60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Discuss Blyton's magazines, short stories and poetry here.
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Kate Mary
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Kate Mary »

Either I'm getting forgetful in my old age and it's been there all the time or Tony has been doing more work on the EB Magazine. We now have the Rumble and Chuff picture strip added to the Cave. It starts in the 10th April issue.
I love the artwork of these little stories.
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I've just looked at the first three parts. It's lovely to see the attention to detail in the illustrations - something which applies to many of the illustrations in Enid Blyton's Magazine.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Courtenay »

No, it definitely wasn't there last week, so Tony must have started adding it more recently. I hadn't seen Rumble and Chuff before — I love the illustrations! :D Thanks, Tony.
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Tony Summerfield »

You are very observant, Kate, and you are all right as I only added them yesterday and it took me most of the day as it is a very roundabout process adding illustrations to the mazazines. I had actually been adding some uncollected Rumble and Chuff stories to Wife and Home the day before. There were five of these and I have now got four of them which you can see if you use the back arrow.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=2335" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Having done this I thought it was a bit mean to have left out the uncollected picture strip in EBM, and of course once I had done the current one I thought I ought to back track to the start - nothing like making more work for myself! :lol: The illustrations in Wife and Home made me think of Thomas and the Reverend Awdry!
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thanks, Tony. Yes, Thomas the Tank Engine does spring to mind!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Incidentally at the same time and just for fun I added the first and last chapters of the serial Adventure Ahead! a heavily abridged version of The Caravan Family.

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=2982" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thanks - it's great to see the opening and final chapters of the serial version. I had to laugh at the way "A big burly man came walking along the lane" just minutes after the family had spotted the caravans, and sold them both the vans. All very convenient, with decisions made on a whim. Wish-fulfillment indeed!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Rob Houghton »

Thanks for adding the Rumble and Chuff strips to the EB Magazine pages, Tony. It's very useful because now I don't need to explain the very brief episode each time I do a review! ;-)

Interesting about 'Adventure Ahead' - The Caravan Family. I can't imagine how such a short story could be abridged even more! :shock:
'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 - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Rob Houghton »

Another fortnight and another magazine.

Image

Many thanks for all the work that Tony does, in scanning the uncollected stories - and now also the Rumble and Chuff strip. There's plenty to read in this issue - starting with the cover story A Dreadful Mistake - which can be read by following the link.

It's an interesting story - but the thing I found most interesting was Enid's mention, several times, of television. I know she did sometimes mention television, but it actually centres around a character who likes to watch television very much indeed I enjoyed it, but it did throw up a few questions - (SPOILERS!) such as why Freda got into trouble, as she might have done the wrong homework, but as she'd been away the month before, she had never done it...so surely she should have been marked, rather than not having any marks at all? :?

In Enid's editorial Letter - which can be read by following the link - we hear of how Enid has been ill - and how many readers were annoyed because they hadn't been told in a previous letter! Enid doesn't elaborate further, but we do know from other sources (such as the Dossier and the biography by Barbara Stoney) that Enid's health was beginning to deteriorate - and it was at this time that she suffered bouts of breathlessness and chest pains, which Kenneth diagnosed as heart disease, despite the fact another doctor suggested it was a digestion problem created by Enid being constantly hunched over her typewriter. Enid was confined to bed and told to rest - and was forbidden to make any public appearances.

Enid also tells us a little more about the Famous Five film, which she tells us is 'very heavily booked and is pretty sure to be coming to your area sometime.' She asks children to write to her and let them know what they think.

After the cover story, we have Our Letter Page - and a letter from a boy called Geoffrey Holding, whose cat has had 23 kittens! (not all at once obviously!!) and gave birth to them in 'a trunk' without anyone realising - the trunk lid got shut, separating the kittens from their mother...and the mother 'gnawed the corner of the trunk' into a hole, attempting to reach her kittens!

The next uncollected story is Good Old Big-Ears - a Noddy story, of course. Another rather obvious Noddy plot - where he takes Big-Ears' hat instead of his own, Big-Ears chases after him wearing Noddy's hat, and both are mistaken in the dark for each other! Typical silly Noddy short story! :lol:

Puzzle Page

SUNBEAMS PRIZE PUZZLE -

Below you will find a string of letters - cross out the letters of one word, leaving the letters of another word, according to the clues given -

Take away something that ticks and leave something that sticks!

C G L L O C U K E



FAMOUS FIVE PRIZE PUZZLE -

Can you change these words into the names of three wild animals found here in Britain?

TAR HEAR BARGED



Next we have the continuing story about The Birthday Kitten - chapter 10 'You Brave Little Thing!'

Rumble and Chuff can now be seen and read by following the link! :-)

Five Get Into A Fix reaches chapter five - 'Things Might Be Worse!' - featuring other great illustrations not shown in the published book version. You can see them in The Cave by searching for the book. The picture of George going off with Timmy is very reminiscent of a similar illustration Soper provided for 'Five Go Adventuring Again'.

The last uncollected story is Lost - My Good Hammer - which can be read in the cave. Its a funny tale...rather predictable...and rather like a Mr Twiddle story - very short and sweet, and nothing amazing - but amusing just the same. :-)

I do wonder if some of these stories are beginning to show Enid losing her powers a little - maybe its my imagination - but she is repeating plots more and more. Maybe she always did this to a certain extent - but it shows up most starkly in the Noddy short stories, most of which are just different versions of the same theme.

Generally, one gets the feeling Enid is winding down, even though her magazine was to continue for another two years yet - ending in September 1959. There's a mention in Our News Sheet of the 'Twelfth Holiday Book' - and this was to be the last Holiday book, sadly. Also, this year's Magazine Annual (number 4) was to be the last one.

Enid finishes off by promoting a reissue of an adventure story by John Pudney - 'Saturday Adventure' - which sounds interesting. Doing a search on eBay, I see that Pudney wrote a series of these - Monday Adventure, Spring Adventure, Winter Adventure etc - but the books are pretty expensive (£16 and more).

8) Here's the link - http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=919
'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 - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Eddie Muir »

Great stuff, which I'll enjoy over the weekend, Rob. :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 - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Rob Houghton »

Thanks Eddie! Believe me, I very nearly didn't write a review this time!
'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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Kate Mary
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Kate Mary »

I'm glad you did Rob, I like reading your reviews. It seems strange to see mention of television in an Enid Blyton story, I think of her stories as being set in a time before telly, quite wrongly of course. Would names like Hilda and Freda be usual in the 50s? They seem to me to belong to the 30s or earlier.

I agree the story of the lost hammer would work well as a Mr Twiddle story, probably a variation has been used several times. Not having read much Noddy I also enjoyed that story too. Thanks Tony for adding the Rumble and Chuff strip and the stories and thank you Rob.
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Rob Houghton »

Kate Mary wrote: Would names like Hilda and Freda be usual in the 50s? They seem to me to belong to the 30s or earlier.

Thanks Tony for adding the Rumble and Chuff strip and the stories and thank you Rob.
Thank you, Kate Mary. :-D

I think you're right about the names 'Hilda' and 'Freda'. I have never known a Hilda, young or old, and only know one Freda - who is aged 86 or 87 - so obviously not a child in 1957! Often I think Enid's names seem too old-fashioned for the time she was writing in...although I guess that in all eras there will be names that seem out of place. When I was at school we had a 'Jean' in our class - which was very unusual in the 1970's.
'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 - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by pete9012S »

Thanks Rob & Tony - you made me dig out my magazine and read it all in one go!

I didn't realise Enid had been ill prior to the publication of this magazine.
I wonder if her future output suffered after this date (Sept 1957)?

I'm trying to think of some really good books published after Sept 1957?

Do any stand out as containing really good examples of her story/adventure/mystery telling ability still being in good shape?
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Re: 60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1957 -

Post by Rob Houghton »

Interestingly, most of Enid's best books were written before this date - although I do rather enjoy Secret Seven Fireworks, or Five On Finiston farm, which came after.

I often feel her last 'great' book was 'The Mystery of the Strange Messages' - which was published in 1957.

If you do a search in the cave, using '1957' or '1958' etc you can see all the books published in those years - and its interesting that the majority were either compilations (like the Famous Five Special' or short story collections) or Noddy books, or Bom books, or 'Big Books' like 'Mr Pink-Whistle's Big Book' - but hardly any new novels except Secret Seven, Famous Five and 'the Ragamuffin Mystery' and 'Strange Ruby' etc.
'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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