The Enid Blyton Society

Carlotta King wrote:I'm sure there is at least one other instance of some children buying tobacco (or maybe it was cigarettes) for someone in one of the books, but I can't for the life of me remember which book it is, nor indeed which children. I have a suspicion it might be the Secret Seven, but I could be wrong. I just have the feeling I've read about that scenario somewhere else other than in Demon's Rocks.

In Ring o' Bells the children buy a tin of tobacco for old Grandad Dourlay. The shop keeper knows what kind he likes so the children take it along for him.

Ahh yes well remembered!
That's probably the one I was thinking of actually!

Maggie Knows wrote:Hi

The problem here though is that the sea is connected to the tunnel (because it fills with water when the tide is in).

So, if they can hear the sea above them, the water should rush in and fill the tunnel...

If I'm not mistaken (and it may be a big if) the sea enters the tunnel via the cave. So to enter the tunnel the tide has to be right in. To hear the sea above, the tide does not have to be in

I should think it depends on the size of the hole through which the sea enters the tunnel. There would be virtually no opposition to the tide above on the seabed, but if the hole beneath that it enters through is just a couple feet in diameter, it could take quite a long time to reach the distance inland that the sea above does. Plus the slope of the tunnel is not necessarily the same as the seabed above, so the water below could take longer to climb.

To reach the tunnels, the children had to climb down through the rock that the lighthouse was built upon. The lighthouse would almost certainly have been built on a level surface that was always above water during a normal high tide. The cave obviously wasn't! So even at low tide, the tunnel would have been under the sea, as would the cave.... but when the tide came in, it could flood the cave, and so the tunnels too, but the lighthouse still stood above the surface.
I haven't read the book for a while, but isn't there a passage where the children discover and open the trapdoor and see the sea water filling the tunnel below them? High tide?
Remember, when its low tide, there is a natural walkway back to the mainland from the lighthouse, so it must be built up on a fairly high lump of rock!!

This was not one of my favourites. The monkey and Tinker were surplus to requirements as far as I was concerned.

It's quite funny though when Mischief the monkey pelts everyone at Kirrin Cottage with raisins...!!!

It's slightly odd how the adventure ends, I think, with Julian asking the policeman to order him a car to take them all back home. They've only been at the lighthouse for 2-3 days, and although I'm sure they would like to tell of their adventure, doesn't it put them right back in the middle of the reason why they left to go to Demons Rocks in the first place, having to tip-toe around two mad scientists?

Yes, its an odd tale from start to finish.

Julie wrote: we used to go around knocking on people's doors and asking them if they wanted us to go to the shop for their ciggies.

When you write your autobiography, you'll have to change it to toffees!

What I've always found a little strange is that the Five and Driver stop for an early lunch 10 minutes from - their destination - Demon's Rocks. Were they that hungry that they couldn't wait

Moonraker wrote:

Julie wrote: we used to go around knocking on people's doors and asking them if they wanted us to go to the shop for their ciggies.

When you write your autobiography, you'll have to change it to toffees!

A few chapters into demon's Rocks and as always it's a book I have a love/hate relationship with! I love the lighthouse setting and the adventure itself isn't bad, but I'm really not keen on Tinker and his obsession with pretending to be a car - stupid, childish - surely not the usual behaviour of a nine year old boy?! I find him much more annoying than Junior in Finniston Farm.

I also noticed (to the point of it getting on my nerves!) that Enid keeps on calling Aunt Fanny 'Mrs Kirrin' which I find odd, considering her usual convention of calling her 'Aunt Fanny'. I wonder if this was the start of Enid's dementia. Seems odd she changed this after 18 books.

Apart from these minor niggles I'm enjoying the book so far. It's one I haven't read a great deal - maybe only twice in the past.

Jack400 wrote:

Maggie Knows wrote:Hi

The problem here though is that the sea is connected to the tunnel (because it fills with water when the tide is in).

So, if they can hear the sea above them, the water should rush in and fill the tunnel...

If I'm not mistaken (and it may be a big if) the sea enters the tunnel via the cave. So to enter the tunnel the tide has to be right in. To hear the sea above, the tide does not have to be in

Perhaps the biggest question here is- having filled the tunnel the tide then goes out. OK- but how does the tunnel empty? Unless it is pumped out, as it is below sea level it cannot empty by gravity alone.

Jack400 wrote: Perhaps the biggest question here is- having filled the tunnel the tide then goes out. OK- but how does the tunnel empty? Unless it is pumped out, as it is below sea level it cannot empty by gravity alone.

Who said the regular laws of physics must apply in an Enid Blyton book??

I'm not a fan of Tinker either but I'd sooner have him than Junior.