The Enid Blyton Society

I've got The Boy On The Boat Train by D. Rice but I can't remember much about it except that the action is set in France. Other books from this period that I have published by Blackie are The School Library Mystery by Agnes Furlong, The Crimson Rust by C. B. Rutley and Strange Holiday by Geoffrey Lapage. None of them have illustrations except for a black and white frontspiece. All of them are in very good wrappers and are part of Blackie's Castle Library series.

It's interesting to see the varied and eye-catching covers. I'm intrigued as to why the Fifth are described as Invincible and I'd also like to read Anita and the China Figures!

The Kennys on Their Own by Jill Latimer is one of the Tower House books, but it doesn't sound like a very good copy and has no DW.

That was how I came across this collection - it actually popped up in a search for 'The Kennys On Their Own'

This is a good reading collection - some better condition than others, but not bad for the price!

Anita Bensoussane wrote: I'd also like to read Anita and the China Figures!

It seems you could get a copy quite cheaply there, Anita: http://www.amazon.com/anita-china-figur ... B000W23GSY

Thanks Wolfgang, but I'm having to resist buying books as our house is tiny and is overflowing!

My copy of 'Demon Island' fir £0.99 and £1.98 postage arrived today. It's in excellent condition, with a perfect dust wrapper and it's a first edition too! Very pleased!

I've been buying too many books recently. Wolfgang, have you won the lotto?

My copy of Peril On The Ridge by Michael Poole arrived safely. What shall we buy next, Rob?

Moonraker wrote:I've been buying too many books recently. Wolfgang, have you won the lotto?

No.

John Pickup wrote:My copy of Peril On The Ridge by Michael Poole arrived safely. What shall we buy next, Rob?

I half wondered if you'd bought The Llewellyn Jewel Mystery by JJ Farjeon, which just sold on eBay.

Robert Houghton wrote:I half wondered if you'd bought The Llewellyn Jewel Mystery by JJ Farjeon, which just sold on eBay.

No, Rob, he didn't because I bought it! It was a bit cheaper than the copy that John was looking at anyway, but I had it on my watch list for a week or so.

I wondered who bought it! I also had it on my watch list but decided I'd bought enough non-Blyton books lately!

I love the illustrations in 'Demon Island' - some really nice ones by W Bryce Hamilton.

The collection of books I listed earlier arrived today, and I must say I'm very impressed. There are a few I'm not really interested in reading, but I will put them on eBay and sell them...but about 7 or 8 of them I will keep and read. I particularly like the look of 'The Inn of Mystery' by Ivy Russell, especially as it's illustrated by the great Gilbert Dunlop! Looks just like a Barney mystery.

I also like the look of 'The Amazing Affair At Highlands' by Elizabeth Tarrant, 'The Stolen Painting' by Jill Stevens, 'Adventure At Dillington Dene' by Irene Byers, 'Stolen Documents' by S Beresford Lucas, and 'The Boy on the Boat Train' by D Rice

Nearly all of them have very good dust wrappers and are in excellent condition - a very good buy indeed, I think!

I posted this in another thread, but as we have been discussing the Tower House books here, I thought I'd also post it here.

I'm currently reading 'Demon Island' by Cecil Baldock - and very much taken by it. It's fast-paced, and a great adventure story. It's unusual that I rate any book of this type not written by Enid, but this is really worth reading.



One thing I find very interesting, however, is how blood-thirsty it is compared to Enid's (Mary Pollock's) books for the same series. Considering it was published along with the likes of 'Smuggler Ben' and 'The Children of Kidillin' etc, 'Demon Island' includes a scene where, in order to escape, one of the child characters (Peter) hits the baddie on the wrist with an axe 'with all his strength' so that 'the sharp blade of the axe' bites 'deep' into his wrist!

A little later another of the children (Bob) uses a gun, taken from the man who was injured with the axe, and shoots another of the gang of baddies in 'both his legs' with a single bullet!

Meanwhile, the third child (Cherry - Peter's twin) has a 'formidable looking clasp knife' which the reader is left in little doubt she will use if she has to!

Very interesting to read a novel that was issued as part of the same series as the Mary Pollock books and to find it so different!