The Enid Blyton Society

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Luckily, the illustration of Kiki at the beginning of The Island of Adventure didn't spoil things for me because the first book I read from that series was The Valley of Adventure. By the time I got to Island I recognised Kiki's sayings at once, picture or no picture!

Actually it must have been the same for me because I began with Sea and then worked backways to Island before returning to Mountain and going forwards. Very misdirected reading I did in those early days.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Luckily, the illustration of Kiki at the beginning of The Island of Adventure didn't spoil things for me because the first book I read from that series was The Valley of Adventure. By the time I got to Island I recognised Kiki's sayings at once, picture or no picture!

The Valley of Adventure was the first Adventure book I read, also. It was in the classroom book corner, and I remember I chose it as my 'spare time' reading book, when we'd finished our work. The teacher did suggest it was 'too easy' for me, but I read it anyway and enjoyed it so much I read it again straight after! I think he wondered why I was reading a 'simple' book for about four months, lol!

I have The Island Of Adventure in the original hardback with illustrations by Stuart Tresilian, one of my most prized books! (Thanks Courtenay ) And yep, I noticed just now that it has quite a few give away illustrations, the most prominent being Kiki on the very first page, of course.

This is one of the few series that I actually read in order, and I'm thankful for that, as otherwise I daresay it would've been quite confusing, or rather, not as effective as they are in order.

I think its definitely worth reading this series in order. As I said, the first book I read in the series was 'Valley' and then I went to Island - but Island was a bit of a let-down after Valley, and quite slow to start. It's also more conventional - house in cornwall, flashing lights etc - whereas Valley seemed 'exotic' to me at the age of 10...so I never read more than two chapters of Island until I was in my 20's.

I had read The Secret Valley which is a part of the Secret Series now but not written by EB, I guess before I started TValleyofA. So it always seemed a bit non Blytonic to me, 'cause that was also set in a Valley. So I never really enjoyed it as much as the others, though it has nothing to do with the actual story.

Rob Houghton wrote:I think its definitely worth reading this series in order.

Oh, I would say this applies to every series. As a child, it wasn't possible as most of my reading was courtesy of the city library. I could only read books as they appeared on the shelves - and Blyton's were rather difficult to find!

Lucky Star wrote:The original illustrations and the text go together like hand and glove for me. It makes me sad that some generations grew up reading Blyton but not seeing the classic images by Tresilian and Soper. It must have put a whole different complexion on their Blyton reading.

Oh, most definitely. I was fortunate in that Enid's books were still being written/published as I was growing up. Sadly, we weren't wealthy enough for me to have new copies bought for me as they came out, but I did read books in original copy/illustrations. Enid once said that her books were her family. They were and are certainly among my closest friends. I spent a few minutes last night just holding and looking at The Valley of Adventure in my hands. The book somehow penetrated my innermost soul and I was transported back 55 years or so to the first time I held it. Pure magic.

Lucky Star wrote:The original illustrations and the text go together like hand and glove for me. It makes me sad that some generations grew up reading Blyton but not seeing the classic images by Tresilian and Soper. It must have put a whole different complexion on their Blyton reading.

I'm one of those people, and though I still love Enid Blyton just like you guys, it's one of my biggest regrets about Blyton, not having First Editions at hand.

Don't worry, Sunskriti, I never had any older editions either as I was growing up (except for a few Famous Fives) and it didn't have any impact on my love for Enid Blyton then or now — it just makes it more exciting now when I do manage to get hold of an early edition!

Neither did I. The only hardback with a wrapper I owned as a child was a second edition of 'The Rilloby Fair Mystery' - which I bought at a school jumble sale in 1980!

I never owned another hardback version until my late 20's.

I have 3 first editions now, but I too love Blyton and her books just as much when reading the modern editions. Hopefully when I grow up and have my own income I can invest in more old editions.

The illustrations are nice, but for me the important part is the text.

Just out of interest, I counted the illustrations in the original hardback version compared to the Piccolo paperback I had in the 1980's...

The original version has 44 illustrations, while the paperback only has 15 -- quite a difference!!

db105 wrote:The illustrations are nice, but for me the important part is the text.

I have never ever read an Enid Blyton book without illustrations.
I was disgusted when editions without illustrations came out some years ago - what a swizz!

I so agree, Pete. It's like TV without the pictures!

If you lived nearer we could sink a few and you wouldn't care about the lack of pictures!!