The Enid Blyton Society

Ah, okay - I'm with you now!

Concerning my earlier comment about the burning cottage, reading the description of the burning 'cottage', the building on the back of the cover fits the bill exactly.

maybe as a child I was unusual, but I dont think this cover, or the one eventually chosen, would have particularly attracted me. I remember when I bought my hardback copy of 'The Riloby Fair Mystery' at a school jumble sale aged 12, it was the fact it had the original dust wrapper that attracted me - I loved the old-fashioned look of it. I hate the way the modern covers for most of the various EB series seem to emphasise the comical quirky childish aspects of the books, whereas as a child I always very much went for covers that looked dramatic and 'grown up'. I probably wouldnt have read these stories, because despite the saying, people DO judge a book by it's cover, and I would have imagined these stories were aimed at 'little kids' rather than older children.