What was the first Blyton book you read?

[Uncle Alister]

"Five on a Treasure Island"... I am sure that is the first thing in my life I ever read that resembled a real novel.

I can say the same about The Secret of Cliff Castle. That was the one that got me hooked, not just on Blyton, but on reading 'proper' books with far more text than pictures. Up until then I had always shunned 'wordy' books with very few images because I thought they were boring. Even at the age of five or six I still enjoyed reading Beatrix Potter whose little books always had text on the left pages and a colourful pictures to illustrate the text on the right ones. My favourite story was The Tailor of Gloucester. For a good while after first reading this tale, apart from believing that mice could sew, I was convinced that cats could be sent for shopping, wear clothes and Wellington boots, and walk for quite long distances on their hind legs.

[poddys]

Mine was I am sure a Noddy book when I was very young, but the first major book of Enid's that I read was Five On A Treasure Island. I inherited most of The Famous Five books from a cousin who was a couple of years older, they were the hardback set with the red cover, if anyone remembers those?

It's only been about 5 years since I realised Enid spent time in Dorset where I grew up. I wish I had been aware and had the chance to meet her.

[MJE]

... the first major book of Enid's that I read was Five On A Treasure Island.

     I just wonder for how many people in the world "Five on a Treasure Island" was their first book. As the first book in perhaps Enid Blyton's best-known series, I'd say it would be a fair few.

I inherited most of The Famous Five books from a cousin who was a couple of years older, they were the hardback set with the red cover, if anyone remembers those?

     Sure do. They're the only Famous Fives worth having, in my opinion. I wish they would be reprinted, complete with original text, illustrations, and even the colour highlighting which was originally there.

Regards, Michael.

[Lawrie]

Yes, my first Blyton was Five on a Treasure Island! I was five and at my aunt's house and she gave me a copy of my older cousin's - one of the red hardbacks. I think my next was Second Form at Malory Towers which my parents thought was very appropriate as I had just gone into P2. The reading police were never at my house!

[Poppy]

My granddad bought me an old copy of The Folk of the Faraway tree when I was about five.
That was the first Blyton book I read but I watched many episodes of Noddy before I read this.

[Francis]

I started early with 'Noddy goes to the Seaside' and was worried about crabs
fo months afterwards!

[7upromana01]

The Twins at St.Clare's.

[Poppy]

My mum gave me a copy of Clever One the imp and other stories at a quite early age. I think that was just after the folk of the faraway tree.

[7upromana01]

My birthday and Christmas are very close (my bday is the 13th) and I got the st. clare's egmont three in one and then at Christmas I got 10 FFs and all MTs. It's lucky I liked Enid, otherwise I would have had 22 of her books unread!

[Moonraker]

I started early with 'Noddy goes to the Seaside' and was worried about crabs
for months afterwards!

[Tony Summerfield]

I am sure there is probably a thread about this somewhere, but if there is I am unable to find it. I have always enjoyed reading posts about the first Enid Blyton book that people read or bought and when I first started collecting children's books I kept a very thorough record of the date and place that I had bought each book. Just for fun I thought I would see when I bought my first Blyton book. It was on October 17th 1987, a reprint of Five on Kirrin Island Again in a nice dustwrapper. At this time I had no children's books at all in the house, but I have now managed to add one or two to this initial purchase!

[Kate Mary]

Golly, Tony I thought you had been collecting like me (or should that be accumulating in my case?) since you were knee high to a grasshopper. I keep no records but the first Blyton I read was "The Magic Faraway Tree", an original Newnes edition. I re-read it so often that it was held together with sellotape at the end and sadly did not survive that major clear-out that my mother had circa 1970. Happily though I managed to hang on to my Famous Fives, Adventure series and Five Find-Outers and these formed the basis of my later collecting. One of the earliest Blytons I bought as an adult was the "Nature Lover's Book" about 1987.

Have you run out of space yet?

Kate

[pete9012S]

You started collecting Enid Blyton late,didn't you Tony! Did you not have any Enid Blyton's at all as a child? Were they banned in your house or something?

As most know, my first Blyton was the 1967 paperback Five On a Treasure Island (Soper illustrations).My second Blyton was an early hard backed 1950's edition of Five Fall Into Adventure.
I then tried,not always successfully, to read and collect the rest of the Five's in chronological order.

To this day,(to me anyway)the very last Five book (in my mind)is Five Have a Mystery to Solve and not Five Are Together Again,as I originally read them in the wrong order.

Don't know if you tried to collect them in the right order,or didn't that matter?

I kept a very thorough record of the date and place that I had bought each book.

I don't do that,but I have always written the date I purchased a book on the inside cover,along with the price paid and my current age.
I also write the age I am when re reading each book in the same place.
It's just something i have always done since little to mark the passing of time.

I noticed recently that without any prompting from me,my oldest daughter does exactly the same in her books!
Anyone else do that,I wonder??

Anyway,I'm sure we're all very glad it was an early Enid Blyton you were first attracted to back in 1987 Tony,and not an early Catherine Cookson or Barbara Cartland as I'm sure I don't know what we would all do without the much loved Enid Blyton Society! (hope that doesn't sound too fawning or Baldrick-ish,Sire!,I mean Tony!)

[Poppy]

Nice idea for a thread Tony. My first ever book was The Folk of the Faraway Tree, which my mum had when she was little. My grandad was having a sort-out and found it in a big box of all kinds of old things. He gave it to me and I read it once and them read it about three more times! I loved it and looked out for books by that very same author. This was when I was about five or six. I always liked to watch Noddy on TV though when I was little. This was before The Folk of the Faraway Tree so I guess that was my starting point really! My grandad went on to find a few Famous Five omnibus's and Secret Seven books and I never put them down! Another early read was a book called; Clever One The Imp I think it was called. It was a big book of stories - a lovely read. I have still got every Enid Blyton book I have ever bought all except one; The Naughtiest girl in the School which was another early buy. It was an old dean book I think and I never knew where it went. I have got a few more recent copies of this book, but I will have to try and hunt it out sometime!
I read my first Famous Five book when I was on holiday and I found a nice hardback copy for £3. I had finished it within days as we were camping in a tent and instead of using my torch for what it was meant for, I read in my sleeping bag each night with it! It was Five on a Treasure Island and after that I went on to buy the whole series and read them all a few times over.

[dsr]

I remember I read a book featuring a fairy called Pip (I think) - would it be "The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies" or was that sometihng different? Anyway, I was too young to notice that Pip was a fairy - I thought he was just a boy, and never quite spotted the anomalies like swinging on a buttercup. (I started reading very young, I wouldn't be more than 4.)