The Enid Blyton Society

This was just on the Midlands news - a woman opened a £1 copy of Silas Marner and found a letter from Enid Blyton!

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/777150 ... las-marner

What a great find! I've bought a number of books from the Hay Cinema Bookshop over the years, but I've never found anything of note. Jacqueline Ralph is indeed very lucky.

That's a super find. I've never discovered anything worth mentioning in a second hand book either.

Wow what a find. Lucky lady, so glad the book didn't go to landfill.

Oh wow, that's incredible!

I have just posted about it on "Blyton on TV" .. sorry about the duplication. I was thinking that "Mary" had been inserted later but the reproduction in Rob's post seems to show a damp discolouration which may have caused the ink to change colour slightly - so it may all have been written at the same time, when I had surmised that it might not!

Mmmm, dunno. "Green Hedges" and most of the first complete sentence are also within that area that's apparently been damp, and their colour hasn't changed. "Mary" does appear to have been written in lighter blue ink, or at least ink that was slightly different from the rest and has faded faster. I'd think there is a distinct possibility that the name was written in later than the rest, after the prize winner had been announced. But it's still undoubtedly a genuine letter in Enid's handwriting. What a find!

(I've just been thinking, that book title is not one I know and not something I would ever have picked up in a second hand bookshop... maybe I should start looking through more old books that I don't think I'm interested in. )

A lucky find! I like Silas Marner and I'd have been overjoyed if I'd inadvertently bought a copy containing a letter from Enid Blyton!

I have only just seen this and I was puzzled when someone from the BBC website approached me this morning and I'm afraid I replied that I knew nothing about it! If I had seen this I would have immediately said that it is just printed and the only handwritten thing was the name 'Mary' and that was not written by Enid Blyton - just look at the 'y'!

Good point — I didn't notice the "y", but it's definitely different.

Interesting about the letter being printed, Tony.

Incidentally, it's funny that the bookseller says: "Enid Blyton died in 1968 and they didn't do book signings back then so those signatures are worth more money." This wasn't a book signing, of course, but Enid did do quite a lot of book signings!

Interesting point, Anita! Just another example of how underrated Enid is - she was one of the earlier book signing champions!

Merged with an earlier topic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-st ... e-39218885

The Beeb is upfront about the likelihood of it being a "pre-printed facsimile" with the name Mary written in.

Good to see you Walter. There have been some interesting comments on this here.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... f=3&t=7529" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The topics have now been merged.