The Enid Blyton Society

It's unclear whether you're talking about the book covers or the trio in the boat, but perhaps it applies to both!

Oh, most definitely!

Another thing that I added to the Cave a few days ago were images of eight Sunny Stories for Little Folks covers. One in particular surprised me as I noticed it was by Rene Cloke. I had always thought that she had only illustrated Enid Blyton books from the late 60s onwards and I had completely forgotten that her first illustrating for Blyton was all the way back in 1931 some 35 years earlier!

Thank you for posting the Chuff the Chimney-Sweep cover, Tony.

The first Enid Blyton book I remember reading was Chuff the Chimney Sweep and Other Stories, which was first published in 1949. I must have been about six or seven at the time of first reading it. I still own a very tatty, precious copy minus the dustwrapper!

What a fantastic two penneth-worth!

Superb illustrations. Old scruffy childhood books are always the most valued. I'm sure yours is too Eddie.

Tony Summerfield wrote:I had always thought that she [Rene Cloke] had only illustrated Enid Blyton books from the late 60s onwards and I had completely forgotten that her first illustrating for Blyton was all the way back in 1931...

Incredible! Rene Cloke was a hugely prolific illustrator and I've always admired her work. According to the Cave of Books the last Enid Blyton book she illustrated was The Sailor Doll Goes to Sea, published by Award in 1996, so she must have done the artwork before her death in 1995. That makes 64 years of association with Enid Blyton books/magazines - can any other illustrator beat that?! Rene Cloke is one of my favourite Blyton illustrators, along with Stuart Tresilian and Grace Lodge. There's some information about her on the March House Books website:

http://www.marchhousebooks.com/?page=sh ... page_Cloke" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Poppy wrote: Great to see all the Adventure series new covers. Some of them are not so bad, others I think are rather lazy and designed to the wrong age suitability for the books (ie: Circus in particular).

Anita Bensoussane wrote:As for the eight books in the Adventure series, the cover illustrations are wishy-washy and out of proportion, with babyish-looking characters. They're not at all impressive and completely fail to capture the thrill and grandeur of the stories. I suppose the publishers have decided that everything written by Enid Blyton is for little kids!

Moonraker wrote:I rather liked the Adventure covers, even if Valley and Castle look very similar - very green!

I saw the whole set of Adventure books with the new covers in WHSmith today, priced £5.99 each. They actually looked rather enticing lined up on the shelf as they're chunky paperbacks with pictorial spines. The cover illustrator is Rebecca Cobb, and on the title page near the front of each book is a black and white version of the cover picture, though there are no other internal illustrations. As can be seen in the Cave, each cover carries an endorsement by children's author Cressida Cowell ("'I loved this series as a child' - Cressida Cowell") and also says at the bottom, "Celebrating 70 years of Mystery and Adventure". I'm still not wild about the pictures, having seen them close to, but the books do have a nice feel to them. Mountain is the least appealing in my opinion, but I do quite like Island.

Thanks for that, Anita. I'm going to pop into WHSmiths tomorrow and take a look at them closer up! On viewing the book covers a second time on my laptop (therefore bigger) I really like the cover for The Secret Of to Lost Necklace. Such a original scene and I love the fact that it could be set in any era (nothing looks outstandingly old fashioned or modern). Having read the book before, I am now unearthing it from my bookshelf for another re-read!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Mountain is the least appealing in my opinion, but I do quite like Island.

I think it is a bit strange how on this front cover the Mountain appears to be a Volcano!

I think it is a bit strange how on this front cover the Mountain appears to be a Volcano!

Probably yet another case of an illustrator not reading, or knowing much about the story. I have just read Malcolm Saville's The Sign of the Alpine Rose, and a scene describes JD as crawling through a tunnel, clutching his stick in his left hand. The illustration shows it in his right hand!

Isn't that just the crimson smoke coming out of the top of the mountain?

Yes, I thought that too, but for anyone picking up the book for the first time: it would have been confusing that the title suggested a mountain location and what looks like a picture of a volcano is on the front cover!

I went into Waterstones today to take a look at the books. They only had 'Island' and 'Castle' and seeing them up close, I really like the backgrounds: they are very detailed in a unique and interesting way. But then looking at the characters: they look as if they were about five! They are also drawn in a very weird style, but that is my only criticism. I also love the nice format of the book and I think overall, the new books are a very welcoming introduction for new readers, to the Adventure series.

Poppy wrote:Yes, I thought that too, but for anyone picking up the book for the first time: it would have been confusing that the title suggested a mountain location and what looks like a picture of a volcano is on the front cover!

I see what you mean - I agree that someone with no idea of the story would assume it was a volcano.

Yes, I am sure Anita is correct. But anyone not knowing the story would surely assume it was a volcano.

To me it looks more like someone has lit a fire on top of the mountain.

It definitely looks like The Volcano of Adventure to me.