The Enid Blyton Society

Really beautiful book covers, Tony — thanks for putting them up. More fuel for those of us who like to gripe that most modern Blyton covers are lacking in artistic merit by comparison!!

I don't normally say anything when I add items to the Audio section of the Cave as there isn't a great deal of interest in it, but as I had been told that this book/cassette was never actually published I thought I would show an image of it to prove that it actually exists!



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Great cover apart from the WH Smith badge and the diagonal ribbon in the bottom right corner. Surely those could have been put on the back. And is that a telephone handset that the bird seems to be carrying? But a great addition to the already bulging Cave.

I agree - a lovey cover design - but I've never been a fan of those red 'slashes' across the corner that seemed to be a normal part of packaging/book covers in the 1980s!

Lucky Star wrote:Great cover apart from the WH Smith badge and the diagonal ribbon in the bottom right corner. Surely those could have been put on the back.

I agree that the badge and ribbon intrude on the cheerful, attractive cover.

Lucky Star wrote:And is that a telephone handset that the bird seems to be carrying?

Isn't that just the holes of the cassette?

Lucky Star wrote:And is that a telephone handset that the bird seems to be carrying?

That is the actual cassette, John!

That's an interesting tape. I shall keep an eye out for it to add to my expanding collection of tapes. Might even get around to listening to them all one day.

Tony Summerfield wrote:

Lucky Star wrote:And is that a telephone handset that the bird seems to be carrying?

That is the actual cassette, John!

Who told you it was never published, Tony? Sounds like there's an intriguing story here... "The Audiobook that Never Was"??

This came from a discussion I had with Georgina Hargreaves, Courtenay. She produced the illustrations for The Magic Faraway Tree and The Folk of the Faraway Tree and thought that they were also going to want illustrations for The Enchanted Wood and Adventures of the Wishing Chair, but she was told that they weren't wanted after all. These are not just cover illustrations as they are also books with 16 illustrated pages each.

It looks as if whoever illustrated this book copied Georgina's style closely and the bird on the front cover is identical to the one in her book as anybody who has the book will see. I must assume now that The Enchanted Wood was also done, possibly by Anne Grahame-Johnstone who did the original book. Although she is now dead she was still alive in 1986 and she wrote about the illustrating of this book in one of our earlier Journals.

That's interesting, Tony! I wonder if Georgina Hargreaves could identify this cover illustration as being hers or as being a copy? It seems that anyone could copy her illustrations (from what she has told me) as she sold them all outright and never gets any royalties even when her books are reprinted!

Those who have not got a copy of Journal 46 might be interested in seeing copies of Georgina's 'roughs' for the two books that she was not asked to do.

They both look great, and I bet they'd have looked amazing in their final versions. I particularly like the Wishing Chair design, which is 100 times better than the one they finally used! I'm quite friendly with Georgina on facebook and I was really amazed that publishers often republish her work without any payment. I naively thought she would have retained the copyright. I'm a big fan of her work, although most of it appeared a few years after I had 'moved on' from the Wishing Chair and Faraway Tree. I did discover I had a Barnaby the Bear book from 1974 illustrated by her though!

It looks as if the Famous Five are being republished in May next year with new covers. At present there is just the first one for you to admire!

Tony Summerfield wrote:At present there is just the first one for you to admire!

Has the word 'admire' changed its meaning recently?

Oh dear...The Fiendish Five.

And to make it even more PC someone now wears glasses?