Well - it's that time again when we open the latest 'Enid Blyton Magazine' and treat ourselves to an Easter-egg of stories!
This issue has three uncollected short stories - and I'm grateful to Tony as always for scanning them and putting them into The Cave so that everyone can read them. Just follow the link below -
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=908
The cover of this week's issue shows an illustration from the first story,
The Two Swans. You can see a bigger illustration of this in The Cave. It's another good story - though given the 'violence' in it, I can see why it was never reprinted! Of course, I'm being tongue-in-cheek when I say 'violence' but there is certainly quite a lot of rough-stuff!
One interesting aspect is how Enid offers us a heroine who is every bit as tough as the bullies - a great equality story! Its teh story of two swans befriended by two children, and I must say the baddies are some of the most hateful children Enid ever created! I was angry at how nasty they are! Hope you enjoy the story. I found it quite interesting because we have swans on the canal behind our house, and a couple of years ago someone sadly shot one. It survived - and of course Enid's story doesn't involve a swan getting shot - but it reminded me of how realistic Enid could be when she wanted to be.
Enid's
Letter this week can also be read in The Cave - and it provides the usual interesting account of Enid's busy life in between writing books! I was interested to see that Easter must have been around the same time in 1957 as it is in 2017 - as Enid mentions that she won't be writing again until 'Easter has come and gone'. She also writes with great feeling about her Children's Home - obviously this was something she took great pride and interest in.
After 'The Two Swans' we have
Our Letter Page with the usual selection of letters. For some reason this issue they are all about birds - the four sparrows Alison Saunders feeds and has named, another from Sylvia Martyn, who has seen a thrush banging a snail on a stone, as Enid often tells in her stories, and a third letter by Pamela Murray, who hung a coconut up and watched birds visiting.
The first letter is interesting because of the little girl's names for her sparrow visitors - Mr Pricklepin, Fuzzypeg, and two smaller ones
which usually come together. We call them Nig and Nog Not names that would be encouraged these days!
Next we have the second uncollected story -
Knots In His Handkerchief - a story with a theme that most of us will be familiar with, as I'm sure Enid used it several times in various short stories - maybe even one about Noddy. It's very reminiscent of a Mr Twiddle story - may even be a Twiddle story with a similar plot. In fact, this issue has a Mr Twiddle theme - as two of the uncollected stories could so easily have been about him!
Following on from this story is a puzzle for Enid's overseas readers - you can have a crack at it by looking in The Cave.
The
Puzzle Page follows on from this - with puzzles for all the members of the various clubs. I like the Famous Five club puzzle this week -
What has -
a) Six sides and twenty-one spots?
b) An eye but cannot see?
c) Ears, but cannot hear?
I'm sure you'll all get those answers easily enough!
In the Busy Bee puzzle, you have to find the animals hidden in the following sentences -
a) Don't slam both those doors!
b) Where is Bali on the map?
Secret Seven Mystery continues with Chapter 14 - 'A Real Mystery!' - an imaginative chapter title if ever I saw one!!
Unusually, there's no illustration from Burgess Sharrocks this time - maybe he missed the deadline.
The centre-spread this issue is a new story about
Rumble and Chuff- the very first time a story about these characters ever appeared in Enid Blyton's Magazine - although they had appeared as early as 1953 in 'Wife and Home'. Enid starts from the beginning - telling us about the 'fine wooden engine called Rumble' painted red and yellow. It begins life in a nursery, giving rides to all the toys, but they are so heavy that the wheels fall off one of the carriages!
I was interested to see this, as I have the two Rumble and Chuff books that came out in 1958 with full colour illustrations. I must admit, I've never read them!
Following on, we have a Mr Pink-Whistle story - befitting of the time of year -
Mr Pink-Whistle and the Easter Egg Should you want to read it, you can find it in Mr Pink-Whistle's Big Book -- a volume that is incredibly hard to find, especially in a dust jacket! I have a rather battered copy with no jacket - but it really is a nice book and well worth having if you're a Pink-Whistle fan. This story is all about a boy who steals an Easter Egg - and of course, gets his comeuppance when the egg hatches and a 'Tell-Tale Bird' comes out, which follows the boy everywhere telling everyone of all his bad and deceitful ways! A great fun Enid Blyton story - just the sort I enjoyed as a child.
We have some adverts next for Dinky Toys - something I had quite a few of as a child! I'm sure I had the 'Armoured Command Vehicle' pictured in the advert with
the famous 'Desert Rat' marking of the famous 7th Armoured Division' as the advert tells us. I was lucky enough to own quite a collection of 1950's Dinky Toys, given to me by my great Uncle. They had belonged to his son, who he sadly hadn't seen since he and his wife split up - so he passed them on to me. Sadly, I played with them rather too heavily and many are now scratched and broken.
Next we have the
Painting Competition and I wish I was able to enter it, as the prize is THREE Enid Blyton books for each winner! Sadly I don't seem to fit into the age ranges though...unless I could be classed as '
a boy or girl over nine years old...?
Next, the third uncollected short story -
Where's That Duster - and this could most definitely qualify as a Mr Twiddle story! In fact, I wondered why Enid had chosen to write it about a couple of women - Sally Twinkle and her sister Meg, rather than Mr Twiddle and his wife, as both characters act in exactly the same way as Mr and Mrs Twiddle would. Then I realised that the plot involves the 'silly' character dusting the house and banging the mats etc - and of course, this is 'women's work!'
Mr Twiddle would hardly have banged mats and done dusting - and certainly wouldn't have tied a duster round his hair! Its a jolly story - but you will see just how Mr Twiddle-like it is!
Finally -
Our New Sheet Enid updates us on the children in her Home - and lets us know their progress - and shares some good news with us too -
...dear little Winnie, the eight months old baby, who never smiled once because she missed her mother so, has gone! yes - her mother found that she couldn't do without her, and suddenly came to fetch her home. We were pleased! Enid goes on to tell us of some new arrivals - highlighting, once again, what different times we now live in -
Two of them are little brothers whose mother is ill in hospital. Dickie is almost two and Tommy is one. There are nine in this family, so you can imagine what a disaster it was when their mother had to go into hospital. All the children had to be sent to Homes, of course, and the father feels terribly. We were able to take two, and they are such dear boys. Another child in our Famous Five ward is a perfect darling. She is quite black and has tight curly hair and a very merry smile. She is one year old and her name is Violet. She will only be with us for a short time, as her mother is in hospital...
Enid also promotes the
splendid Little Noddy theatre which is now available to buy,
so that if you want to act out your Noddy stories, you can act them out on the stage of this toy theatre. It costs 18 shillings and has
two sets of scenery, a real curtain, seven actors (Noddy and all his friends) and two booklets containing three plays.
Now - who wants to play Noddy? Bagsy me for Big Ears!