What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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

Post by Rob Houghton »

As well as reading Five On Kirrin Island Again, I'm also reading a story a day from 'Tales of betsy May' - what a great little book! True, the stories are sometimes a little 'twee' and definitely aimed at younger children, but they are so charming and extremely perceptive of how small children behave! Betsy May is a great character, because she is written so convincingly. It really shows how good Enid was at writing from a child's perspective.
'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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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I agree that Tales of Betsy-May is a charming book, Rob. Reading it brings back strongly the world of early childhood with its triumphs, delights, discoveries, games, fears and insecurities - all based around the home and the local community.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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

Post by Shanku »

On the St. Clare's series now.

Does anyone have thoeries on why EB wrote this series in odd school terms rather than a book per year like Malory Towers?
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It is strange, Shanku. I imagine Enid Blyton didn't set out to write six St. Clare's books from the beginning, especially as Pat and Isabel were already fourteen in The Twins at St. Clare's. Perhaps the first title was intended as a stand-alone book, or Enid thought she was merely going to write a handful of books about the girls' first year or two at the school. It might have been pressure from readers or publishers that made her carry on - or maybe she became more involved with the characters than she had expected and realised she wanted to take them higher up the school. By missing out three years (third form, lower sixth and upper sixth) and never mentioning the girls' ages again, she avoids drawing attention to the fact that Pat and Isabel would be about twenty-one by the time they left St. Clare's!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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

Post by Daisy »

I'm reading the series at the moment - just finished "The O'Sullivan Twins" where the girls are looking forward to another term in the first form. Janet says she has already had four terms with Miss Roberts! It all seems very strange.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Nick »

The weather has me in the mood for Five Get Into A Fix.

I’m going to put the kids to bed, get the log burner on, make a hot chocolate and settle down for a few hours :D
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Shanku »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Perhaps the first title was intended as a stand-alone book, or Enid thought she was merely going to write a handful of books about the girls' first year or two at the school. It might have been pressure from readers or publishers that made her carry on - or maybe she became more involved with the characters than she had expected and realised she wanted to take them higher up the school.
Yeah, makes sense as there are quite a few loopholes in the series. Which one was written first? Malory Towers or St. Clare's?
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The St. Clare's series was written first, as you no doubt guessed!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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

Post by Shanku »

Haha yes, I did :lol:
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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

Post by Stephen »

I got through TWO books when I was away!

The Mystery Of The Disappearing Cat - As I said, this was my first read FFO, and this is going to sound very silly in hindsight! I had already read some Adventure and Famous Five stories by the time I started this. Jack, Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann sounded like normal names. Julian, Dick and Anne sounded like normal names. Georgina being called George was probably the closest they ever came to a nickname. But suddenly, we had Fatty, Bets, Pip - and a policeman called Clear-Orf! Had Enid Blyton suddenly turned into a writer for Grange Hill? :shock:

But it's a very good book and one that both a ten year old (which I probably was at the time) and an adult can enjoy. Primarily set in two gardens, I always visualised our garden being the Hiltons, and next door's being Lady Candling's - even though the fictional ones must have been a lot bigger! As a child, I was always able to 'suspend my disbelief' when reading Enid Blyton. Things like old money and boarding school simply fitted in to the worlds she was creating and I could quite easily imagine myself in these situations. But reading as an adult, things like these households having servants, and Bets having a "bedtime bell" seem very much of a different time!

It's interesting that the one character that was most obviously a baddie - turns out to be the baddie! Tupping is obviously not some slightly surly guy who turns out to be a detective in disguise or something. He's clearly the villain from the start, except that it can't be proved and evidence points to a sympathetic character having done it. It's up to the FFO to prove the evidence wrong.


First Term At Malory Towers - "Hilda, you never wrote to me in the hols, you mean pig!" Always made me laugh!

I would say this was my most read of all Enid's school books. There's a rich variety of characters, pupils and teachers alike that we're introduced to. Even as a boy who didn't go to boarding school, I found characters and situations I could identify with. I would say I was a cross between Darrell (wanting to do well, inspired by tales of success, likes to be associated with the popular people like Alicia while stopping short of actually copying her), and Mary-Lou (timid, shy, not wanting to upset anyone) - and possibly Irene!

However, I've never been entirely happy with Gwen and Alicia. Gwen is MT's regular "unpleasant" character. She's certainly spoilt and inexperienced with the real world, and later on does develop a real spiteful streak. But when we first meet Gwen, it's the hero-worshipped, sharp-tongued, can-do-no-wrong Alicia who makes fun of her and doesn't make her feel welcome at Malory Towers. Who's the spiteful one now?

I've always been hesitant to get different copies of Enid Blyton books I read as a child in case they've been updated by some faceless holier-than-thou busybody. My original book was the 1967 Dragon version, but that's long gone. This one was the 2006 Egmont. And I'm sure I remember Darrell slapping Gwen in the pool as opposed to shaking her. Has that been edited?

My next book is The Ship Of Adventure. Like most of the Adventure series, I was perhaps a little bit too young to fully understand it on first reading and remember certain scenes rather than the actual story. So should be interesting!
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I was exactly the same with imagining Enid Blyton settings as being my own. The gardens were always my garden, including Larry's or Pip's garden, or the garden in Those Dreadful Children, which was a book I particularly remember reading as a child. I also used to imagine that the Secret Seven lived in my area, and pounded the streets I pounded - and the same with the Find Outers. I never imagined these characters were living in villages - they were always right where I lived!

I used to read about Bedtime Bells and cooks and nannies and play-rooms and nurseries and these things flooded over me - or rather, I thought they were things that all children's fiction should have. because I mainly read Enid Blyton books and E Nesbit, which both had dinner bells and nurses and nannies etc, I thought that all children's fiction must have them. I didn't realise they were old-fashioned or belonged to 'the upper classes'. I thought children in books lived in a parallel universe populated by cooks and maids, lol! :-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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Shanku
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Shanku »

Stephen wrote:I've always been hesitant to get different copies of Enid Blyton books I read as a child in case they've been updated by some faceless holier-than-thou busybody. My original book was the 1967 Dragon version, but that's long gone. This one was the 2006 Egmont. And I'm sure I remember Darrell slapping Gwen in the pool as opposed to shaking her. Has that been edited?
Definitely been edited. I still have the old version and there were four sharp slaps which could be heard up at the Towers.
...and there, hidden among the leaves, was Peronel. She had beautiful golden hair and was dressed in silvery white with silver wings on her back.

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

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Stephen wrote:But it's a very good book [The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat] and one that both a ten year old (which I probably was at the time) and an adult can enjoy. Primarily set in two gardens, I always visualised our garden being the Hiltons, and next door's being Lady Candling's - even though the fictional ones must have been a lot bigger!
Golly, you've just made me realise that whenever I read The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat (and certain other Find-Outers books) I imagine the garden of the house we lived in in Hawarden, and the garden of our neighbour there. Funnily enough, we moved away from that house just after my sixth birthday and went to live in Colwyn Bay. I didn't read The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat until I was eight or perhaps even nine, but there must have been something about Enid Blyton's description that made an image of that garden pop into my head!
Stephen wrote:I've never been entirely happy with Gwen and Alicia [Malory Towers]. Gwen is MT's regular "unpleasant" character. She's certainly spoilt and inexperienced with the real world, and later on does develop a real spiteful streak. But when we first meet Gwen, it's the hero-worshipped, sharp-tongued, can-do-no-wrong Alicia who makes fun of her and doesn't make her feel welcome at Malory Towers. Who's the spiteful one now?
I agree that Alicia gets away with a lot just because she's bright and lively and entertains the others with her tricks and jokes. There is one book in which she struggles with her exams and understands, for the first time, what it's like not to have a quick brain (even though she doesn't realise it at the time, she is going down with an illness and that's why she's unable to focus). However, once she recovers she's back to her usual cold, sharp-tongued self and doesn't seem to feel any more sympathy for others than she did before.
Rob Houghton wrote:I used to read about Bedtime Bells and cooks and nannies and play-rooms and nurseries and these things flooded over me - or rather, I thought they were things that all children's fiction should have. because I mainly read Enid Blyton books and E Nesbit, which both had dinner bells and nurses and nannies etc, I thought that all children's fiction must have them. I didn't realise they were old-fashioned or belonged to 'the upper classes'. I thought children in books lived in a parallel universe populated by cooks and maids, lol! :-D
Same here! I used to put bedtime bells, cooks, etc. into my own stories when I wrote them, as I thought they were essential ingredients of fiction!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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

Post by Rob Houghton »

Anita Bensoussane wrote: Same here! I used to put bedtime bells, cooks, etc. into my own stories when I wrote them, as I thought they were essential ingredients of fiction!
:lol: I'm glad I wasn't the only one! :lol: No wonder my teacher once remarked to my parents 'I can tell he reads Enid Blyton!' :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 Stephen »

I liked The Ship Of Adventure very much, even more than 'Circus'! The title was very clever. As glamorous and original as the idea of the children having a Mediterranean cruise was, the idea of their vessel being the source of their adventure sounded a bit mechanical and modern - and probably quite boring. But then you eventually realise that the 'Ship of Adventure' wasn't the Viking Star or anywhere they could actually go - it was an object. The ship in a bottle that held the treasure map.

It's a great action adventure - if you ignore the convenient coincidences! The children are eager to have an adventure, and Mrs Mannering is equally eager they do not which is why she takes them on the cruise in the first place. They hear about the lost treasure, and then just happen to stumble across the map without even looking for it when it turns up inside the ship in a bottle Lucy-Ann bought from an obscure shop as a birthday present for Philip. But if they're in the middle of an organised cruise, how do they seriously expect to find it? It's only after Mrs Mannering has to leave, Bill comes to take over, and the Viking Star has engine trouble and has to remain docked for a couple of days that adventure really does seem a possibility after all!

Mr Eppy is a great, suave, sophisticated baddie, just like something out of James Bond. Funnily enough, the idea of an irritating but innocent Westernised teenager and their villainous Greek uncle also appears in the 1981 film version of 'For Your Eyes Only' - but I'm sure that's just a coincidence! Lucian reminded me of Ern Goon (come to think of it someone else whose uncle has a Greek sounding name and dubious morality!) Simple minded, but despite a bit of teasing, the children generally tolerate him. As for THAT ending, well I never saw it coming as an innocent child, but I suppose the clues were there. I can't help smiling in hindsight at Mrs Mannering's "Yes - it's a really good idea, Bill. I'm surprised we've never thought of it before!"

Educational as well. I'd never heard of French Morocco before. (If it's mentioned in 'Casablanca', I've never seen it!)

My next story is The Mystery Of The Strange Bundle which I read once but don't really remember.
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