Looking for Enid - The mystery of the odd anagram

[Lucky Star]

Ahh nice to hear from you again Duncan. I did really enjoy the book by the way. Still dont agree with your anagram conclusions but a really enjoyable read for all that. Hope Goon doesnt come snooping round your shed too often.

[Moonraker]

I notice that the cover of the Centenary edition still shows the telescope as being the wrong way round. I wonder if that was intentional? If so, it was a nice touch.

I also note that the cover illustration of this edition is the 'wrong way round' too! The four are looking the other way, and the island is on the other side!

[Belly]

Duncan's book is very apparent in the two largest book shops in Singapore, I've just bought a copy and am looking forward to reading it.

[RainbowJude]

I picked up a copy of Looking for Enid a couple of months ago and finished reading it very soon afterwards. I'm so looking forward to going through this thread to see what other people have to say about it. I found the book fascinating. It was like a documentation of a piece of performance art and I just loved the mixture of fact, supposition, fiction, reality and fantasy. What I particularly loved is how the book reminded me that Blyton was human, which only made her achievements as an author seem all the more remarkable to me.

This book has also ignited something of a Blyton Renaissance in my life and I've been taking my books off the shelves and looking through them once again. So I've started off by reading the Barney mysteries and I guess we'll see which of my old friends I pay a visit next!

Later days
Davdi

[Belly]

I've just finished reading this and thought it was lively, witty and a great read. Yes, it's a bit bonkers and eccentric in parts and that's great. I'd argue that some of the critics are right, we are perhaps a bit 'unusual' if we read Enid Blyton as adults and get so much from it. But you know what? That's absolutely fine, I'd rather be creative and a bit bonkers (read lots of fun) than dull and ordinary

Duncan isn't afraid to speak his mind and appears to have absoulte self belief (needed if you are going to get into print as a writer). When people have written about Enid before I've almost sensed a sort of fear in their text that they couldn't/shouldn't write freely when it came to her personal affairs.

In fact I find his confidence, in view of some damning criticism, inspiring. (I have to write a short story in the next 4 weeks and am plagued by self doubt and procrastination).

I now have to buy the Princess and the Goblin (a sort of darker Sleeping Beauty)?

I was hungry most the of time I read it due to the marvellous descriptions of various chips and pies! I surprised he's not as big as Fatty! Duncan must have a very fast metabolism.

It made me think about the men in Enid's life and their possible influence in greater depth. Still thinking about this...It struck me that her father was almost as exceptional as she was in his gifts and abilities. Was amazed & pleased to see my forum name in print and my response to Duncan's question (although I didn't give the answer he wanted).

Like others had said I am doubtful about the passages/caves Freudian stuff. I do agree that there was probably a lot of Fatty in Enid and think that his lack of 'voice' in Banshee Towers could have been due to her diminishing mental powers. I quite liked the idea of casting Kenneth as Buster. I can see that he would have been a fun, cheerful companion somehow but he might have been insulted had he read the book with that description in mind. Hugh was cast more as the great love to my mind.

I was deeply touched by his observation about Gillian and Imogen sitting together at the EB day . How moved Enid would be if she could have looked down on the scene, her two daughters together and so many others who had such high regard for her books.

Lots of food for thought about where writers get their ideas? Do they use those in their families/people they know well as the basis for characters? It stands to reason that Enid's undermind probably did put Kenneth into the books etc on one level.

I have a worksheet in front of me about 'interrogating characters' for a writing course. I have some questions I need to ask my characters. For example 'what do you consider the most overrated virute? How well do you tell jokes? etc'. My course tutor tells me: 'At first your responses might feel artificial but try to trust the process..pretty soon the answers will flow and your character will start bossing you around, telling you what to write next!' Do you know what? This doesn't happen for me, I only see myself and those I know well on the page.

Not sure if I've got the right end of the stick about the ending ('the man looks down again on the little girl..What should he do? He knows both the book and the individual can't be teeming with life. He has to choose between them.etc..') Anyone explain? Thought I had it but confused by the two books in the bookcase.

Also is the picture of the little girl on the 'Fabulous Enid' pages Enid? Thanks.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Not sure if I've got the right end of the stick about the ending ('the man looks down again on the little girl..What should he do? He knows both the book and the individual can't be teeming with life. He has to choose between them.etc..') Anyone explain? Thought I had it but confused by the two books in the bookcase.

Also is the picture of the little girl on the 'Fabulous Enid' pages Enid? Thanks.

It's a while now since I read Looking for Enid but the ending harks back to the Bible story of The Little Girl of Capernaum, which Enid Blyton re-told. The impression I get when I read that passage is that Duncan is saying that if Enid hadn't remained to some degree "frozen" after the departure of her father when she was twelve, but had recovered fully like the girl in the story, then she wouldn't have gone on to write so many books. The pain she suffered, and which never completely went away, was a factor in her remarkable creativity. The Boy Who Came Back (not Looked back, as it says in Looking for Enid!) and The Man Who Stopped to Help were Enid's final two books - the last two stories of so very very many - and they too were re-tellings of Bible stories (the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan.) There are images here of healing and reconciliation and a suggestion that Enid's own pain could only be eased on her death. According to Imogen Smallwood in A Childhood at Green Hedges, Enid's last words before she died were, "I am going to my father! At least I think I am."

The picture of the girl on the 'Fabulous Enid' pages is taken from a badge designed by artist Nicola Atkinson, based on an illustration by Elsie Walker for The Little Girl of Capernaum.

Anita

[Tony Summerfield]

I was deeply touched by his observation about Gillian and Imogen sitting together at the EB day . How moved Enid would be if she could have looked down on the scene, her two daughters together and so many others who had such high regard for her books.

I am not sure if it was clear to you, Julia, that when Duncan wrote this he had never been to an Enid Blyton Day, it was all written from his imagination. In fact he never met Gillian, and only met Imogen on the Day he attended after the book was written.

[Belly]

Thanks very much, Anita. That makes sense. I had sort of got it but didn't immediately make the connection to the The Little Girl of Capernaum. The bible re-tellings you mention sound very moving.

[Ming]

I was deeply touched by his observation about Gillian and Imogen sitting together at the EB day .

Imogen Smallwood writes in A Childhood at Green Hedges that Gillian's room was just beside (?) hers, and yet they barely knew each other, so separate were their lives. Gillian and Imogen seemed to be polar opposites in their personalities, so I for one will find it hard to believe that they ever sat together at the Enid Blyton Day!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've been to Enid Blyton Days where both Gillian and Imogen were present but I didn't actually see them together.

Anita

[Belly]

I think I got the impression that they were sitting together from this: 'The two elderly ladies behind Karen are Gillian and Imogen' (then a description of both ladies) as Duncan recounts the EB day. Later he talks about Gillian smiling at Imogen I think.

I don't think he actually says they were sitting together but I got that impression and that they were on friendly terms.

I thought they had reconciled in more recent years?

[Tony Summerfield]

I think you must have bypassed my post above, but the whole episode was in Duncan's imagination as he had never even been to an Enid Blyton Day and nor had ever met either Gillian or Imogen when he wrote this.

[Belly]

Thank you for that Tony. I completely missed it was imagined, I was reading it bed bound with flu which maybe excuses my confusion a little .

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hope you're feeling better now, Julia.

[Moonraker]

Thank you for that Tony. I completely missed it was imagined, I was reading it bed bound with flu which maybe excuses my confusion a little .

A case of Belly-Ache?

Hope you're better now!