The Enid Blyton Society

Thanks, Steve. Actually I'm not thinking of taking up stamp-collecting as a hobby again, though I do still have my collection. I just suddenly thought of my old stamp album when Tony mentioned Lundy Island.

I like the part with Philip and the bears in The Circus of Adventure too, Robert. In fact, that was the first passage I ever read from the Adventure series since that episode is included in The Big Enid Blyton Book (Hamlyn.) It seemed very exciting to me and I longed to know more about Philip, though when I started reading the Adventure series I actually began with Valley because Circus wasn't available in the library at the time.

Anita

This is very interesting to me--since I am currently reading Circus. It's actually quite a good one--but I hate the start. Everyone seems to delight in calling Gussy with disdain - "he's a foreigner, isn't he?". I've never really noticed things like that before in Blyton books--I didn't bother about them. But in this book...hmm, it's very irritating. However, the middle and end parts are good. It would be 8/10 for me.

Considering that The Circus of Adventure was written in 1952, seven years after the Second World War ended, it does seem a bit odd that people regarded foreigners in a slightly suspicious manner.

Ming wrote:Considering that The Circus of Adventure was written in 1952, seven years after the Second World War ended, it does seem a bit odd that people regarded foreigners in a slightly suspicious manner.

This is not the only book in which foreigners are regarded suspiciously. I can't actually think of any more books, but I think there were some besides this. Was it in The Mystery That Never Was? I've never read that book, though I do have a copy of it as a book in the "Riddle" series, borrowed.

Traitors also occur in some books: The Rubadub Mystery for example, also published in 1952, and mention of them in The Mystery of the Strange Bundle, which was also published in 1952!! 1952 seems to have been a busy year for Enid.

*goes off to check in The Cave of Books how many books did Enid publish in 1952, and 1949.*

Ming wrote:Considering that The Circus of Adventure was written in 1952, seven years after the Second World War ended, it does seem a bit odd that people regarded foreigners in a slightly suspicious manner.

Not at all, my girl. Even today foreigners are looked on with suspicious eyes. Even our friends in the north, the Scots look on us English with suspicion!

There's nowt so queer as the folk you don't know!

Golly, and over here people look at "foreigners" with admiration.

Ming wrote:Golly, and over here people look at "foreigners" with admiration.

That's because I am so big over in Bangladesh.

In UK you're looked on as a foreigner if you come from the south of England, or the north of England, or if you're from Wales, or if you live in a different part of the city or in the country, etc etc!!!

In Birmingham we look on people from 'The Black Country' (Dudley, not many miles away) as being foreigners: and they look at us in the same way!!

Down here, the Cornish think that once you pass the Tamar you're in a foreign land, and they call it 'up country',

I loved the Circus of Adventure! But I have often wondered what became of the girl Jack met on his travels, the one who helped him escape from the police. Did they ever meet again? As an incurable romantic, I'd like to think so. After all, they had a lot in common - they both kept parrots.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
Does/did anyone else here collect stamps, by the way? I used to belong to a stamp club when I was about 10, and buy stamps by mail order, but it got too expensive after a while. The most picturesque ones were from Ajman - I had a set of beautiful stamps from there, large-sized ones featuring butterflies, which I framed and hung on the wall.

I used to collect stamps as well. I still have quite a lot that are waiting to be stored in albums.
Yes, the formerly independant members of the United Arabic Emirates had very picturesque stamps, although it seems they were rather meant for export than real use.

I used to collect stamps too -there were some very beautiful ones around at the time.

I finally started to read it in French, "Le mystère du mondial-circus". As usual there are many scenes abridged, especially the family ones, although Nigel surely will be happy to know that there's no great to-do about Lucy-Ann or rather Lucette . I think it's remarkable though that they explained in the French edition why Bill and Allison (René and Alice) didn't take the car when they were informed that Aunt Naomi had fallen and needed medical aid.

I finally finished the French edition. As usual the interaction between the characters is quite shortened to the necessary parts, minor things are missing completely. There are several changes to the plot though.
Tony carries the children one by one on his shoulders over the rope instead of using the trapeze.
The bears broke through the gate of their cage instead of breaking some sidebars. Nobody puts a torch in front of it, but Jacques puts two bars in front of the damaged after Philip calmed them down.

Interesting, Wolfgang. It's a shame the part about the trapeze was altered. The use of trapeze equipment adds colour and novelty to the story of the escape.

I suppose Philip no longer remarks, "Why don't foreigners bring up their kids properly?"