The Enid Blyton Society

Hello
I'm trying to track down a book I had when I was little - around 25 years ago. I think it was a book of short mystery/ghost stories and I'm pretty sure it was by Enid Blyton as I was obsessed by her books. One of the stories really sticks in my memory, it was about a lady who every day saw a woman being killed on a train, the train went past her window. She reported it to the police but there were no missing persons registered. It turned out that she was watching her own murder. There was something to do with her putting on the gloves that the woman on the train was wearing at the end of the story revealing that she had been watching her own death. Please help, I'm desperate to find this book.

It doesn't really sound like an Enid Blyton story, Littlelewy, but there are lots of people here with a general interest in children's literature so I hope someone will be able to help. I had a few "Armada Ghost Books" when I was young - I don't remember that particular story but perhaps you're thinking of something like that?

littlelewy wrote:Hello
I'm trying to track down a book I had when I was little - around 25 years ago. I think it was a book of short mystery/ghost stories and I'm pretty sure it was by Enid Blyton as I was obsessed by her books. One of the stories really sticks in my memory, it was about a lady who every day saw a woman being killed on a train, the train went past her window. She reported it to the police but there were no missing persons registered. It turned out that she was watching her own murder. There was something to do with her putting on the gloves that the woman on the train was wearing at the end of the story revealing that she had been watching her own death. Please help, I'm desperate to find this book.

The plot you describe reminds me of two Agatha Christie 'Miss Marple' books rolled into one.
The first book about seeing a woman being killed on a train being '4.50 FROM PADDINGTON.....'






And the second point you mentioned regarding the gloves reminds me very much of 'SLEEPING MURDER'





Both excellent books by the way if you havent read them,or indeed like the type of plot you have outlined.
Regards
Pete

Lovely, thank you both for your help and suggestions, will definitely check out the Christie books!

Hullo.

     It's been a while since I posted, but I saw this when I came back to the forum to see what's been happening. I know it's a year later, and I don't know if you've found out about the story you're looking for - but I did have a thought on this which may be worth passing on, even a year later.

     I completely agree with Anita that it's most improbable that this story really was written by Enid Blyton; so you'll have to look wider than amongst her work. Anyway, here's what occurred to me on this:
     Back in the 1960s and 1970s, and for maybe 20 years, there were long-running series of horror and ghost story anthologies, and I suggest you try these. There was the 30-volume series of Pan Books of Horror Stories (simply titled "nth Pan Book of Horror Stories", where "n" indicates the ordinal number in the series - second, seventh, and so on), and there was a similar series with the title being "nth Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories". Furthermore, there were also a similar series of ghost stories: namely "nth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories".
     See here for a list of anthologies of this sort - there were a great many beyond those I've mentioned:

  http://www.dondammassa.com/ck_anth3.htm

     You probably don't want to buy copies of all these books just to find one story, unless you like these types of stories generally - but Googling for information on them may yield authors and titles of stories in these anthologies, and maybe even plot summaries. For the most part these books can be found readily enough second-hand (except the 30th Pan Book of Horror Stories, which appears to be exceedingly rare, and exceedingly expensive when a copy is found).
     They are not children's books. If you think the collection you're looking for was definitely a children's book, there were a number of Armada publications which I'm guessing (because I haven't read most of them) may be children's books (Armada Ghost Book, and Armada Monster book - several titles in each series); and this may be what caused you to think the story might have been by Enid Blyton (most unlikely - death does not exist in Enid Blyton's world at all, except very occasionally as something that happens either long ago in the past or very distantly off-stage, and even then only to unimportant incidental characters, or bad characters - but *never* to the main character in a story).
     There was a series of Armada science-fiction anthologies too, which I *do* have (and which were intended for children), but it's so long ago since I read the stories that I really don't recall if a story such as you described is in there or not. Science-fiction doesn't really normally include stories about ghosts and such, but possibly these collections define "science-fiction" loosely enough that the series may have included such a story.

     Anyway, I don't know if this helps; but I thought I'd post it, just in case it does.

Regards, Michael.

littlelewy wrote:Hello
I'm trying to track down a book I had when I was little - around 25 years ago. I think it was a book of short mystery/ghost stories and I'm pretty sure it was by Enid Blyton as I was obsessed by her books. One of the stories really sticks in my memory, it was about a lady who every day saw a woman being killed on a train, the train went past her window. She reported it to the police but there were no missing persons registered. It turned out that she was watching her own murder. There was something to do with her putting on the gloves that the woman on the train was wearing at the end of the story revealing that she had been watching her own death. Please help, I'm desperate to find this book.

Sounds very interesting.So did you find out,which book? If so,can you tell me which is it? I would like to read it.

elizabeth wrote:

littlelewy wrote:Hello
I'm trying to track down a book I had when I was little - around 25 years ago. I think it was a book of short mystery/ghost stories and I'm pretty sure it was by Enid Blyton as I was obsessed by her books. One of the stories really sticks in my memory, it was about a lady who every day saw a woman being killed on a train, the train went past her window. She reported it to the police but there were no missing persons registered. It turned out that she was watching her own murder. There was something to do with her putting on the gloves that the woman on the train was wearing at the end of the story revealing that she had been watching her own death. Please help, I'm desperate to find this book.

Sounds very interesting.So did you find out,which book? If so,can you tell me which is it? I would like to read it.

Hi Elizabeth

I think the story in question is Joyce Marsh's 'The Woman In The Green Dress', which you'll find in any of these anthologies:

Richard Davis (ed.) - Spectre 3 (Abelard-Schuman, 1976)
Ronald Holmes (ed) - Macabre Railway Stories (Star, 1983)
Anonymous (ed.) - Spooky Tales (Octopus Books, 1984)

While i'm here, can anyone tell me if Enid Blyton wrote any supernatural fiction? I'm guessing 'no' but would love to be told otherwise.

Thank you.

I think you are right in guessing 'no' - as we can hardly count all the fairies, goblins, pixies, etc. of which there are a great many.

ouch! Sorry, i should've been more specific. Did Enid Blyton write any traditional ghost stories?

A short story, "The House in the Fog" was a supernatural story.

Anyone know where we can read that story of the top of their bonce?

It's in the Twelfth Holiday Book, Pete. I tracked it down in the Cave.
I've just read it and I wouldn't have classed it as a typical ghost story. I wonder what others think?

I have the 12th Holiday Book (I think) but I don't think I've read that story. Will try and remember to have a look when I get home.

pete9012S wrote:Anyone know where we can read that story of the top of their bonce? :D

     Off the top of their *what*? (Is that localized British slang?)
     It can also be found in a hardcover volume called "The House in the Fog", a short-story collection which I think is quite recent (there was no volume with that title published by Blyton herself). I found it and bought it a while ago, thinking the title story sounded intriguing, although I was a bit disappointed with it when I read it. I think I prefer Blyton's mystery, adventure, family, or school stories to her fantasy or supernatural stories.

Regards, Michael.

Cheers everyone.I have the holiday book but haven't read the story so will have a read of it later.

Yes Michael,'bonce' is perhaps localised slang.How many forum members have used or heard of that expression I wonder??