The Enid Blyton Society

I wondered are there any members on this forum, who have read any of the Follyfoot Books, written by Monica Dickens.

I have been enjoying watching the early 1970's children's series Follyfoot, on DVD, only five more episodes to watch, and then I will have seen all 39 episodes of the series.

I know Monica Dickens, also wrote many other Books (apart from the Follyfoot Books).

I have read " A Pair of Hands" by Monika Dickens and man! I enjoyed it so much!! It was a really cheerful book, full of humour, wit and reality! If anyone wants to give one of her books a try, a thousand times yes!!!!!

I haven't read any of Monica Dickens' books myself, but I remember when we were at school, my sister really enjoyed her "Messenger" series about a girl and a magical horse. I recall she even wrote a fan letter to Monica and got a personal reply back! I was always planning to read those books myself but never got around to it. Maybe they should go on my ever-increasing must-read list too.

Meanwhile, looking Monica Dickens up on Wikipedia, I've just discovered something I didn't know she was involved in...

In late 1964 Dickens was visiting Australia to promote her works. It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 November 1964 that during a book signing session in Sydney she had been approached by a woman who handed her a copy of her book and enquired, presumably in a broad Australian accent, "How much is it?". Dickens reportedly misheard this as an instruction as to the name which she should include in the inscription ("Emma Chisit") and thus was born the phenomenon of "Strine" which filled the newspaper's letter columns and subsequently was the subject of a separate weekly article and, later, a series of humorous books.

What a strange happening! A funny one too! Interesting fact Courtenay, thanks for sharing it!

I can vouch for the fact that we Aussies don't all talk like that, honestly. At least, most people here in England seem to understand me all right...

In my school there's a teacher from Australia and she has a very clear and nice accent, so you are right!

I was interested to learn that Monica Dickens was the great granddaughter of Charles. I didn't realise that.

I get her confused with Monica Edwards - who also wrote pony books. My sister had 'Wish For A Pony' but that was by Monica Edwards.

I do remember the blurbs on the books in the Messenger series said Monica Dickens was Charles Dickens' great-granddaughter, which I thought was impressive even though I hadn't read anything by either her or Charles at the time. I'm also remembering now that when my sister got a letter back from Monica it gave her address as "Lavender Cottage, Pudding Lane", which to us Aussies, sounded so charmingly English!

Looks like the four books in the series are still available as e-books — here's the first one — though I'm sure they can be picked up in print second hand easily enough. Reading the blurbs makes me wish I had got around to reading them as a child — they sound really good! I think I was probably put off by the fact that they're about a 13-year-old girl — I must have been only about 8 or so when my sister was reading them — and although they did sound intriguing, knowing me, I would have thought "Oh, nah, that's teenager stuff, too grown-up for me." (Who knows, that might still be the case. )

Just followed one of the links from the Wikipedia page and found this interesting page from a "Pony Books" website that gives a good summary of Monica Dickens' life and a list of all her horse-themed books for young readers. I might have to read the Follyfoot series one day too — and her One Pair of Hands series as well!

Courtenay wrote:I haven't read any of Monica Dickens' books myself, but I remember when we were at school, my sister really enjoyed her "Messenger" series about a girl and a magical horse... Looks like the four books in the series are still available as e-books — here's the first one — though I'm sure they can be picked up in print second hand easily enough. Reading the blurbs makes me wish I had got around to reading them as a child — they sound really good!

Yes, they sound most unusual. I read quite a few horse and pony books as a child but I don't think any of them were by Monica Dickens and none of them involved a time travel element.

Monica Dickens is one of my favourite authors of all time, I've read all the Follyfoot ones and also particularly enjoyed the set of four World's End books about a family living a hippyish type of lifestyle in the Seventies in a ramshackle house in the country with all their animals.

I also have a good selection of her adult novels - my favourites are Man Overboard and The Fancy.

I second Machupicchu14's recommendation of One Pair of Hands, its a wonderful read, and I liked it best out of that series of life experience titles. Others I've read were One Pair of Feet, and My Turn to Make the Tea.