The Enid Blyton Society

Thanks for the write-up and scans, Rob and Tony. 'Does Anyone Want a Kitten?' and 'Don't Do That, Bumpy-Dog' are vaguely enjoyable but I agree that they're not among Enid Blyton's best stories.

Rob Houghton wrote:Next we have Enid's Editorial Letter - and we find Enid still on her holidays in Dorset. I found it interesting that she mentions children going on the sea in pedal boats, and tells of how two children went too far out in theirs and had to be rescued...sound familiar? This was the story-line to a short story in EB's Magazine about a month ago! i wonder if what Enid tells us was true, or if she was just telling an anecdotal story to remind children to be careful?!

Interesting. I also like Enid's description of sea anemones, which I love looking at too.

Rob Houghton wrote:In Our Letter Page there are some interesting letters. Christopher Black, from South Africa, tells us about the fete he held -.

Dear ENid Blyton, I am sending you a postal order for sixteen shillings. I collected it by having a fete with my sister and my cousin. I'm nine and my cousin is also nine and my sister is six. We sold soap, toys, cakes and coconut-ice. The soap sold very well. The Africans love washing! There wasn't one piece of cocnut-ice or one cake left. We had soap in the shape of dogs, babies, and pigs and Father Christmas. We also had Toyland cakes.
I hope you will enjoy spending the money as much as we enjoyed collecting it. Yours sincerely, Christopher Black.

It's always fascinating to read what Enid Blyton's enterprising young readers did to raise money for charity. What a pity it's not possible to see what the novelty soaps and Toyland cakes looked like.

Kate Mary wrote:Perhaps Burgess Sharrocks was irritated at having to illustrate the same stories twice and the magazine publishers wouldn't allow their illustrations to be used in the book.

I always thought the illustrators preferred doing two sets of illustrations as they would have been paid twice. Not exactly sure of their deals though, of course.

Rob Houghton wrote:It's that time of the month again!! I would have liked to have heard more about the Famous Five film, but I was disappointed this issue.

Still catching up on these great posts and scans from the magazines - keep up the terrific work!

I would have liked to hear more about the film too. I saw one or two episodes at the cinema in the late 60s/early 70s and remember enjoying them though can't remember anything specific - wish it was available on DVD to watch again.

The Australian girl who plays George mentioned by Blyton was the step-daughter of Aussie Ron Grainer, famous for his musical themes to Doctor Who and Steptoe & Son, among others.

GloomyGraham wrote:I would have liked to hear more about the film too. I saw one or two episodes at the cinema in the late 60s/early 70s and remember enjoying them though can't remember anything specific - wish it was available on DVD to watch again.

It is!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blytons-F ... ure+island

Rob Houghton wrote:
It is!

lol - thanks - I should have googled myself

and I see it's on YouTube too - might have to watch a little bit

Another fortnight and another issue of Enid Blyton's Magazine!



Another great magazine with some good stories. We start with the cover story - 'Anne Gets Into trouble' - and its an entertaining one, though not very exciting. I'm also not sure that she really got into trouble...maybe you can decide! Some great illustrations as always by an uncredited artist - I really love their style. Such a shame these artists weren't credited! You can read the story by following the link below - thank you Tony.

In Enid Blyton's Editorial Letter (which can also be read by following the link) we hear that Enid has now returned home from her holidays, and done her usual tour of the garden to see that all is well. We learn some interesting details about life at Green hedges - and also we hear of some children in India, looking for British pen-friends. How anyone can accuse Enid of racism or xenophobia, I don't know. She always comes across as being very enthusiastic when talking about children from other lands, and very encouraging of the idea that our children should pal up with Indians by letter.

Talking of Letters, Our Letter Page has a letter about another little girl, Alison Aston (from Beaconsfield) who has held a jumble sale and earned £5 for the spastic children. Alison belongs to the Beaconsfield Magazine Group and together the group held a jumble sale with 'lots of stalls and a raffle' and many other games and challenges, plus a refreshment stall. Alison tells us while we were getting ready for the sale a little boy came and asked when the 'jungle sale' was to open!

Another letter is from Terry and Tippy (two little dogs who are good at writing!) - they write -

Today is my fourth birthday and Tippy has a money-box which I share. We are two Cairn Terriers and Cookie saves for us, and we get 6d each for killing rats. Tippy kills more than me. She is five and won't let me come near them, unless I get there first. So we are sending £1 out of our box for other little dogs that need help from the PDSA. Yours truly,Terry' As Enid says - Well, what do you think of that, children? Even the dogs help me now!

Next we have Puzzle Page -

Sunbeams Puzzle -
Can you re-arrange the letters below and make the names of some well-known rivers in Great Britain?

YESERM YEDLC TTENR

Puzzle for My Busy Bees -

Can you complete the name of an indoor game you all love to play?

S_A_ES A__ _A__ER_

After the puzzles, the Famous Five take centre stage in the fourth chapter of FIve Get Into A Fix - with two lovely illustrations, which have now been added to the Cave under the book listing. They are slightly different to those that later appeared in the book.

Country Code this issue tells us - PROTECT WILD LIFE, WILD PLANTS AND TREES! The countryside is there for us all to love and enjoy. Always take great care not to disturb or injure wild life. Leave birds and their eggs alone. Our lovely wild flowers are seen at their best when growing in their natural surroundings. Pick a few if you must, but never uproot them. Trees are very valuable, not only for their beauty but for their timber. Do not slash or carve your name on them. never break or tear off branches, and however small, never cut a tree down.

Rumble and Chuff[/b continues in the centre pages, taking the poor injured duck back to the farm house. The farmer's wife is very pleased.

Simple Simon Fights A Battle is the second uncollected short story. Again, you can read it in the Cave following the link - http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/maga ... ?magid=918 Its not a bad story - wonderful illustrations by another uncredited artist - but the story is very predictable - and rather like a Noddy story. I guess that's to be expected with a character like 'Simple Simon' - a name that I'm sure wouldn't be allowed these days for PC reasons!

Next we have an advert for Enid's latest Find-Outer book...and its interesting that they quote a few passages from the book, and include an illustration. It's the Mystery of the Strange Messages - one of my favourite Find-Outer books. The extract reads - And then Ern behaved magnificently. he reached up a hand and swept a whole row of kettles and pans off the shelf just above him. They clattered to the floor with an awful din, and startled the two men out of their wits. Then Ern leapt up into the air, hands above his head, and moaned in a horrible, hollow voice. "I'm coming! I'm coming!' the two men took to their heels and raced out of the kitchen door. Interesting that a scene involving Ern was chosen...and also a rather silly scene...! It shows how popular Ern obviously was as a character though.

Next we have The Birthday Kitten - chapter 9 'You're The Meanest Boy In The World!' - and again, the illustration used isn't featured in the book. I'm guessing this was to do with copyright and the fact the books were produced by a different publisher. In this case, I think Grace Lodge did better illustrations for the book than the magazine.

In Our News Sheet I was interested to see Enid plugging her Mystery book - The Mystery of the Strange Messages. She certainly wasn't afraid to boast about her work! - she says - I have written a new Mystery Adventure for all of you who like to solve these. It is called "The Mystery of the Strange Messages"
and is about Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets - and Buster the Scottie of course. It's a most mysterious mystery -
and I am quite sure you won't solve it. Be ready to laugh a lot if you read this book! Interesting, as I think this book is more serious and less comic than the others...one reason why I like it!

We'll end this week with the Overseas Puzzle - for overseas Club members only -

Who Am I?

My first is in ten but not in eight
My second is in soon but not in late
My third is in day but not in week
My fourth is in bird but not in beak
My fifth is in yell but not in call
My whole is someone well-known to you all

Till next time!

Thanks, Rob. Another superb looking issue, which I look forward to enjoying fully later this evening or tomorrow.

Thank you, Eddie!

I really enjoyed reading that overview Rob,and also Tony's Cave inclusions.Thank you both very much.

The Simple Simon story was really quite amusing - it really reminded me of a jape you would find in comic form in the Beano or the Dandy!

I've now had chance to fully enjoy the latest offering. Great stuff! Thanks, Rob and Tony.

I didn't think that either story was very exciting and the illustrations stole the show.
Another fine review, Rob, thanks to you and Tony for the link.

An enjoyable couple of stories, I liked that Mark in the first story redeemed himself in the end. Thank you for the review Rob and to Tony for adding the stories to the website.

Rob Houghton wrote:We start with the cover story - 'Anne Gets Into trouble' - and its an entertaining one, though not very exciting. I'm also not sure that she really got into trouble...maybe you can decide! Some great illustrations as always by an uncredited artist - I really love their style. Such a shame these artists weren't credited!

I love the illustrations too. I enjoyed the story but felt the ending was somewhat abrupt. It's clear how Mark feels at the end but Enid Blyton doesn't take us inside his head or describe his emotions as she normally does in stories of this kind.

Rob Houghton wrote:In Enid Blyton's Editorial Letter ...we hear that Enid has now returned home from her holidays, and done her usual tour of the garden to see that all is well.

Most people would probably be thinking how much the garden had overgrown during their absence, but Enid and Kenneth would have had a gardener to keep things in check! It's good to hear that Enid is still keeping hens, just as she did at Old Thatch almost 30 years earlier.

Rob Houghton wrote:...we hear of some children in India, looking for British pen-friends. How anyone can accuse Enid of racism or xenophobia, I don't know. She always comes across as being very enthusiastic when talking about children from other lands, and very encouraging of the idea that our children should pal up with Indians by letter.

True. If Enid Blyton had been xenophobic she wouldn't even have responded to Maitry Sen's letter in the first place.

Rob Houghton wrote:After the puzzles, the Famous Five take centre stage in the fourth chapter of FIve Get Into A Fix - with two lovely illustrations, which have now been added to the Cave under the book listing. They are slightly different to those that later appeared in the book.

It's lovely to see all the magazine pictures for Five Get Into a Fix (thanks, Tony!) though it's a pity that the addition of colour (green, red or blue) is sometimes rather slapdash.

Rob Houghton wrote:Simple Simon Fights A Battle is the second uncollected short story ...Its not a bad story - wonderful illustrations by another uncredited artist - but the story is very predictable - and rather like a Noddy story. I guess that's to be expected with a character like 'Simple Simon' - a name that I'm sure wouldn't be allowed these days for PC reasons!

I remember Tiq mentioning on these forums that an Enid Blyton story called 'Simple Simon and the Goat' had been renamed 'Silly Simon and the Goat' in a modern edition. That makes me wonder whether the traditional rhyme 'Simple Simon Met a Pieman' has been removed from books of nursery rhymes.

'Simple Simon Fights a Battle' reminds me of a Brer Rabbit story which is very similar, though I'm not sure whether the Brer Rabbit tale is one of the originals collected by Joel Chandler Harris (which Enid retold) or one of the ones that Enid herself made up.

Rob Houghton wrote:Next we have an advert for Enid's latest Find-Outer book...and its interesting that they quote a few passages from the book, and include an illustration. It's the Mystery of the Strange Messages - one of my favourite Find-Outer books. The extract reads - And then Ern behaved magnificently. he reached up a hand and swept a whole row of kettles and pans off the shelf just above him. They clattered to the floor with an awful din, and startled the two men out of their wits. Then Ern leapt up into the air, hands above his head, and moaned in a horrible, hollow voice. "I'm coming! I'm coming!' the two men took to their heels and raced out of the kitchen door. Interesting that a scene involving Ern was chosen...and also a rather silly scene...! It shows how popular Ern obviously was as a character though.

In Our News Sheet... she says - I have written a new Mystery Adventure for all of you who like to solve these. It is called "The Mystery of the Strange Messages" and is about Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets - and Buster the Scottie of course. It's a most mysterious mystery - and I am quite sure you won't solve it. Be ready to laugh a lot if you read this book! Interesting, as I think this book is more serious and less comic than the others...one reason why I like it!

That's interesting, Rob. Maybe Enid's readers had begged her to write another Find-Outers book involving Ern. I agree that the overall tone of Strange Messages is serious rather than comic but it does contain one of my favourite humorous moments - i.e. when Fatty forgets he's disguised as a dirty rag-and-bone man and tells a startled Mrs. Henry that she promised to put aside some clothes for his mother's jumble sale, only for her to say in astonishment, "I don't know your mother!" and shut the door in his face.

Anita Bensoussane wrote: That's interesting, Rob. Maybe Enid's readers had begged her to write another Find-Outers book involving Ern. I agree that the overall tone of Strange Messages is serious rather than comic but it does contain one of my favourite humorous moments - i.e. when Fatty forgets he's disguised as a dirty rag-and-bone man and tells a startled Mrs. Henry that she promised to put aside some clothes for his mother's jumble sale, only for her to say in astonishment, "I don't know your mother!" and shut the door in his face.

That's true - it's a very amusing scene indeed! i'd forgotten that!

Thanks, Rob, for another very enjoyable issue (and Tony for the scanning, of course). I enjoyed Annie Gets Into Trouble, but found Simple Simon Fights a Battle a bit too annoyingly silly. Actually, the closing lines —

"Well — we'll go home now — and I can promise you that something very exciting is going to happen when we get there," said his father. "But you won't enjoy it, Simon. Oh no — I'm afraid you won't enjoy it at all!"

Poor Simon. He can't bear eating potatoes now. They remind him of something very unpleasant!

— are a bit of a worry... I assume Enid is referring to Simon getting a beating, but the way his father puts it and the way Enid avoids spelling out exactly what happened to him comes across to me as downright sinister and creepy.

Lovely to hear of Enid getting Indian pen friends for her readers. I agree, where's her supposed racism?? I'm also intrigued by the Sculptorcraft competition she mentions. I assume they were those sets of moulds for making plaster models of different characters — we had a Disney one when I was little, but I would have loved to have some Enid Blyton ones!

Oh yes, and as for the overseas readers' riddle... I think I know who that is!