For the discussion of all aspects of the life and works of Enid Blyton.
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-- Just a Spot of Bother! 1957 short story
1957: Original appearance unknown
1999: Republished in Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury (1999)
[..]
-- The Five Find-Outers and Dog
Tackle the Mystery Sneak Thief 1962 short story
1962: Original appearance unknown
1999: Republished in Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury (1999)
It includes (rather uselessly, I think) longish excerpts from a number of novels (useless, because a portion of a novel included in a collection like this surely can't give any sense of completeness); but it includes a number of short stories completists will probably want to have. There are those two Find-Outers stories, which were probably the main ones that interested me; and a couple of stories featuring a boy detective called John Hollins - very rare stories, seemingly - I don't know how many stories there are in total featuring this characters - and a few other short stories featuring other characters. I personally think the adventure format fits the novel form better than the short-story form, so some of these stories do strike me as rather tame compared to the novels. Still, they are interesting to read. I seem to remember "Smuggler Ben" is there, complete, for those who don't already have it. Not a bad story, although my favourite of the Mary Pollock titles is "The Secret of Cliff Castle".pete9012S wrote:Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury 1999 is a lovely book containing the two Find Outers stories stories mentioned and possibly many more other various stories you will enjoy reading too.
The excerpts may serve a function in introducing young readers to books and series they haven't yet encountered. When I was about eight and my sister seven, we were given a copy of The Big Enid Blyton Book (Hamlyn) which also contained excerpts from Blyton novels as well as short stories, poems, puzzles, etc. We had already read a lot of Enid Blyton but hadn't yet tried the Adventure, Secret or Barney series or The Six Bad Boys. Reading The Big Enid Blyton Book made me determined to track them down. I hadn't realised either until I read that book that Enid Blyton had written so much about nature or retold Bible stories, and I hadn't come across Bom or Uncle Nat before.MJE wrote:It includes (rather uselessly, I think) longish excerpts from a number of novels (useless, because a portion of a novel included in a collection like this surely can't give any sense of completeness); but it includes a number of short stories completists will probably want to have.pete9012S wrote:Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury 1999 is a lovely book...
It looks as though there are three John Hollins stories - 'Number Sixty-Two', 'The Case of the Five Dogs' and 'The Mystery of Melling Cottage':MJE wrote:There are those two Find-Outers stories, which were probably the main ones that interested me; and a couple of stories featuring a boy detective called John Hollins - very rare stories, seemingly - I don't know how many stories there are in total featuring this character...
It's quite strange that one of Blyton's hero is a deserteur: Bom the little drummer. When we think of all the times when a member of the military was subject of worshipping or despised as deseteur ("Five go to Billycock Hill", "Well, my Father says", "The mystery of Melling Cottage"), Blyton seems to have changed her mind. Or was it just a carefree decision of her to use such a setting? I also wonder when people started to negatively critisize Blyton heavily about her work?Anita Bensoussane wrote: I hadn't realised either until I read that book that Enid Blyton had written so much about nature or retold Bible stories, and I hadn't come across Bom or Uncle Nat before.
I guess so - I probably did sound a bit sour there. But that does sort of reduce that aspect of the book to advertising (of a sort) for something bigger than the book itself. I guess *I*, at least, don't buy books for that reason.Anita Bensoussane wrote:The excerpts may serve a function in introducing young readers to books and series they haven't yet encountered.MJE wrote: It includes (rather uselessly, I think) longish excerpts from a number of novels (useless, because a portion of a novel included in a collection like this surely can't give any sense of completeness);[...]
I have all three of those, then - I seem to recall two are in the "Treasury", but I also have two of them (one duplicated) in some other collection - I forget which one - it's mentioned on my Blyton web page.Anita Bensoussane wrote:It looks as though there are three John Hollins stories - 'Number Sixty-Two', 'The Case of the Five Dogs' and 'The Mystery of Melling Cottage':
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/sear ... ch=hollins" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I must admit I've only ever read the one Bom story (in The Big Enid Blyton Book) and I'd never stopped to think about Bom's circumstances or background.Wolfgang wrote:It's quite strange that one of Blyton's hero is a deserteur: Bom the little drummer.
The story discussed on your web page is 'Adventure Up a Tree', first published in 1950. As the other three stories were published earlier (1947) and the John in 'Adventure Up a Tree' doesn't appear to have done any detecting before, I doubt it's meant to be the same John even though it's a similar kind of story.MJE wrote:There is also a fourth possible candidate, too: a short story rather in the same style whose central character is John, but the surname Hollins is not mentioned. I think it is mentioned, though, that John is a detective (as is mentioned with John Hollins), so I regard that, too, as probably being part of this mini-series. (I don't recall the details now, but that also is discussed briefly on my web page, with titles, collection names, and the like.)Anita Bensoussane wrote:It looks as though there are three John Hollins stories - 'Number Sixty-Two', 'The Case of the Five Dogs' and 'The Mystery of Melling Cottage'
That is a good point, Anita, and it hadn't occurred to me. I should make a mention of that - if I can update my page somehow. (I can't even reach my web site at present - to change things on it, that is - and I have no idea how to do it now, as things have changed since I last did so. I won't bore you with the details.) Do you mind if I mention that, Anita, seeing it was your idea? Shall I mention you by name to credit you with the idea? I normally do that if I mention an idea someone else told me, unless they don't want me to.Anita Bensoussane wrote:The story discussed on your web page is 'Adventure Up a Tree', first published in 1950. As the other three stories were published earlier (1947) and the John in 'Adventure Up a Tree' doesn't appear to have done any detecting before, I doubt it's meant to be the same John even though it's a similar kind of story.