60 years ago this week...
Posted: 05 Jun 2016, 18:58
Reading a few threads about Enid Blyton's magazine, as well as browsing the Cave, made me wonder what we would all be enjoying during this coming fortnight if we were able to go back in time exactly 60 years and open the June 6th - June 19th issue.
Thanks to someone's generosity last year, I have a good supply of Enid Blyton magazines, and have them all boxed in order by year, so it's easy to have a look see what this fortnight's issue would have offered, as well as looking in the cave for details, of course.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=886
The cover shows a very interesting illustration from the short story 'The Two Big Geese' - must be one of the few times an Enid Blyton father grabs someone by the throat! This is a story all about two goose eggs and the boy who looks after the goslings - which are being reared to eat at Christmas. Of course, anyone who knows anything about a good Enid Blyton story will guess the outcome, especially when they see the cover! This is yet another uncollected story, which is a great pity!
In the Letter from Green Hedges, Enid tells us all how pleased she is that everyone is enjoying the latest Famous Five serial - 'Five Go To Billycock Hill' and relates how, while she was writing the last one, 'Five On A Secret Trail', in which Timmy has to wear a cardboard collar, her dog also developed a bad ear and had to wear a cardboard collar, just like Timmy did.
Later in the magazine we would have been reading a story called 'A Tale of Shuffle, Trot and Merry' -about three 'little fellows' as Enid calls them, who have a job transporting sacks. This can be read in the later Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual of 1967 and is quite an amusing tale with a moral!
Next comes the 18th chapter of 'Three Cheers Secret Seven' - very interesting, because the illustrations are uncredited - and much better, in my opinion, than those used in the book version by Burgess Sharrocks -
Next we have a Noddy strip where Noddy drives too fast - oh dear me! But he helps Mr Tinny build a house of cards to live in as well.
Chapter 2 of Five Go To Billycock Hill would have probably made a few of us very excited, wondering what would happen in this latest Famous Five adventure. I know a few people don't rate it, but as I've always rather liked Billycock Hill, I'm sure I'd have devoured it - and been dying with suspense, having to wait a whole fortnight for the following chapter!
Enid then suggests some insects we can start looking out for - the 'Woolly Bear; caterpillar who turns into the magnificent Tiger Moth, and also look out for the Ribwort plantain whose flowers are 'so close together in brown cone-shaped heads, out of which jut the yellow stamens' Enid describes a game that can be played with this plant - 'Soldiers', first one child holding up a plantain head while another tries to strike it off with his own plantain. very violent! Surely something that would be banned in playgrounds today!
Next we have the Puzzle Page - with the Famous Five club puzzle - 'What Am I?'
"When I grow up my skin will be pale,
I'll grow four legs and lose my tail.
Live in a marshy field or bog
In fact - I'll turn into a frog!"
What an easy puzzle! And you could have won a prize!
There is also a Busy Bees puzzle - name the famous waterway -- Pa.a.a Ca.a.
Next we have another uncollected story - 'Colin The Cowboy' -- although I'm sure there are other stories called this. Colin is laughed at for always playing at cowboys and lassoing things - but then he saves a farmer's lamb from a gully...
Next comes the letter page - with a letter from a child in South Africa who has watched the swallows depart. Enid suggests maybe they have flown to Britain and have landed in her home town, for there are many swallows flying high in the skies now.
And that's about it for this fortnight! On the back of the magazine, all set for summer, we could send away for a 'home paddle pool' or maybe an inflatable air bed, inflatable pillow/bag or a windcheater - all made by Aquatex. The Paddle Pool cost 35 shillings - cheap at half the price!
Thanks to someone's generosity last year, I have a good supply of Enid Blyton magazines, and have them all boxed in order by year, so it's easy to have a look see what this fortnight's issue would have offered, as well as looking in the cave for details, of course.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=886
The cover shows a very interesting illustration from the short story 'The Two Big Geese' - must be one of the few times an Enid Blyton father grabs someone by the throat! This is a story all about two goose eggs and the boy who looks after the goslings - which are being reared to eat at Christmas. Of course, anyone who knows anything about a good Enid Blyton story will guess the outcome, especially when they see the cover! This is yet another uncollected story, which is a great pity!
In the Letter from Green Hedges, Enid tells us all how pleased she is that everyone is enjoying the latest Famous Five serial - 'Five Go To Billycock Hill' and relates how, while she was writing the last one, 'Five On A Secret Trail', in which Timmy has to wear a cardboard collar, her dog also developed a bad ear and had to wear a cardboard collar, just like Timmy did.
Later in the magazine we would have been reading a story called 'A Tale of Shuffle, Trot and Merry' -about three 'little fellows' as Enid calls them, who have a job transporting sacks. This can be read in the later Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual of 1967 and is quite an amusing tale with a moral!
Next comes the 18th chapter of 'Three Cheers Secret Seven' - very interesting, because the illustrations are uncredited - and much better, in my opinion, than those used in the book version by Burgess Sharrocks -
Next we have a Noddy strip where Noddy drives too fast - oh dear me! But he helps Mr Tinny build a house of cards to live in as well.
Chapter 2 of Five Go To Billycock Hill would have probably made a few of us very excited, wondering what would happen in this latest Famous Five adventure. I know a few people don't rate it, but as I've always rather liked Billycock Hill, I'm sure I'd have devoured it - and been dying with suspense, having to wait a whole fortnight for the following chapter!
Enid then suggests some insects we can start looking out for - the 'Woolly Bear; caterpillar who turns into the magnificent Tiger Moth, and also look out for the Ribwort plantain whose flowers are 'so close together in brown cone-shaped heads, out of which jut the yellow stamens' Enid describes a game that can be played with this plant - 'Soldiers', first one child holding up a plantain head while another tries to strike it off with his own plantain. very violent! Surely something that would be banned in playgrounds today!
Next we have the Puzzle Page - with the Famous Five club puzzle - 'What Am I?'
"When I grow up my skin will be pale,
I'll grow four legs and lose my tail.
Live in a marshy field or bog
In fact - I'll turn into a frog!"
What an easy puzzle! And you could have won a prize!
There is also a Busy Bees puzzle - name the famous waterway -- Pa.a.a Ca.a.
Next we have another uncollected story - 'Colin The Cowboy' -- although I'm sure there are other stories called this. Colin is laughed at for always playing at cowboys and lassoing things - but then he saves a farmer's lamb from a gully...
Next comes the letter page - with a letter from a child in South Africa who has watched the swallows depart. Enid suggests maybe they have flown to Britain and have landed in her home town, for there are many swallows flying high in the skies now.
And that's about it for this fortnight! On the back of the magazine, all set for summer, we could send away for a 'home paddle pool' or maybe an inflatable air bed, inflatable pillow/bag or a windcheater - all made by Aquatex. The Paddle Pool cost 35 shillings - cheap at half the price!