St. Clare's Continuation Books

Issy · Post by **Issy** » 27 Apr 2005, 15:55

for those of us whose fad with Enod Blyton's schoolgirl books have not yet faded as we grow older, one might be pleased that there are some extra St Clare books to add to the collction already existent. However these are badly written and use Enid Blyton's name when she clearly did not write them. Does one not call that copying?

Mac99 · Post by **Mac99** » 27 Apr 2005, 16:20

read your post with interest and did some digging and came across this on an aussie site:

http://www.foxall.com.au/users/mje/Blyton.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

there certainly appears to be loads of books written by other authors. has anybody read any of these and how do they compare to the originals.

mac

Raci · Post by **Raci** » 27 Apr 2005, 22:55

Cheers for the web address!

Lots of info I didnt know about details of less well known books!

Thanks!

Issy · Post by **Issy** » 27 Apr 2005, 23:39

Pamela Cox's sequels are published so that they still somehow advertise they are written by Enid Blyton which of course is wrong.

P.Cox! Can't find anything about her, who is she anyway?

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 28 Apr 2005, 08:29

Hi,
I agree, Issy, that it's wrong for publishers to splash Enid Blyton's signature over books written by other authors. How do they get away with it? Isn't such a practice illegal?

Having said that, I quite enjoyed the St. Clare's books by Pamela Cox because they remained pretty much true to the spirit of the original series. Third Form was a dramatic story in its own right, while Sixth Form was very close to the style of Enid Blyton (though I thought I could see where some ideas had been "borrowed" from other Blyton books, including the Malory Towers series.)

An appalling book, I thought, was The Woods of Adventure, which is a re-write of The Castle of Adventure. The style is snappy, the plot fast-paced and the story completely altered - ridiculous, in fact - involving a mad monk and radioactive rods.

Where are Blyton's descriptions of nature, and what has happened to the bon-homie between the children? All lost. The only name to appear on the front cover is that of Enid Blyton, yet the book is a travesty of her work! All is revealed inside - it was actually written by Helen Wire, based on the film version by Rio Fanning.

Doesn't copyright protect authors from things like this?

Best wishes,
Anita

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 28 Apr 2005, 09:30

Indeed there are very strict laws about copying other author's work and using their name and for this reason all recent publications have been specially commissioned by the Enid Blyton Company (Chorion), who obviously wanted to use Enid's name to help sell their books!

So what have we got - two St. Clare's books, a batch of Naughtiest Girl books, one Adventurous Four book (turning a short story into a full-length book) and add to this six Famous Five prequels (the Just George series) and Gillian Baverstock's Riddle series. Of course we also have to add the Adventure and Secret Series from the TV adaptations.

Briefly I agree with Anita that the two St. Clare's books were pretty faithful to the original series and I think Clive Dickinson did a very good job on 'Trapped' - the third Adventurous Four book. I am a lot less keen on Anne Digby's Naughtiest Girl books and I never did like the mucking up of some excellent books (like The Boy Next Door) to make the Riddle Series. If you have seen the New Zealand TV Series you will know that they stray from Enid's originals to such an extent that some of the Secret Series are barely recognizable and the books clearly state inside that they are screenplay novelisations - the trademark signature is used to indicate the it is an Enid Blyton Company product - a bit muddling but I can see why they have done it.

All the foreign 'Blyton's' are another matter and I won't go into that here.

Best wishes
Tony

Issy · Post by **Issy** » 28 Apr 2005, 22:33

i think that's just wrong-if those people writing these sequels, and equally their publisher too, think they won't get enough attraction they should firstly reconsider writing and secondly publishing these works.

I think it is a false claim to fame "borrowing" other people's ideas. I haven't read any of the sequels but i must say i have scanned them in the shop and they are not attractive enough for me to consider buying them because for example the back of the 'third form' book has Isabel 'musing' which is not a Blyton term and Carlotta is 'her friend'. I think it is unimaginative and silly. I am sure Blyton would not pleased to see what people are doing to her books but the same could be said of all these budding scholars interpreting books written from a long time agao, dating back to Shakespeare as I find people have a need to discuss, criticise and in this case re-write, or write sequels to series of books that are not necessary. Enid Blyton did not intend to write about the third and sixth form and it should be left that way. If people want to write, they should start something new.
Issy

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 30 Apr 2005, 11:40

Although agreeing with a lot you say, Issy, sometimes a series can be extended by a sympathetic writer. Keith Robinson has written (not yet published) a further story in the "Mystery of.." series, The Mystery of the Stolen Books. This is excellent, continuing in the same vein of Blyton's writing.

I think the crux of the matter is that it must be good and contain the same atmosphere.

Issy · Post by **Issy** » 30 Apr 2005, 16:58

hello moonraker,

What are your views on Emma Tennant's sequels to classics such as Pride and Prejuduce and Tess of the D'urbevilles? These are neither good nor original yet they have still been published. I don't think publication of a book means it is of a good quality. Rather, it is the luck of some unimaginative writers trying to live off somebody else's success!! True, people have agreed that Pamela Cox's books are true to Blyton's style-this may be because ideas are frequently borrowed but the question that still remains is who is this person? I'd like to know her reasons behind it. Another thing to remember is that Blyton wrote during a different period of time-how can this be relived?

Moonraker · Post by **Moonraker** » 30 Apr 2005, 17:32

"What are your views on Emma Tennant's sequels to classics such as Pride and Prejuduce and Tess of the D'urbevilles? These are neither good nor original yet they have still been published."

Hi Issy

Exactly; neither good nor original makes my point. There can IMO only be a case for adding to an author's works if the stories are as good as the originals.

I think in general, as you say, it is best to leave well alone, but as in the case of Keith's "Stolen Books" it is sometimes well worth it.

Mac99 · Post by **Mac99** » 30 Apr 2005, 20:03

moonraker wrote:Keith Robinson has written (not yet published) a further story in the "Mystery of.." series, The Mystery of the Stolen Books.

moonraker you mention this is unpublished .. will it be published and if you have read it, where could i get this?

oops, no need to reply just came across his website in the links section

mac

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 22 Apr 2007, 16:16

I was possibly a bit rude about these in the games forum yesterday, referring to them as 'non canon'. But so I think of them. I read them out of interest but really didn't consider them to be a legitimate part of the series. But perhaps that's not fair .. they are very well done, all things considered. They were obviously written by someone who was a great fan of the series and has an intimate knowledge of it - I especially liked, for instance, the reference to Elsie Fanshawe in book six. What do others think of them?

Post by **Tony Summerfield** » 22 Apr 2007, 16:28

I think Pamela Cox has done a very good job on those two St Clare's books. I also like the third Adventurous Four book, where Enid's four chapter short story has been turned into a full length book.

I am not all that keen on Anne Digby's Naughtiest Girl books (despite the fact that she came to an EB Day as a speaker!) and the other thing that I don't like is taking individual books and turning them into series. This has been done with the Riddle series - now called the Young Adventurers and also another four one-off books were turned into the Fabulous Four!

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 22 Apr 2007, 16:37

[Tony:] ...another four one-off books were turned into the Fabulous Four!

So talking about the Beatles is not at all off-topic!

Anita

Moose · Post by **Moose** » 22 Apr 2007, 16:37

I guess the trouble for me is that I just don't like reading 'Blyton' books that are not by Blyton

. Cox did a good job but I can't reread those books in the way I do the others because I can't get out of my head the fact that they're not 'authentic'

.

Still, there's worse out there

. I especially steer clear of anything that is prefaced by 'Enid Blyton's' on the cover