Six Boys Marooned on Island for Fifteen Months

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was fascinated by this article in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/ ... 1589017302" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems that Enid Blyton's positive and life-affirming The Secret Island is rather more realistic than William Golding's negative and brutal Lord of the Flies!

[Daisy]

What an interesting article Anita. I read Lord of the Flies when in my teens - some years after first reading Secret Island. It is good to read of a real life example with a very different outcome from that of William Golding's imagination.

[Fiona1986]

I read that yesterday and immediately thought of the recent discussions here about how realistic The Secret Island was.

[Lucky Star]

A fascinating and heartwarming story. It does show that Enid Blyton's The Secret Island is not as far fetched as we may think. I have no doubt the four would have survived on the island through winter if they'd had to. I enjoyed Lord of the Flies when reading it but have never had any urge to re-read it unlike the thirty or so times I must have read Blyton's book. So I am glad to see that it is Enid who was the more realistic author.

[Courtenay]

That's fantastic, Anita! What an amazing story! And yes, it's heartening to know that Lord of the Flies isn't necessarily the default setting for human nature after all... (I must admit I haven't read it, but my sister studied it for English class and I decided it sounded far too depressing and pessimistic.) So Enid WAS more right than we all realised!

I wonder if the original footage from the Channel 7 production still exists? The article doesn't seem to say either way. It'd be fascinating to watch — and a really good subject for a modern-day documentary or film, too!