The Enid Blyton Society

I took the above out of the library this morning. Seems like a fun read. Fully illustrated and charting the chocolate, sweets and snacks that we've all loved down the years. If, like me, you remember "fish n chips", "Banjos", "Blue Bird toffee", inappropriate sweet cigarettes and Trebor chocolate tools then this book is worth a flick through.

It has plenty of amusing trivia:

- Aeros were once marketed as "stimulating the enzyme glands". The mind boggles!
- Big Chief Milky-bar was introduced in the adverts in 1977 for "ethnic balance".
- Anyone remember Galaxy's "Noddy" full cream chocolate bars? Bearing a picture of the bell-hatted little pest on the front.
- In America Bounty bars are called Mounds.
- the word Tuck-shop first appeared in print in Tom Brown's School-days.

It has a nice, amusing turn of phrase too e.g. "a child who possesses an all-chocolate Kit-Kat attains the status of a playground prophet". Not to mention "sweet enough to floor a diabetic at ten paces" (about Caramac bars).



"Hey Mr Bee; why are you buzzing around?"

That looks right up my alley BB, so I've just ordered a copy off of E-bay for £4.46 including postage!

I think you will enjoy it; packed with illustrations. All those things I had forgotten such as Smiths Horror Bags:-

Bones. Salt & Vinegar
Claws. "Freaky" Bacon
Fangs. Cheese & Onion
Ribs. "Vampire" Vinegar
Bats. "Batburger"

Not to mention that creepy Kinder Suprise advert from the 80's with that sinister Humpty Dumpty "Chocodoobie".

Lots in the book from all eras though, not just the 80's.

Caramac bars. I used to love them. Haven't heard them mentioned for years.

An actual chocolate bar but cheaper than say a Dairy Milk, not to mention incredibly sweet. I've got a feeling that I wouldn't actually enjoy one these days.

Sounds a great book. I'd forgotten all about the 'horror' crisps too, used to love the ribs.

Although I normally love pretty much anything in the chocolate line, I was never keen on Caramac for some reasons.

Does the book mention the Pink Panther chocolate bars - I used to love those.

You can still buy Caramac bars. I've seen them in Wilkinson's.

I used to love Texans (chocolate-covered nougat/toffee bars) and Splicers (large fruit-flavoured chewy bars with stripes of bright colours). Also Double Agents, which were round boiled sweets with a mixture of gooey and sherbet centres. Hints on spying/detecting were printed on the wrappers.

Katharine wrote: Does the book mention the Pink Panther chocolate bars - I used to love those.

I think it did; although it is back in the library now so I aren't 100% sure.

It mentioned those plastic coffin shaped things that contained little sweets (hate to use the word candy but I guess that it was). I remember those from the 80's.

Does anybody on here remember some sweet cigarettes that came with a story card in each box about a Lizard Prince? I can't remember what they were called and have never been able to Google it.

My copy of this arrived this morning and it looks great. A big chunky hardback, with lots of colour pictures, and plenty of information on the history of the various products. I've only time for a quick flick through but noticed a number of things that induced a lovely nostalgic frisson.

Square Crisps, Rainbow Drops, boxes of Week End, Hedgehog Flavoured crisps, and Quattro! Nobody else ever seems to remember Quattro, but I loved it. I really like as well the various cartoon advertisments scattered throughout, that I recognise from the children's comics of the time.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else of 'a certain age', who has fond memories of the sweets and treats of their younger days. Thanks for the tip-off Burlington Bertram.

Looks like a great book.Thanks for the reviews.
There is a small review of the book on google books which I enjoyed so much I too will have to order this book.
If only it came with the original contents too....


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zY0x ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

walter raleigh wrote:My copy of this arrived this morning and it looks great. A big chunky hardback, with lots of colour pictures, and plenty of information on the history of the various products. I've only time for a quick flick through but noticed a number of things that induced a lovely nostalgic frisson.

Square Crisps, Rainbow Drops, boxes of Week End, Hedgehog Flavoured crisps, and Quattro! Nobody else ever seems to remember Quattro, but I loved it. I really like as well the various cartoon advertisments scattered throughout, that I recognise from the children's comics of the time.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else of 'a certain age', who has fond memories of the sweets and treats of their younger days. Thanks for the tip-off Burlington Bertram.

More than welcome.

I remember Quattro in the multi-coloured can; admit I had to do a Google Images search though. I remember the Hedgehog Flavoured crisps and Rainbow Drops; they were good value as you got a big bag but they were a bit bland.

Hedgehog flavoured crisps? Was there ever anyone who could verify that they really did taste of hedgehog?

Well their inventor (a pub landlord) apparently clamied they were a response to requests from his Gypsy customers. Supposedly roast hedgehog was a bit of a delicacy amongst the traveling community, and allegedly said to taste like veal. After a bit of a public furore, he admitted that there were no actual hedgehogs involved and the flavour was manafactured using "hedgerow herbs and hog fat".

I remember all the fuss when they first came out and nagged my mother to buy some to try. I was a bit disappointed at the flavour as it wasn't as exotic as I expected, but carried on eating them for a while for the novelty value.

There's some information on baked hedgehog and Hedgehog Flavoured Crisps here:

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/hedgehog.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

walter raleigh wrote:Well their inventor (a pub landlord) apparently clamied they were a response to requests from his Gypsy customers. Supposedly roast hedgehog was a bit of a delicacy amongst the traveling community, and allegedly said to taste like veal.

Used to roll them in clay/mud I think, and bake them. The clay pulls away all of the spines.