn at all Steve, and welcome to the Society. The eventual aim of the Website is to cover as thoroughly as possible anything to do with Enid Blyton. A Film/TV/Stage section is something that we have always intended to do, but the problem is we have to do it from scratch. At the moment I am spending my time trying to improve the Book and Magazine sections. There is still plenty to do here and as the foundations are firmly in place it is much easier to work on this than to start something new.

It will happen eventually when time allows and don't go and wrap sellotape around your beak, we really do welcome any suggestions for improvement - the site is still a work in progress.

I'm glad to hear it's in the works in due course Tony (and not a silly idea).

Due to the enormous scope of Enid Blyton's works, what has already been accomplished in the book listing section, with all the cover scans, the various reprints etc must have been astronomical feat alone.

PS: I have just seen a small portion of your own collection in a picture elsewhere on the site, including the Anthony Buckeridge books which I also collect. It isn't seemly for an adult to be jealous but...

Speaking of Buckeridge, it's rather strange that (price wise), collecting them seems to be the exact opposite of collecting Blyton with the earlier edition's going for quite reasonable prices and the latter editions becoming more expensive. Perhaps a decline in the author's popularity meant that fewer were published and sold making them rarer.

But I digress, many thanks for the replies.

A lot of digressing goes on in these forums, it is one of the charms. Yes, I am lucky with my Jennings books as I have 1st editions of all of them and also because Anthony Buckeridge was kind enough to sign them all.

It is actually quite a common trend with children's books that have long series, that the expensive ones are at the beginning and end. Typical examples are with William, where William the Lawless fetches astronomical prices and the same could be said about the Biggles books where some of the latest ones fetch a high price. I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about the smaller print runs as the series start to decline in popularity.

Fortunately most Jennings books are still affordable - buy them whilst you can!

Tony, I've just scanned the VHS insert for the 1990 dramtisation of The Castle of Adventure, so that I can use the artwork for a DVD cover, when I eventually get my tape converted to that format.

Noticing this topic, I thought I would offer you the use of these two scans for any putative Society TV listing project:

May I add that Rosie Marcel has certainly matured, hasn't she?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb9C_BaioTQ" target="_blank

Thanks for that, Ian, but a Film section is probably still some way down the line.

Yes, Rosie Marcel has most certainly matured, but she is still easily recognisable as the same person, which is not always the case with child actors.

Tony Summerfield wrote:
Yes, Rosie Marcel has most certainly matured, but she is still easily recognisable as the same person, which is not always the case with child actors.

Same with Jemima Rooper!