The Enid Blyton Society

Thanks for the info on the books Anita and Tony. It's been really interesting to read all this thread.

sorry to hear about your son Anita. Hope he's better soon.

Belly wrote:I remember firing off so many letters to the publishers asking hundreds of questions! Most were ignored until letters were passed to Gillian Baverstock and opening her first reply to my endless questions gave me more happiness & a thrill than I had ever had in my childhood to that point.

It must have been amazing, corresponding with Gillian. I never thought of writing to an author or their family or publisher although I was an avid reader as a child.

Hope your daughter is okay, Belly. Thanks for the wishes for my son. He's still in pain and had to have his plaster changed again today because of swollen fingers, but he's being brave.

Moonraker wrote:It maybe breaking copyright to publish Hello! photos/interview here. They are quite protective about their content.

You may be right about not publishing the whole article here. It is an interesting interview though.

Anita

Anita Bensoussane wrote: He's still in pain and had to have his plaster changed again today because of swollen fingers, but he's being brave.

It is most important to keep an eye on this. As you probably know, Anita, one good way is to check his capillary refill. Any more than two seconds and the plaster may well be too tight. Anyone who is not sure how to do this, press the finger nail so that it goes white, let go and it should be pink within two seconds.

Yes, thanks Nigel. He's sleeping on the settee at the moment with his arm elevated on a pillow, which should help matters.

Anita

Sorry to hear about your son's accident Anita. It sounds extremely painful. I'm sure he'll get better soon though. Like you I never ever thought of writing to an author although I had my head permanently in a book. Its sad that Enids book collection was so mistreated. An awful lot of insight can be gleaned about an artist, any artist, by perusing the books, music, artwork etc that inspired them. There do seem to be an awful lot of gaps in our Blyton knowledge caused by those who, probably inadvertantly, did'nt recognise the importance of preserving things that belonged to her.

Just found this in the minutes for last month's Beaconsfield Council planning committee meeting, under 'Appeals Lodged':

d) 08/00199/FUL Banner Homes Limited : Redevelopment of site to provide block
containing 8 x 3 bed flats, basement car park. Construction of vehicular access.
1 Blyton Close, Beaconsfield.

Oh great more destruction.

At least they can't destroy our memories.

Very true.

I don't really see what the problem is......

No problem - just incredible (and therefore interesting) that ten houses were built (and a road) on the original Green Hedges site and now eight flats are being put up on the plot occupied by just ONE of those houses. Just shows how big the original site of GH must have been - and how Beaconsfield is being ruined by greedy developers!

Viking Star wrote:I don't really see what the problem is......

It's no use crying over spilt milk! Green Hedges has gone, that is a pity, but there it is. So if they are going to knock down a replacement building to build flats, great!

I take your point, redlionweb, about the greed of developers. I can tell you, if I could build 8 flats in my garden, they would soon be up and I would retire to a delightful haven!

The way they build today I'm surprised they are only putting up 8 flats in the space. Not far from me, developers have built flats on an old pub bowling green, and have managed to fit a total of 24 apartments and houses on the area!

At the edge of our village stood an old wooden garage for many years. Next thing you know, it's being knocked down and a house is being built in its place. It's amazing what they cram in these days. And I bet it sells for some ridiculous price.

This is happening all over the South East and probably everywhere. It's a shame as the landscape is being changed for the worse forever.

My parents lived in a road with 1920s and 1930s houses on quite big plots. I drove down the other day and where the houses used to stand are many mini-estates, featureless box houses in the main.

For some reason the same doesn't seem to be happening in St Albans, Herts or over near Virginia Water in Surrey.

I was asked to a party in Virigina Water at a beautiful 1920s relativley small detached house, 3 large bedrooms. I was surprised to see they had a stunning, 5 acre mature garden you could play golf in! They said they couldn't get planning permission even if they wanted too.

The same seems to be true in St Albans. Some roads there have lovely, large Victorian houses with gardens of more than 2 acres. Elsewhere in Herts the developers would be rubbing their hands together. Not sure if it is about them being Victorian/Edwardian rather than 1920s/30s?