60 Years Ago This Week - Enid Blyton's Magazine 1958

[pete9012S]

I have now read the original magazine as well as Rob's review and Tony's scans.
Really enjoyed this issue of the magazine, it must have been smashing to have received it brand new back in 1958!

Many thanks yet again to Rob and Tony for preparing this information for us.

On reading the excerpt from The Ragamuffin Mystery I was again reminded of the changes in the text compared to the story when it was actually published:

The Ragamuffin Mystery - Strange Goings-On

In the book, published in 1959, the Welsh village where the children stay is called Penrhyndendraith. However, The Ragamuffin Mystery was first printed in Enid Blyton's Magazine in 1958, and there the village was called Tillyhwllanyll. I've no idea why it was changed, except that Tillyhwllanyll sounds less convincing as a name than Penrhyndendraith.

The little boy with the goose is called "Dafid" in the magazine. This has been corrected to "Dafydd" in the book.

Looking at the magazine version and book version, I notice that there are a number of other alterations too....

Anita

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... yhwllanyll" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ps.

Rob will have noticed the advert for two Dinky toys on page 29 of the magazine both priced at 3/6 (inc. tax)

If you had bought the toys and kept them in pristine condition they would have made a decent investment!


£119.75 on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dinky-179-St ... 0505.m3226" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A bargain at £29.99 on ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dinky-Toys-6 ... SwRQxaXjx5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rob Houghton]

I had loads of Dinky cars made during the 1950's, from my great uncle - they had belonged to his son as a boy, with whom he was then estranged, so he gave them to me, along with a Hornby train set. I loved them because they were old-fashioned, but unfortunately they were well played with even then, and I played with them even harder! None of them had boxes, but I still do have them, even though they are a bit battered!

I think I've told the story before about a Royal Mail van I had which was Dinky. My so-called friend down the road came to play with me one day and when he left I noticed my Royal Mail van had disappeared. A couple of weeks later at his house, I noticed he had a nice shiny new vintage van - painted bright yellow! I'm sure it was my old Royal Mail van, but I could never prove it!

[pete9012S]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your Royal Mail Van Rob.

I enjoyed this Matchbox restoration on youtube - made me feel old. The toys we once played with are now beaten up relics!

MATCHBOX Restoration No 51 8 Wheel Tipper 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQEyR30 ... 9PK8g&t=0s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rob Houghton]

I had one just like that, with the part that flips open at the back! Mine was green. I had loads of Matchbox cars and still have some but yes - very battered now!!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm catching up after being busy so I've only just taken a look at the issue Rob reviewed on 23rd September.

The cover shows an illustration from the first story - an uncollected one - called She Followed the Trail - a story I enjoyed very much. It paints a lovely picture of a time gone by, and is also an interesting and effective way of showing how kind deeds are rewarded. Classic Enid Blyton!

I thoroughly enjoyed it too. Heartwarming and satisfying. I don't think I've ever seen a fruit and vegetable stall at a school sale, but perhaps it was more common to have one in the 1950s.

Brer Rabbit's Brains Are Good follows. A typical Brer Rabbit story, but one I quite enjoyed. I often feel a bit 'all Brer-rabbited out' because the plots are so similar and we all know Brer Rabbit will outsmart the baddies and live to do it again...and again...and again...! But this one was quite enjoyable I thought.

I rather like the Brer Rabbit tales, including this one. They're lively and fun despite being somewhat predictable.

I realised today that many of my favourites as a child - Brer Rabbit, Mr Twiddle, Amelia Jane, Mr Pink-Whistle and Mr Meddle are now some of my least favourites. It shows how good Enid was at gauging what children enjoy - repetition - stories where the joke is that something always goes wrong or someone always gets confused/gets their comeuppance/gets into trouble etc - are looked on as amusing and good fun by children, but not so much by adults.

I reread all the books in Amelia Jane, Mr. Pink- Whistle, Mr. Twiddle and Mr. Meddle, Noddy and Bom( first time read) series last year. I remember that the the majority of the stories in the first four series stated have stood the test of time, in my case. I still have the excitement when reading them especially Mr. Twiddle and Amelia Jane stories. I remember them fondly. Hey were my staple reading when I was young. They are nostalgic.

I liked and enjoyed reading Noddy and Bom as well although I feel that Bom stories are inferior when compared to Noddy stories.

It's interesting to read people's different views. I never really got into Noddy and I've read barely any Bom. As an adult I find Amelia Jane tiresome and rarely read the three books about her, though as a child I was entranced by the idea of the nursery toys coming to life. I do enjoy the liveliness of Brer Rabbit but I prefer him in small doses rather than reading a whole book at a time.

However, the Pink-Whistle and Meddle stories are just as engaging as ever. I love the sense of fairness and good-heartedness in the Pink-Whistle tales and I find myself rooting for poor Meddle even though he causes chaos wherever he goes, as he's generally well-meaning. As for the Twiddle stories, I appreciate them more than ever as an adult as I feel that the tales have a touching realism, despite Mr. Twiddle being absurdly absent-minded. It's lovely to see the enduring love and affection that Mr. and Mrs. Twiddle have for each other even though they are frequently exasperated with one another. I also enjoy entering into their relatively tranquil, unhurried lives - a life of pottering in the garden, sitting in an armchair reading the newspaper, buying goods from local shops peopled with colourful characters, walking by the river and cooking tasty stews and fish suppers. It's all so cosy, though we know that the peace is constantly about to be broken by yet another of Mr. Twiddle's muddles!

[Rob Houghton]

As for the Twiddle stories, I appreciate them more than ever as an adult as I feel that the tales have a touching realism, despite Mr. Twiddle being absurdly absent-minded. It's lovely to see the enduring love and affection that Mr. and Mrs. Twiddle have for each other even though they are frequently exasperated with one another. I also enjoy entering into their relatively tranquil, unhurried lives - a life of pottering in the garden, sitting in an armchair reading the newspaper, buying goods from local shops peopled with colourful characters, walking by the river and cooking tasty stews and fish suppers. It's all so cosy, though we know that the peace is constantly about to be broken by yet another of Mr. Twiddle's muddles!

I do agree about the Twiddle stories. Although I find them fairly repetitive and don't think I could read a whole Twiddle book all the way through in one go, I do enjoy the 'small-town 1950's feel they have - the lazier less hurried way of life, and the cosiness of the stories, as you say. they are a little snapshot of life in a small town or village of the 1940's and 50's and for me that is their charm as an adult.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've now had a look at the latest issue. Great stuff once again! Thanks as always to Rob for the write-up and Tony for the scans.

Enid Blyton's editorial letter gives us a fascinating glimpse of 1950s life and I agree with Rob and Kate Mary that critics who have dubbed her "racist" ought to read her comments about the children's home and see how warmly she writes about youngsters of different races and tongues playing happily together.

Enid has also been accused of being a lightweight writer who fails to challenge her readers, but in her Famous Five Prize Puzzle the poem titles point children in the direction of Browning, Tennyson and Wordsworth.

As well as entertaining and educating children, Enid Blyton inspires them. In this issue she tells us about British and Australian penfriends visiting each other after corresponding for five years, and about boys and girls sending their old books and comics to schools and libraries abroad, and about a class nursing an ailing baby jackdaw until it was strong enough to fly off and fend for itself in the wild. I'm sure many young magazine subscribers must have felt inspired to do similar things after reading items like that. Enid Blyton's writing is extremely positive and "can do".

The cover shows an illustration from the main uncollected short story Beware Of the Goat! - what a great title! Its a twist on the usual 'Beware of the bull' story - and I really enjoyed it, as it imparts a moral but not in an overly preachy way. We have three boys, looking to pick apples from the farmer's orchard - although one of them does admit its being 'apple thieves' not 'apple pickers' - and of course, they get their comeuppance and also learn a lesson - as in all good EB stories of this nature.

It's a fantastic story, dramatic and thought-provoking. Quite scary too, with the charging goat and the image of how the miscreants' fathers might react : "Their fathers! Visions of wallopings and whippings at once came into the minds of the three scared boys." Farmer George is a wonderful character, firm but fair.

I found 'Merry and Bright' amusing and enjoyable too. As a child, I loved reading about the fairy-folk world.

[Rob Houghton]

Another fortnight gone already, and another Enid Blyton magazine - a real 'bumper' issue - with two short stories and THREE serial stories!



The cover shows an illustration from the first story Mr Twiddle Gets A Shock - which can be read in Enid Blyton's Bedtime Annual 1977. Its a great example of a Mr Twiddle story, and I enjoyed it - with Mr Twiddle being pestered by an elephant, which he at first thinks is a snake...and then sees a monkey looking in the window - which turns out to be his wife, back from the shops! poor Mrs Twiddle!

In her Editorial letter Enid is pleased to tell us of the great success of her Famous Five Club - which now has around 100,500 members! To celebrate this, 100 members will be picked at random and will receive a signed Famous Five book of their choice. membership numbers are included in this issue, so that the members can see if they have been lucky enough to win. They can then write and request the Famous Five book of their choice.

Enid also tells us about her hazel nut trees, which are loaded with clusters of nuts this year, much to the delight of the squirrels. We've had a hazel tree at the bottom of our garden ever since I was a child - but for some reason the nuts are usually empty when cracked open...not much use! I'm not sure why this is...maybe someone who knows would be able to tell me!

Our Letter Page as always contains some interesting letters from readers. One tells about a little girl who once lived in a small house in a town but then her 'dream came true' and her family moved to a bigger house in the country. I find it interesting, having lived in 'a town' all my life, that Enid (and her readers) apparently think of a town as bad and the countryside as good. Maybe I have an unrealistic view of town life though, as I have always lived only a mile from the open countryside, and so it can't really be classed as 'in a town'...

The thing that I found interesting about this issue's letters is that they paint such a great picture of times gone by - and the interest of children - so grateful to be living 'in the country' and in another letter, a little girl, Margaret Adams, donating 6d towards the Famous Five Ward, because she gave up her ice creams. She hopes the 6d 'will buy a little piece of happiness for the children'. How sweet! I can't imagine a child thinking like this in 2018! Then there's the little boy, Roger Goddard, who received an Enid Blyton birthday cake, as did selected members of the Magazine club each month. He was so very pleased to receive it, and writes 'we had a lovely birthday tea with my brothers and some friends, and they all thought I was very lucky. Tomorrow I am going to take a piece of the cake to my teacher at school...' - a picture of a simpler life, when small pleasures were appreciated!

Next we have the uncollected short story Follow That Hat! - which is a pleasant tale, not unlike several others Enid wrote, about a boy helping a member of the fairy folk, and of course getting a reward for his trouble. You can read it by following the link below.

Following on from this we have the first chapter of a new serial - Bonfire Night For the Secret Seven - which later became 'Secret Seven Fireworks'. Its probably one of my favourite of the later Secret Seven books, and as a child I read it many times. I loved the idea that Susie forms a rival club, and that the 'crime' that takes place was something that could quite easily happen to me. We always collected wood for our bonfire, as The Seven do - and one time we had some of it 'stolen' by a rival bonfire collector. We always made our bonfire on the strip of land between the canal and our house...and so the rival was easily able to drag the wood down to their own pile! We went and dragged it back!!

Once again, I can't help thinking Burgess Sharrocks took far more care over his Magazine illustrations than he did over the book versions. here are the two illustrations compared - first, the magazine illustration -



and here is how it appeared in the book -




Next we have The Goblin Shop - which can be read by following the link.

PUZZLE PAGE -

Sunbeams Prize Puzzle -

Here are some girls names. If you sort the letters out correctly you will find that the first letters, read downwards, form another girl's name. What is it?

RLIAEC
CIEAL
AIRT
VOEIL
ANDLI

FAMOUS FIVE Prize Puzzle -

Cross out the name of a popular sport in the following string of letters and you will find the name of one of the greatest players. Name the sport and the player.

MSAOTCCTHEERWS

A Puzzle for my Busy Bees -

A general knowledge question for you!

In which county of England will you find Stonehenge?


The next chapter of Adventure of the Strange Ruby follows - 'What Shall Tessa Do?'. There's an illustration, again, a bit simple compared to those in the book. Here are the two illustrations from this latest chapter -





The magazine continues with the THIRD serial story - The Ragamuffin Mystery - chapter 6 - Tillyhwllanyll Inn. I'm quite glad this name was changed when the book version was published! It would have been one of those names that as a child I would 'slur over' and probably call it something like 'tillywillanill'.

The illustrations for Ragamuffin are the same as in the novel version, except that for the magazine they had one added colour.

In Our News-sheet which always appears at the back of each magazine, I was interested to see that Enid includes the address of the Spastic Centre, so that children can send donations directly there rather than via the magazine. For some reason, I hadn't realised the spastics centre was in London, and had presumed it was nearer to Beckonsfield. The address was Centre For Spastic Children, 61 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London SW 3 Is it still there...or did the building disappear long ago?

That's it for another fortnight - happy reading to you all! I'd better supply the link -

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/mag ... ?magid=948

Many thanks, as always, to Tony, for doing the scans, which add so much to my reviews. I know he's busier than ever just now, and so I really appreciate your work on this, Tony!

[Kate Mary]

I had no idea that the Famous Five Club had so many members. I joined in the early 1960s and still have my badge. Great review, thank you Rob and Tony.

[pete9012S]

Thank you Rob and Tony. I will read the mag and then the review here.
I look forward to these posts!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Another excellent issue. Thanks for the review and scans, Rob and Tony!

I looked up the centre in Cheyne Walk when it was mentioned previously and I found that there is still a Cheyne Charity which supports children and young adults with cerebral palsy:

https://www.cheynecharity.org/history/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'"Follow That Hat!"' is most enjoyable and I like the phrase "it hadn't a basket" instead of "it hadn't got a basket" as most people would say these days. How I longed to meet one of the fairy folk after reading Enid Blyton tales of this sort as a girl. The story revolves around a boy with a tricycle. At the house where I lived between the ages of three and six, I had a friend called Richard who lived across the road. He had a tricycle and I quite often had a go on it. Whenever I read about a tricycle in an Enid Blyton book or magazine, I'm taken back vividly to that time. I can't help recalling that Richard and I used to get into trouble for climbing up onto the garage roof - but that's another story!

Our Letter Page as always contains some interesting letters from readers. One tells about a little girl who once lived in a small house in a town but then her 'dream came true' and her family moved to a bigger house in the country. I find it interesting, having lived in 'a town' all my life, that Enid (and her readers) apparently think of a town as bad and the countryside as good. Maybe I have an unrealistic view of town life though, as I have always lived only a mile from the open countryside, and so it can't really be classed as 'in a town'...

I pondered on that too as a child and wondered if my family were letting me down in some way by bringing me up in a town - even though most of my childhood was spent in a seaside town with woods and hills within walking distance!

The thing that I found interesting about this issue's letters is that they paint such a great picture of times gone by - and the interest of children - so grateful to be living 'in the country' and in another letter, a little girl, Margaret Adams, donating 6d towards the Famous Five Ward, because she gave up her ice creams. She hopes the 6d 'will buy a little piece of happiness for the children'. How sweet! I can't imagine a child thinking like this in 2018! Then there's the little boy, Roger Goddard, who received an Enid Blyton birthday cake, as did selected members of the Magazine club each month. He was so very pleased to receive it, and writes 'we had a lovely birthday tea with my brothers and some friends, and they all thought I was very lucky. Tomorrow I am going to take a piece of the cake to my teacher at school...' - a picture of a simpler life, when small pleasures were appreciated!

I think children are still moved to help when they hear of others in need, especially other children or animals. Enid Blyton's readers certainly came up with creative ways in which to raise money though.

[pete9012S]

I really enjoyed this issue and I do hope Rob is able to review another year when this one concludes.

What struck me in this issue was how much Enid did to try and help less fortunate ones.
She also promoted helping others and giving amounts no matter how small from her legions of fans.

So many people from all walks of life must have been helped by Enid's kindness. Whatever faults she had, Enid Blyton certainly did posses lots of positive and good points too!

[Rob Houghton]

'"Follow That Hat!"' is most enjoyable and I like the phrase "it hadn't a basket" instead of "it hadn't got a basket" as most people would say these days. How I longed to meet one of the fairy folk after reading Enid Blyton tales of this sort as a girl. The story revolves around a boy with a tricycle. At the house where I lived between the ages of three and six, I had a friend called Richard who lived across the road. He had a tricycle and I quite often had a go on it. Whenever I read about a tricycle in an Enid Blyton book or magazine, I'm taken back vividly to that time. I can't help recalling that Richard and I used to get into trouble for climbing up onto the garage roof - but that's another story!

The girl who lived next-door-but-one to us had a tricycle and I'm always reminded of that when I read such stories, too. It was a fairly big tricycle - really a three-wheeled bike (whereas the tricycles I'd had as a small child were the toddler versions) and it had a saddlebag fixed to the back.

Also, like you, my friend Dawn and I would often climb up onto our garage roof and play. It was fairly easy to do this because we had a rockery and a rabbit hutch next to the garage, so we would climb up that way - but then we would jump off into Dawn's back garden! Looking back, I'm amazed we never broke any bones - but we were fearless (or stupid, lol!)

[Rob Houghton]

I really enjoyed this issue and I do hope Rob is able to review another year when this one concludes.

I'm intending to - there is less than a year to go now, so I might as well continue till the end, in September 1959.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The girl who lived next-door-but-one to us had a tricycle and I'm always reminded of that when I read such stories, too. It was a fairly big tricycle - really a three-wheeled bike (whereas the tricycles I'd had as a small child were the toddler versions) and it had a saddlebag fixed to the back.

Yes, my friend's tricycle was a big one too.

By the way, I've just remembered that I meant to reply to the Matchbox toys discussion further up the page. My sister and I had a few Matchbox vehicles as children and the one I liked best was a little purple and yellow tractor, which is apparently a Matchbox Lesney 25 Mod Tractor dating from 1972. I used it with my set of farm animals and I would put it on the windowsill as an ornament when I wasn't actually playing with it:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-MATC ... SwtbxbtYOO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;