Teachers World Letters, Jan 1930 - July 1934

[Daisy]

Could be that Julie. We will probably never know! I say "probably" because sometimes new bits of information do surface.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I thought the same as you, Julie. It's rather a sweet letter, conveying the excitement of a new baby but also hinting at adjustments which have had to be made in the household.

[John Pickup]

I like Enid's description of her new baby but I was surprised that she introduced her as a pet. Maybe she did want to keep her readers guessing.

[Courtenay]

I thought it was a bit odd for Enid to use the term "pet" as well, but as others have said, maybe it was part of surprising her readers. Also, from the way she writes, it sounds like it must have been considered inappropriate for an adult to talk to young children about having a baby, in the sense of giving birth to one - she says "a baby has come to live with me" instead. Quite possibly she was trying to find the best way around the acceptable language/topics of her time, and talking of "a lovely new pet" was what she decided on as most appropriate, strange though it is.

Anyway, it's a very sweet letter - I love the description of poor Bimbo wanting to comfort the baby. As a Siamese cat, with a miaow that sounds like a human baby's cry, perhaps he thought she was another cat in distress! My parents had a half Siamese cat (with the same sort of miaow) when my older sister and later I were babies, and I believe he always came running when he heard us crying as well.

I hope Bobs indeed didn't feel left out and that he managed to perfect his "very soft bark"! I'm looking forward to seeing a picture of baby Gillian too.

[Anita Bensoussane]

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Sad news about Patabang this week, but Enid Blyton also shares cheerful snippets of news about Gillian, the goldfish, the pigeons and the silver paper collection. The photo of Darling and Blossom is lovely too. Young readers would no doubt have felt upset on hearing about Patabang but would have seen that other things have to carry on, even during times of anxiety and sorrow. I hope Enid and Bobs are able to bring us happier news next week.

[Courtenay]

Poor Patabang! I hope there is good news about her next week. I enjoyed the other snippets of news too, though, and the photo of Darling and Blossom.

When Enid suggested that Patabang might have been stolen, I couldn't help thinking of The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat, which she wrote more than a decade later. Perhaps this incident planted the seed, as it were? I was amused, on reading Disappearing Cat for the first time recently, to see Fatty mentioning that his auntie (I think it was?) once had a Siamese cat called Patabang...

[Kate Mary]

I got a bit muddled due to the bank holiday and thought yesterday was Tuesday so I'm a day late reading this week's letter. Such sad news about Patabang but I'm sure she turns up again. I too thought of The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat, things that happened in Enid's life sometimes surfaced again in her fiction. Super photo of the horses and Bobs' comment that Pat is Siamese but understands English very well made me laugh out loud.

[Poppy]

Interesting selection of letters, this week - and I also thoroughly enjoyed the poem: Poppy Pepper-Pots! Some gorgeous description there. Really sad news about poor Patabang, though I do really hope that Enid had happier news for us about her in next week's letter.

On a happier note, it is lovely to be updated, concerning Enid Blyton's other pets. How nice to have little baby fish and to have watched two baby pigeons grow up! And the picture of Darling and Blossom is beautiful!

[Courtenay]

Oh yes, that reminds me, Poppy — I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the poppy pepper-pots as well! Enid reused the same idea some years later in one of her Adventures of Pip stories, "A Poppy Present", in which Pip the pixie helps to take the tight caps off the poppy buds and, in return, the poppy plant gives him a "poppy-seed-shaker" to replace Aunt Twinkle's sugar-shaker, which Pip had accidentally broken. Another one of those imaginative little snippets that easily sticks in a child's memory — I wouldn't have known what poppy seed heads are like if it wasn't for Enid's stories.

[Poppy]

Ooh yes, that's a lovely story!

[Anita Bensoussane]

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A joyful letter this time, apart from Bimbo being in disgrace! Enid is lucky to have a moorhen in her garden, if that's what she means by "water-hen".

It took me quite some time to work out the riddle!

[Courtenay]

I don't have time for the riddle right now, but will look at it later — please don't give it away, anyone!

The "water-hen" does sound like a moorhen from Enid's description. And what good news that Patabang came back! I suppose no-one would ever have known if she really had been stolen, or what else might have happened to her, but I can imagine everyone's relief and delight to have her safely home again. Poor old greedy Bimbo, too — nice photo of him, though.

[Moonraker]

Water-hen is another name for a moorhen.

I rather think Patabang probably got locked in someone's shed! As for the riddle, I won't bother!

[Julie2owlsdene]

I see it reads - My ninth is in whip (which we don't often get). I thought I sincerely hope that none of the animals got the whip!

Unless I'm looking into something which isn't there!

[Courtenay]

Oh, that took me a while with the riddle (I had to write it out with all the possible letters for each position), but then I suddenly got it! Not very easy at all, considering many of the clues had four or more possible letters...

I won't give it away, but does the line "My whole, if you look at this page, you will see" mean there was a picture of [what the answer is] on the Blyton letters page every week, or is it just that the answer is somewhere in the text on the page (which it is)?

I'm also guessing Patabang more likely got shut in a shed by accident, but Enid, with her pride in owning valuable Siamese cats, was inclined to think up a more fitting story (don't forget, she gave away Patabang's own half-breed kitten in favour of buying another purebred Siamese). I also hope the animals were never whipped at all, but given that society then had different standards of "discipline" and pets usually weren't doted on as much as they often are today... Of course, the "whip" in this case might have been more like a switch — a thin, bendy stick — rather than a horsewhip or stockwhip. At least, I hope so.