What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Daisy
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Daisy »

Rilloby Fair is also the first that I read of the Barney series... and was hooked too. It really is one of the best I think.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

not only is it an exciting mystery, I also love the details of Snubby on the train, the 'Green Hands Gang' etc and the feeling of family and home-life, and 'place' as well as all the great characters at the fair etc. :D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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John Pickup
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by John Pickup »

The interplay between Snubby and Great Uncle Robert is brilliant. This is the one series where I would recommend reading from the first book as will become apparent when finishing The Rubadub Mystery.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Moonraker »

I love the Great Uncle character - well, he is called 'Robert'!
Imagine Snubby addressing him as Great Uncle Rob, though... :shock:
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Could have been worse...could have been 'Great Uncle Bert!' ;-)
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Reading Circus of Adventure - and enjoying it just as much as always. The one thing that does leap out at me, and it makes me feel only slightly uncomfortable, is the constant description of Gussy and the people who are 'after him' as 'foreigners'.

Various servants and farmers wives call Gussy 'a proper little foreigner' in a disparaging tone,and it seems rather 'near the knuckle' to me. It is hinted quite categorically that somehow a 'foreigner' is very much secondary to a British person, both in intelligence and manners. I find this more racist than the use of 'nigger' that has been discussed so often recently. There was clearly a 'snobbishness' in the 1950's when it came to comparing ourselves to 'foreigners'.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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John Pickup
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by John Pickup »

I think we thought of ourselves as superior in many ways back then, Rob. We had an Empire and had recently won another world war. It does seem disparaging but that would be how people thought back in the fifties. I was born in the early 1950's and can't remember ever coming across a foreigner whilst I was at school.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree - even when I was young I can remember this attitude - even though in Birmingham there had been lots of 'foreigners' for years, particularly Italians, Germans, etc. Of course many people in Britain still have the same attitude today, so I guess it's not much different even in 2016, though as a country we like to kid ourselves it is! It struck me just how often Gussy is described as 'a foreigner' though - pretty much used as an excuse for his peculiar and unconventional behaviour! :lol:
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Rob Houghton wrote:Reading Circus of Adventure - and enjoying it just as much as always. The one thing that does leap out at me, and it makes me feel only slightly uncomfortable, is the constant description of Gussy and the people who are 'after him' as 'foreigners'.
Various servants and farmers wives call Gussy 'a proper little foreigner' in a disparaging tone,and it seems rather 'near the knuckle' to me. It is hinted quite categorically that somehow a 'foreigner' is very much secondary to a British person, both in intelligence and manners. I find this more racist than the use of 'nigger' that has been discussed so often recently. There was clearly a 'snobbishness' in the 1950's when it came to comparing ourselves to 'foreigners'.
Not only in the fifties, Rob, in the sixties and early seventies still!
I remember German people using the term "Auslaender" (foreigner) way into the seventies, before they finally started being PC and calling them Turkish, Spanish or Greek people (who were working/living in Germany).
Chrissie

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Daisy
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Daisy »

It's a shame when words become unacceptable. When I was reading books as a child, the word 'foreigner' simply meant someone from another country and wasn't intended to be disparaging or critical at all. At least that is how I always interpreted it.
I am aware that Enid did occasionally imply that to "be English" was an attractive attribute though. Back when she was writing most of her books we were all more aware of what being patriotic meant... after all the war was very real in the minds of the children of that time.
Personally I was lucky to be introduced to 'foreigners' at a very young age. Living in the north of Scotland we had Norwegian refugees who were made welcome by my parents and later on in Yorkshire just after the war had ended, we entertained German prisoners of war in our home, many of whom were not repatriated for a couple of years. So right from a young age I was aware of other nationalities who were people just like us!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

I agree Daisy, as we've said on many occasions, Enid wrote in a different era than today. The word 'foreigner' doesn't worry me at all. It just means someone from outside of the UK. I never worry or get uncomfortable reading any of Enid's books, as I know she wasn't racist!

8)
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Enid uses the word 'foreigners' quite often in her books, of course, usually when talking about baddies. This seems more acceptable, as during the 1940s and 50s I'm sure everyone was wary of foreigners, especially during and just after the war. I even quite like the use of the word foreigner in a famous five or mystery book etc - it adds a feeling of excitement and mystery.

I'm not at all bothered by the use of the word 'foreigner' - its a brilliant word!! :-D

My issue was mostly with the way the word is used in Circus - and the attutude with which it is used - behind Gussy's back and even in front of his face...people talking as if he wasn't there...'he's a proper little foreigner, isn't he?' - it comes across as quite rude, and a definite insult. They may as well be saying he's a dirty little runt of a foreigner, lol! I think ive only come across this usage of the word as an insult a few times in Blyton. Cant really think of another book where its used in such a disparaging way. I just found it quite amusing more than anything. Im guessing its been altered in modern reprints.

Mind you, reading Ship and then Circus, we begin to realise that the Adventure children don't have the refined manners and self control of Blytons other children - they do and say what they think, lol! They are all 'little Julians' ! :lol:
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Nicko »

Coincidentally I am also reading The Circus of Adventure but sadly a modern version.

The snobbery is a little unfortunate and the way kids treat Gussy in this book (and Lucian in Ship) is slightly unpleasant.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree. It's unfortunate that the Adventure children are so often portrayed as quite obnoxious! I guess that's true to life in a way, but they are often very self opinionated and make fun of anyone who isn't like them. I think I feel it more than most because I probably would have been treated the same by them as a child, as i was quite bookish and wasn't into sports and had my hair fairly long! :|
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Paul Austin »

Enid did not approve of boys with long hair/beatniks. Of course we now accept that its ok for boys to have long hair and not give a seconds thought, just as we now accept as normal, girls and women with short hair and don't imply that they are masculine.
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