Teachers World Letters, Jan 1930 - July 1934

[Tony Summerfield]

George V - hint!!

[Courtenay]

Bognor!!

[Tony Summerfield]

Correct - pretty good for an Australian to get that!!

[Courtenay]

I've been here long enough to pick up on a fair few of the historical stories and in-jokes.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I loved being whisked off to the beach by Enid's evocative words. I can almost feel the sand between my toes!

'The Great Big Wave' (which I've got in a poetry book) is a delightful poem with its strong rhythm and rhyme scheme.

A great photo of the Pug Pups badge, Tony. Have we got anywhere on the website where all the badges could be displayed (Sunbeams, Busy Bees, etc.)?

[Anita Bensoussane]

On 31st August Kate Mary wrote:

Interesting to see the first publication of Round the Year with Enid Blyton began in this issue. I think I'll dust off my copy and read the chapters in the book as they appear weekly in the TW.

Sorry to backtrack, but I had a feeling Barbara Stoney said something about that in her biography of Enid Blyton and I've only just had time to check. Barbara gives us some interesting information about the Teachers World column and about gardener Dick Hughes:

Her other work for Teachers World at that time provided another source of material for book publication... by far the most popular was her 'weekly course of seasonal nature study' - Round the Year with Enid Blyton.

This course of forty-eight lessons covered every conceivable facet of nature study from such things as weather observation to pond and insect life. Pupils were shown how to plant bulbs, stock aquaria, make school gardens and bird-tables and each lesson ended with Things to Do, Things to Write, Questions to Answer, Things to Find Out or Things to Learn. Throughout, Enid used some of the imaginative teaching methods that she had once applied to her own classes at Southernhay and the series, which was followed by children in classrooms all over the country and overseas, proved a resounding success. The editor received glowing letters from teachers, including one from a headmaster in Loughborough, who declared the course had been 'quite the most practical and finest' he had yet encountered throughout many years of teaching.

He went on to pay tribute to Enid's weekly page and wrote of revisiting a rural school in the east of England, which had long been a by-word for the poor quality of its work - due, he explained, to the extreme poverty of the surrounding area and the lack of interest and discipline among its pupils. This school had now undergone a 'miraculous change', brought about almost entirely through the regular reading of Enid's columns. All her suggestions had been followed through and the pupils now had their own flower garden, planted with the thirty-two different blooms she had recommended, a bird-table had been installed and a well-cared-for aquarium now stood in the classroom. The whole atmosphere among the pupils, claimed the headmaster, had been changed to 'one of happiness and an interested awareness of the things around them.'

...Many children living in industrial towns enjoyed a vicarious pleasure, through her pages, in the delights of rural life...

...When she started a vivarium, during her writing of the Round the Year nature series, she enlisted the help of Dick Hughes, her young gardener, in hunting for the necessary frogs, toads and other small garden creatures. So carried away was he by her knowledge and enthusiasm that he soon began to take a fresh interest in the bird, animal and plant life around him and before long he was keeping, at her suggestion, a daily record of his observations. These he would periodically pass over to her for comment and her further encouragement led him into taking a diploma course in botany and zoology at his local technical college. But Enid also benefited from his studies for, together with his daily jottings, they provided her with many ideas for regular features and for her new monthly Country Letter, which appeared during the twelve months of 1935 in The Nature Lover magazine.

[Courtenay]

That's fascinating, Anita — thanks! Interesting to know that Enid had a monthly "Country Letter" in a nature magazine for a year as well. She certainly was busy even in the 1930s before she wrote most of her best-known books! It's also lovely to hear how her enthusiasm inspired her gardener as well as countless schoolchildren.

[Tony Summerfield]

There are plenty of goodies sitting in the Cave just waiting to be discovered. Here is a September letter for you from the nature magazine that you mention.

http://enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyton-p ... &perid=558" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[floragord]

Bognor!!

Don't seem to recall George V had anything nice to say about it............

[Anita Bensoussane]

What a beautiful description of summer turning into autumn in The Nature Lover. My daughter and I saw two Red Admirals when we were out this afternoon.

I very much like the William Cowper quotation. Part of the beauty of nature is that the plants, birdlife, light, colours, weather, etc. are constantly changing.

The white triangle at the top left, with the photo of Dr. Cyril Norwood, spoils the look of the cover in my opinion!

[Kate Mary]

I read all 21 articles from The Nature Lover Magazine a couple of years ago or so but its nice to be reminded of them again, they are delightful. Did Enid do the sketch of Old Thatch at the head of each letter? It looks like her style.

[Anita Bensoussane]

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=1023" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Enid Blyton is getting around, taking trips from Bognor Regis to Portsmouth and Brighton. I haven't seen them myself, but it's still possible to see HMS Victory and an early 20th century warship at Portsmouth - and to visit the aquarium/Sea Life Centre in Brighton.

[Katharine]

I enjoyed Enid's letter this week. I find it so strange that such a 'celebrity' as Enid should be talking so enthusiastically about a UK seaside holiday. How times change, I find it so sad when I see famous people on TV taking a trip back to a seaside resort where they spent childhood holidays and talking about it as if it was such a 'quaint' experience that thankfully they've moved on from. Even people I know personally don't class a UK holiday as a holiday as such. Several times I've asked people if they are having a holiday this year, only to hear them say something like 'no we're not having one this year, just going to Cornwall for a week'. Cornwall is a good 7 hour drive from here, so not like popping 2 miles along the road to the local beach!

I especially enjoyed her mentioned HMS Victory - my brother-in-law gave guided tours there for a while, so I've been on a couple of times. I was surprised to see Enid mention modern warships (probably very old-fashioned now), and their torpedoes. I haven't noticed her talking about weapons of war and man-made structures very much. Normally she seems to concentrate on nature. She also mentioned a soldier's helmet too. It struck me that such things must have been of interest to children at the time, and yet it was another 7 years before the next war, and too far from the last war for the children to remember.

I had to smile a little at her suggestion that children might be able to find a picture of the Victory in their history books, and how she wished she could show them what a sea-horse looks like. With the power of TV and the internet, such things would be easy for today's children to find out about.

[Kate Mary]

A belated comment on the latest letter having been away on a short break I'm catching up. Interesting to read about Enid's visit to HMS Victory, I've been on her several times but lately they have stripped out anything (including exit signs!) that wasn't there in Nelson's day. She seems a bit desolate now. At the time of Enid's visit Victory had only been in dry dock for ten years and we also had another Trafalgar veteran HMS Implacable, now sadly lost. The Navy decided she would cost too much to restore so they scuttled her in 1949. An act of vandalism in my opinion.

[Kate Mary]

Enid is back at Old Thatch and all's right with the world, at least the animals think so, Bobs even launches into poetry in his letter this week. Gillian Mary is starting to walk and this weeks poem is a particularly lovely one.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=1024" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;