The Enid Blyton Society

Lucky Star wrote:It was one of the last articles on the BBC Ten o Clock news. They had a nice little comment from Imogen and some comments from Hannah Green(?) of Seven Stories. They also had some very positive opinions from children. I seem to have heard of Mr Tumpy's Caravan before. Wasn't there a journal article about it some time ago?

The clip from the Ten O' Clock News has now been added to the article to which Rob (Viking Star) gave a link in the first post of this thread. It makes for interesting viewing. Here's the link again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12511512" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Journal article would have been about Mr. Tumpy and His Caravan, John, which was a cartoon strip book published in 1949. The 1930s book is a novel and is a completely different story. A marvellous find!

You can read the first page at the end of the article

http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/whats-on ... an-n347#Mr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Tumpy's Caravan

John & I have just had a naughty idea - let's re-write this first page to save later editors the trouble...

For a start the gypsy will become a strange looking fellow...

Viv

Interesting that Tumpy has friends called Muffin and Puffin, who might possibly be a muffin-man and a parrot (judging by the chapter titles). Jack Trent and co. had puffin friends with similar names (Huffin and Puffin) in The Sea of Adventure.

Just found the Radio 4 clip about Mr. Tumpy's Caravan. It starts at 27.59 and lasts about two minutes - it doesn't say much other than that the book was never published and is an exciting find:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 2_02_2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There's also an article in the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... chive.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the links, Anita. Most interesting!

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:You can read the first page at the end of the article

http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/whats-on ... an-n347#Mr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Tumpy's Caravan

John & I have just had a naughty idea - let's re-write this first page to save later editors the trouble...

For a start the gypsy will become a strange looking fellow...

Viv

In that case, may I suggest Mr Tumpy is heading home with some sort of reduced-fat spread rather than butter. As promoting fatty butter to our children certainly wouldn't be a good idea.

just got back from a prolonged absence - been pretty busy of late - and found this exciting news. I read about it in the paper this morning (The Birmingham Mail' - so the news seems to be spreading to local papers!

Hope it gets to be published in its unaltered state...or else it gets left as an unpublished work. I'd hate to think of it being modernised straight away by Chorion.

Welcome back, Rob. I was wondering what had happened to you. I hope you are well.

The news of the "lost" book is good news indeed. Let's hope, as you say, that it gets published in its unaltered state.

Robert Houghton wrote:
Hope it gets to be published in its unaltered state...or else it gets left as an unpublished work. I'd hate to think of it being modernised straight away by Chorion.

Welcome back Rob. Its good to hear from you again. Absolutely agree with you here, lets have it as Enid wrote it or not at all.

Robert Houghton wrote: Hope it gets to be published in its unaltered state...or else it gets left as an unpublished work. I'd hate to think of it being modernised straight away by Chorion.

Would this be a first? Updating a book that had not been published in its original form?

If "Mr Tumpy's Caravan" is published in a bowdlerized form, and it probably will be, any chance of the original text being issued as an EB Society publication?

Kate.

Eddie Muir wrote:Welcome back, Rob. I was wondering what had happened to you. I hope you are well.

The news of the "lost" book is good news indeed. Let's hope, as you say, that it gets published in its unaltered state.

Hi eddie: I'm quite well apart from a slight cold at the moment. Just been 'elsewhere' - but now I have my new computer up and running I'll be back more often!

reading the chapter headings of this new book, and the first page, its style and certain plot elements (such as the princess and the dog headed dragon) reminded me of The Book of Brownies - where there is, if I remember rightly, a 'Dragon bird (rather than a dog headed dragon) and a princess. Tumpy's caravan seems very much written in the same style (as far as I can tell from the first page)

Robert Houghton wrote:Reading the chapter headings of this new book, and the first page, its style and certain plot elements (such as the princess and the dog headed dragon) reminded me of The Book of Brownies - where there is, if I remember rightly, a 'Dragon bird (rather than a dog headed dragon) and a princess. Tumpy's caravan seems very much written in the same style (as far as I can tell from the first page)

Funnily enough, I've just said exactly the same thing in an email to Tony, Rob!

It could only be reader's of The Guardian to comment like this.

Dear God, what a bunch of 'hilarious' sub-Littlejohn parodies. You couldn't make it up.

This is the Grauniad comment that made most sense...

Viv