What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

centcat wrote:I am planning to read one of my all time favourite books in bed, The valley of adventure.
Sowmya
Just wondering: did EB write a similar book BEFORE "Valley of Adventure"?
We know that "The Adventurous Four" has similarities with the later "Sea of Adventure" and there are probably a few other books which EB recycled later on.
But is there one book like "Valley" which has been written years before "Valley"?
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by pete9012S »

Chrissie,this review may interest you:

Image
The Secret Mountain - 1941
.....In The Secret Island the Arnolds were lost and remained so. In this present story Paul has conveniently been given his own plane and so the children can go in search of their parents. The plot line would be echoed in later years in The Valley of Adventure. Indeed there are plot lines that would echo in The Mountain of Adventure, The River of Adventure, The Secret of Killimooin and even in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which like The Secret Mountain owed something to Ryder Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and Alan Quartermain.....
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... t+Mountain" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

See also:

Animals, international travel, and Customs in Blyton.
MJE wrote:  

     ....There are a number of stories where characters travel out of Britain to other countries - mainly in the "Secret" series and "Adventure" series. Sometimes they do this officially - that is, legally and openly, through normal transport means such as a publicly available shipping line or airline; but sometimes unofficially also - some examples: "The Secret Mountain": the children take off in Paul's plane for Africa without passports, customs clearance, and so on; "The Circus of Adventure": children kidnapped and taken to Tauri-Hessia in the kidnappers' private plane; "The Valley of Adventure": the children get into the wrong private plane by accident and so get smuggled to Austria.
     At no point in any of these stories is it mentioned that they go through Customs, have to show a passport to anyone, or anything of that sort. However, when the transport is by a recognized shipping line or airline, we can assume this happens even if it is not mentioned, and it's unlikely there would be any complications to this (except one which I'll come to in a minute).
     But what about the cases where they are in a private plane - the unofficial means I mentioned above? In these cases, if they went through Customs, it seems to me their exit from the country would be stopped, considering the unorthodox means they are leaving. And what happens if you have a plane and just take off for Europe or Africa? Would this be noticed somehow, and would government authorities send a plane after you to try to intercept you, because you evaded Customs clearance? Or would they just let you go? I find it difficult to believe they would do this. But the only way I can think of they could stop you fairly quickly would be to shoot you down - but surely they wouldn't do this without some evidence you were dangerous in some way? Or would they?
     *Could* Prince Paul and his friends just take off for Africa in his own plane, from a small airfield without Customs officials?....
 
Regards, Michael.
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... in#p145262" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

pete9012S wrote:Chrissie,this review may interest you:
Pete and Michael, thank you for the links/thoughts on EB's books taking place in foreign countries. 8)
I've just read the review in EBS on "Secret Mountain" and remember that I've read the German translation years ago. Will have to read it in English. :D
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Francis »

it's amazing to think that it's 75 years since 'Five on a Treasure Island' was written. 75 years before 1942 would take you back to 1867 and the difference in writing style between those two years is huge. Yet the classic opening book of the Famous Five series is as fresh and readable as it ever was. We owe so much to Enid for providing as (the first generation to read them) with books we could identify and fall in love with and read over and over again.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Eddie Muir »

Hear, hear, Francis! :D
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Courtenay »

I second that too, Francis (although I'm a "second generation" Blyton reader myself!). :D
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Francis wrote:it's amazing to think that it's 75 years since 'Five on a Treasure Island' was written. 75 years before 1942 would take you back to 1867 and the difference in writing style between those two years is huge. Yet the classic opening book of the Famous Five series is as fresh and readable as it ever was. We owe so much to Enid for providing as (the first generation to read them) with books we could identify and fall in love with and read over and over again.
I agree very much, Francis! :D
EB's writing style is timeless, never boring, has always surprising twists and turns in her suspense/adventure stories.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Francis »

I know now that I must read 'Five on a Treasure Island' again. It is the right type of homage to pay to Enid in this anniversary year. I was in Beaconsfield on Saturday to look at the wonderful model villages and it was sad to think that Green Hedges is no more except in miniature format. A friend of mine emailed me today to say that she was a 19 year old teacher in 1962 in Beaconsfield which was located very near her house and thought Green Hedges was massive (Enid was still living there at the time).
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree wholeheartedly Francis! The amazing thing is, I think Enid was the first writer to cross the generations and give us 'commercial fiction' that lasted. Most writers who manage this are writing for adults - Agatha Christie being the main one, but Enid is one of the few writers from the 1930's onward who wrote for children and is still popular today. All of the other books that have survived are considered 'classics' but Enid still remains popular even fifty years after her death. 8)
'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 Courtenay »

I might put in a word for Beatrix Potter (who's even earlier than the 1930s, of course) - her books are still popular with children today, not just nostalgic adults. :wink:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

That's true - and I'm sure there are a few other writers who remain popular - but then I think Beatrix Potter was even recognised as writing quality books within her lifetime, while Enid was generally criticised especially through her later years, and still survived! Its a pity Enid didn't illustrate her own books though, because then they might have left the illustrations alone, as with Beatrix Potter!! ;-)
'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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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Francis wrote: A friend of mine emailed me today to say that she was a 19 year old teacher in 1962 in Beaconsfield which was located very near her house and thought Green Hedges was massive (Enid was still living there at the time).
Good idea, Francis, I will reread FOATI again this year, too.
One question: did you teacher friend ever run into EB?
Did she by any chance take any pics from the outside of the Green Hedges property as long as it still existed?
I was always wondering if/why there was no protest among the population to destroy Green Hedges?
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Francis »

I don't think so Chrissie. She and the other two teachers were kept in after teaching to do the cleaning as the cleaning staff had walked out! As to no protest - this was right at the height of anti-Blyton mania. It beggars belief that it was not saved or highlighted in the papers.
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Rob Houghton »

Francis wrote:As to no protest - this was right at the height of anti-Blyton mania. It beggars belief that it was not saved or highlighted in the papers.
I always find it amazing that for many people 1973, when Green Hedges was pulled down, were 'anti-Blyton' because, as I've said before, where I lived near Birmingham there was no such backlash! Growing up in the 1970's, most of my friends read Enid Blyton, she was THE author to buy for Birthday presents (mainly due to the Dean versions which were relatively cheap, and the Famous Five annuals). She was trendy - there were Famous Five jigsaws, Famous Five TV programmes, Noddy TV programmes. The girls in my class swapped Famous Five books and brought them to school to discuss and swap. I first read 'The Valley of Adventure' in a school paperback...

So, I find it ultra amazing that no one complained when Green Hedges was pulled down! I think it had more to do with the way people viewed the importance of buildings in those days. It was the era of the concrete block of flats and making a quick buck by selling land, regardless of all the history that was being bulldozed. I think nowadays there would have been protests!
'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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Chrissie777
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Re: What Enid Blyton book are you reading right NOW!

Post by Chrissie777 »

Francis wrote:...this was right at the height of anti-Blyton mania..
...which must have still have been going on when I stayed in Beaconsfield for several nights in May 1981, because nobody at the pub with whom I tried to talk about EB could tell me anything about EB (?). As if they never had heard of her.
I was lucky enough to talk to one person which enabled me to find Blyton Close where Green Hedges once was located, but that was all that my Beaconfield days unearthed. :roll:
I was more lucky in London at Foyle's where I found several of the Adventure series books in hardcover and ordered the missing ones which I picked up at Foyle's 3 weeks later at the end of our UK trip.
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