60 years ago this week...

Discuss Blyton's magazines, short stories and poetry here.
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Rob Houghton
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60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

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! :shock: 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! :-D This is yet another uncollected story, which is a great pity!

Image

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 -

Image

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! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by pete9012S »

What a good idea to read the magazine that matches this time of year Rob!

I enjoyed your overview of the magazine.It read like a well researched Journal article.In fact I think you could write a very good article on The Enid Blyton Magazines for The Journal if Tony wanted one?
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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

Thank you Pete! I thought it was a good excuse to look through all my EB Magazines. :-D

I agree, an article for The Journal about the magazines might be interesting...a good idea for future Journals!

I got the idea of this from the Teacher's World weekly postings...and maybe I will continue with the next EB Magazine in a fortnight's time...if I remember! :lol:
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It's interesting to look at what Enid Blyton was offering up 60 years ago.
Rob Houghton wrote: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!
I'd have been very impatient too!
Rob Houghton wrote: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.
I love the way Enid Blyton makes links between her life and the lives of her readers, however far away they are.
Rob Houghton wrote: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.
Ooh - I'll have the "home paddle pool", please! :)
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

Not sure how many are looking at this, lol - but just for fun I thought I'd continue it another issue or so. :-D

Enid Blyton's Magazine for 20 June - 3 July would have arrived sometime this week - and I'm sure most of us would have read it by evening! ;-)

Image

The cover shows an illustration from the short story 'That Horrid Horrid Joe' - a story all about a (supposedly) horrid boy and the girl who hates him - only to find out she may have misjudged him - another 'uncollected' short story which is nicely written, and has some lovely high-quality illustrations by Anne Read.

Enid writes in her editorial about how by the time we are reading this magazine, she will be away by the sea. She describes the birds that come down to her little round pond in the garden, including blue tits, a fat wood-pigeon who 'waddles like a duck' and a 'beautiful jay - 'but the gardener doesn't like him because he steals our peas!'

Enid talks of how the Magazine Club now has over 93,000 members and will soon reach 100,000, and how much good the members are doing with sending cards and gifts and donations to the 'Centre for Spastic Children' in Chelsea. It seems odd to hear Enid writing about the two prams that have been purchased 'for our girl-spastics to push' - the term 'spastics' seems so outdated in 2016!

She speaks of how the Secret Seven serial is coming to an end, and how many children have asked for a Secret Seven Club to be started up via the magazine, but Enid doesn't see how she could possibly run a new club! She encourages children to make their own SS badges out of buttons covered with material.

Lastly, Enid sends thanks to 'two kind children who sent me a beautiful handkerchief - Leonie McLeod and Mary Overkov from Australia' - they forgot to include their address, so Enid could not thank them personally.

After the story about Horrid, Horrid Joe, we have the Puzzle Page, offering prizes as always. The Sunbeams Puzzle, Famous Five Puzzle and Busy Bees Puzzle. The Famous Five Puzzle asks readers to find the names of flowers hidden in the following sentences -

'Boil the water in the saucepan, Sydney'

'I like Christmas term best'

'The air is lovely at the seaside'
8)

In this issue of the magazine, Three Cheers Secret Seven comes to an end - although in the editorial Enid mistakenly states 'our Secret Seven serial ends next time!' Of course, her readers would have been excited to see what replaces it next time...but we have a fortnight to wait! :-)

Next comes another short story - which eventually appeared in Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual 1972 - The Buttercup Spell - in which a farmer's wife makes a 'buttercup spell' so she can tell who has stolen her butter, by holding a buttercup under their chins - a variation on the popular superstition. At the end, Enid encourages children to try it out and see if they like butter - as it is 'a bit of old old magic!'

The Letters Page has a few interesting letters - from Eileen Kelley who describes how two sparrows have built a nest using strands of raffia in her garage, a letter from Valerie, Patsy and Belinda, who have their own Famous Five club in Dorset, and from Jane Smalley who relates how her dog had 'hard paw' (something I have never heard of before) and he nearly died, but luckily he recovered.

This is followed by the usual Noddy strip story - about Noddy driving too fast - and then Chapter 3 of Five Go To Billycock Hill - including first mention of a 'pigling' - again, a term I've never heard much outside of Enid Blyton!

In the 'What to Look For' section Enid asks us to look out for young birds everywhere and their parents feeding them, and also suggests that children may be lucky enough to see a swarm of bees. They fly from their hive in clouds, humming loudly, and then collect together in a 'swarm', each holding to another bee's back legs, hanging in a mass from a branch or ledge - ' a strange sight to see' as ENid says.

The next story features Brer Rabbit - 'Pull Hard, Brer Fox' - which again appears in Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual 1972, which features Brer Rabbit tricking a host of other animals to pull on a rope and haul up a bag of gold - which is really an old tree root he wants removing from a hole.

On page 42 we have the painting competition - of a field mouse on some wheat. It's interesting to read all the places her previous winners came from - and the wide spread of readers gives us a good idea of how popular the magazines were - children from Lincoln, Walsall, Stratford-on-Avon, London, Chatham, Liverpool, Doncaster, Poole, Birmingham, Bath, Greenock, Tottenham and Rochester. It's good to see that no particular area was favoured for prize winning!

Next page, Enid tells us how to build 'a bird scarer' under the title 'Let's Please daddy!' - maybe it would make a good last minute Father's Day present! ;-) Its a bird, made from a cork and some discarded bird's feathers, plus a bird's head shape cut from cardboard...quite how this would have scared other birds, I'm not sure!

Last but not least, Enid tells us how two boys in her Busy Bees club, John and Tony :wink: - wrote a puppet play - Beauty and the Beast. They made puppets, painted scenery and held a puppet show at their local church rooms, doing two performances, at 2:30 and 5:30. Even the local press came along and interviewed the two boys, and they earned money for The Busy Bees and Enid 'crowns' them 'Best Busy Bees of the Month'.

Now I'm off to do the colouring competition...maybe I will win one of Enid's signed books as a prize! ;-)

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=887

8)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Daisy »

That's a lovely synopsis Rob. I was just about finishing my A level exams that week! I used to have the magazine from when Sunny Stories finished in 1953 and I think it continued to be delivered to our house for my two younger sisters, but I can't remember if I ever read it much after the first few months of its publication. I certainly don't recall reading Billycock Hill as a serial. There was a lot packed into one issue, wasn't there.
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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree, Daisy - it was a very good value, I think - 47 pages and the chance to win many various prizes too! :-)

Glad you liked my synopsis. I enjoy looking to see what ENid was writing about 60 years ago this week! :-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Moonraker »

I was just 5 years old, 60 years ago. I was living in a suburb of Salisbury - then a village - which was to become Peterswood in my mind. I probably hadn't read any Blyton then, although I can't be sure. One thing was certain, she was alive and still writing books that I would read in later years. Our railways were still in their heyday, the S&D were host to Manchester-Bournemouth expresses and we still had lines from Romsey to Andover and Salisbury to Bournemouth. My whole life was yet to be lived. I had no aches and pains, and my back never twinged. Wonderful, wonderful times that can never be relived.
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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by pete9012S »

A great overview Rob -most enjoyable to read.Please keep posting them whenever you feel like it,they are enjoyed and appreciated.

They are like a nice waft of fresh,stimulating air on the forums.
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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Daisy wrote:There was a lot packed into one issue, wasn't there.
There certainly was. Many of today's magazines for children are more about image than substance, which is a great pity.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Eddie Muir »

Brilliant, Rob. :D

I was 12 years old 60 years ago and was approaching the end of my first year at grammar school. I bought my copy of Enid Blyton's Magazine every fortnight from my local newsagent. :D
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

It's great to hear everyone's memories about life 60 years ago! :-D I wasn't born of course, but my mom and dad were starting their courtship, which mostly took place via letter, between 1956 and 1958 when they were married. My dad was 21 and had just started his National Service in the RAF at Melksham . He was transferred to Akrotiri in Cyprus in the autumn of 1956 and so they courted via letter and married in September 1958! :-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Courtenay »

Thanks for the very interesting summary of the magazine, Rob, and others for your own memories of 60 years ago!

I recently sent my mum a pile of EB Magazines from 1957 for her birthday (I'd got them among a job lot of books I'd bought on eBay). She would have been 8 years old when they were published and wasn't aware there was an Enid Blyton Magazine back then, but she's been telling me how much she's enjoying reading them.

Mum was especially impressed that only a couple of weeks before she received my parcel, she'd been watching the 1957 film of Five on a Treasure Island — and then in one of these magazines (5 June, 1957), she found Enid herself saying how excited she was about seeing the first showing of this magnificent new film and urging all her readers to go and see it when it was released in 12 weeks' time! :D As Mum said, "How's that for coincidence?"
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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Rob Houghton »

Courtenay wrote:and then in one of these magazines (5 June, 1957), she found Enid herself saying how excited she was about seeing the first showing of this magnificent new film and urging all her readers to go and see it when it was released in 12 weeks' time! :D As Mum said, "How's that for coincidence?"
That was the one I mentioned, where Enid was saying how pleased she was with the film, and that the little girl who played George was actually an Australian girl. :-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: 60 years ago this week...

Post by Courtenay »

Yes, I let Mum know that the same Australian girl was the stepdaughter of the composer who wrote the Doctor Who theme tune!! :wink: (Mum's not a Doctor Who fan, but Dad is.)
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