The Enid Blyton Society

I didn't really get over my fear of dogs until some friends at our caravan where we always went in the 1990's, had a dig, (Mutley!) who I grew used to to such an extent that he would sit on my lap and be stroked, and fall asleep. That was the first close contact I'd had with a dog since the bite, which happened around 1975 - so maybe 20 years.

I'm still not over-keen on dogs but I can at least tolerate them. I'm very much more a cat person, and we have always had cats since I was about 7.

Rob Houghton wrote:I'm still not over-keen on dogs but I can at least tolerate them. I'm very much more a cat person, and we have always had cats since I was about 7.

I love cats, too!
From Saturday on we'll meet the two cats of my stepdaughter, Gus and Mac. Looking forward to it.

We've had many cats over the years and each one has its own personality - sometimes standoffish but usually very intelligent, knowing, and loving too. I think people underestimate cats! Enjoy meeting Gus and Mac!

Well I've finished Five On Kirrin Island Again, and it was even more gripping than I remembered with the regulars in peril for their lives. Something I noticed though. This is Enid Blyton almost dabbling in science fiction, with Quentin talking about finding a way of "replacing all coal, coke and oil - an idea to give the world all the heat and power it wants, and to do away with mines and miners." At the end, he tells one of the arrested villains "My secret is still safe - and next year it will be given to the whole world!" As far as I know, this isn't brought up in any further FF books, but is this suggesting that Quentin Kirrin actually invented nuclear energy as a means of power? Presumably that was being researched around the 1940s.

Anyway, my next book up is another old favourite, The Rockingdown Mystery!

I've always found Five on Kirrin Island Again very exciting. The passage beneath the sea sounds thrilling and the Kirrins are in real danger as you say, Stephen - as is the island! Enid Blyton certainly seems to have taken an interest in the development of nuclear power as she mentions atom bombs in The Rilloby Fair Mystery (1950) and a radioactive metal in The Secret of Moon Castle (1953). I wonder if Stellastepheny, the metal in Moon Castle, is supposed to be something akin to uranium. There was a great deal of interest in nuclear energy in Britain in the 1940s-1950s, including extensive investigations to find uranium, and it's possible that Enid Blyton was inspired by news reports of the time. One of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books (Mystery Mine, 1959) revolves around the (fictional) discovery of uranium ore in Yorkshire.

I think atom bombs are also mentioned in The Rubadub Mystery.

And also in The Rawlins' Reach Mystery...lol!

Courtenay wrote:And Dinah's fear of all kinds of animals has hardly stopped Philip in all the previous books in the series... it does come across sometimes that, along with his own genuine love of animals, there's a certain element of deliberately upsetting his sister as well.

Oh I know having the snake is a necessary part of the plot, and that Philip has had other animals in the other books, but it's not quite the same somehow. Dinah doesn't like most animals and she's quite afraid of some but she's terrified of snakes.The puffins, foxcub, dormouse, monkey and goat don't bother her too much and she can even tolerate the lizard and slow-worm because they may be rather snake like but they're not an actual snake. So I do think it's pretty unfair that when she's been ok with all these animals around she's not really keen on, Philip goes and gets the one thing that she really truly can't stand. It's not as if she's stopping him keeping any animals only one that she's scared stiff of, but he does so anyway. It's like a situation with two siblings where one wants a dog but the other is scared of most of them so they compromise and get a really small one to keep everyone happy.
In Dinah's case though, it's more a case of 'put up and shut up' - Bill even says she can go back to the hotel if she's not happy!

Remember Philip rescued the snake from a nasty life... he didn't just pick it up in the jungle!

If anything, I'd say its Bill's attitude that is at fault in this episode rather than Philip's. After all, your 'tiresome brother' might well tease you with his various pets, but your stepfather should be a bit more thoughtful and not take one child's side against another!

I've finished The Rockingdown Mystery. It's even better than I remember - funny, scary and thrilling - although one thing rudely hit me this time round. When I was a child, Enid Blyton books were very much "them and us" - adults were adults, and children were children. But now, Mr King, a "...stocky, well-built man about thirty-five or forty..." is suddenly younger than me!!

My next book up, Five on Finniston Farm is going to be very interesting because not only do I not remember having ever read it, I don't even remember OWNING it! It's a 1986 hardback edition in very good condition, so I can only assume I got it at a second hand shop, and for some reason never got round to reading it.

Stephen wrote:It's a 1986 hardback edition in very good condition, so I can only assume I got it at a second hand shop, and for some reason never got round to reading it.

I've been enjoying your resume of each book Stephen.
Would your 1986 version contain the cover missing from the cave??


http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... iston+Farm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Actually, I tell a lie! The info says...

First published 1960 by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd
This edition 1986

This edition first published 1992 by Award Publications Limited...

I don't really understand the ins and outs of book publishing, reprints, re-issues etc, but basically it's the purple one!

I think Stephen’s one is like the above,Pete.

That's the one!

Thanks guys - nearly!