The Enid Blyton Society

sixret wrote:I remember I’ve seen a link to your Ebay store, Rob. You have listed one or two titles with dj in Enchanted Wood series. Are they spare copies? Do you have them with djs in your collection?

The Enchanted Wood books are the only series I don't have in dust jackets. The two I'm selling actually came in a lot of about six books, some of which I've kept, but I much prefer the versions of the Faraway Tree books that I grew up with, illustrated by Rene Cloke, so I decided to sell them, as they are usually good sellers. My two are slow to sell though, lol! I guess they are too expensive, as people seem to prefer auctions with low starting prices, even if they end up paying £100's!

Thanks Pete. It is frustrating and expensive having to buy each book individually only to find a lot listed on ebay a few weeks later! It's not so bad if the series is only 3 or 5 books, but 15 mounts up quickly. I think I paid around £50-60 for all the SS in the end, compared to £26 for the FO series as all but Banshee Towers were in two lots .

That Banshee Towers book has been the bane of many a collectors life!

]
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blytons-C ... 8&qid=&sr=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




Just bought the kindle version - on offer now on amazon reduced from £6.99 to £1.49

Now that I'm halfway through 'Christmas Treats', Pete, I would say that 'Christmas Tales' from last year is slightly better. There are more stories in 'Treats' but some are only a couple of pages long, whereas I think the stories in the above book are a more uniform length. Enjoy!

Thank Rob - I too am reading 'Christmas Treats' in book form at the moment and enjoying it. Nice to hear you say 'Tales' is even better.

I don't usually buy any modern Blytons, but these books provide such a good selection and variety of sometimes hard to source stories from a variety of publications I couldn't resist!

I feel the same - and I like the fact they allow us to read a collection of stories that are seasonal. That was (for once!!) a very good idea of the publishers.

As well as the Christmas ones, I also have the 'Wizards and Witches' one which I read around Halloween - another highly recommended collection - and in the spring I hope to buy the springtime collection when its released -

I like the introduction to Christmas Tales as it puts the stories into context briefly, without a fuss, and there's no pretence that they're modern: "These stories were written many years ago - some of them in the 1920s and 30s - so some of the details might seem unfamiliar to you. But they share what is still important about Christmas today - the spirit of giving, shared times, and lots of food and fun and family."

That's like a breath of fresh air, Anita. I might consider buying some copies for great-grandchildren.

Yes, Christmas Treats is the same - with mentions of old money. One story, 'The Astonishing Christmas Tree' details how the children save up for Christmas - they end up with 'One pound, one shilling and ninepence halfpenny'! The stories in these collections seem hardly to have been modernised at all, which for me is a big plus point!

That's one of my jobs! Hodder don't have the original versions of most of the stories, so I turn the currency back into old money for them, as it was in the original story. I think you will find that most short stories will revert to the original for almost everything apart from from gollies! This will obviously be much harder to do with novels, particularly ones that have been kept permanently in print.

keep up the good work, Tony!!

Brilliant, Tony. A job well done.

Yes, good on you, Tony! I also thought it was so refreshing to see that introduction acknowledging the era and context of the stories.

Yes, having the original currency in the Christmas books was a most pleasant surprise and now I know why!

I hope they didn't pay you in pre-decimal rates though Tony!