Book Listing

[Rob Houghton]

Anybody buying the first Dragon paperback might be somewhat disappointed if they realised that it only contains one third of the original book!

Yes...I'm disappointed that even my eighth edition hardback hasnt got all the chapters either!

But at least there are more chapters than the later version!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Having just read Terry Gustafson's review of The Babar Story-Book, I was wondering whether Enid Blyton translated the stories directly from the French? Not the most exciting work for Olive F. Openshaw, having to redraw the illustrations so they looked like Jean de Brunhoff's originals but without the colour.

Anita

[Tony Summerfield]

Having just read Terry Gustafson's review of The Babar Story-Book, I was wondering whether Enid Blyton translated the stories directly from the French? Not the most exciting work for Olive F. Openshaw, having to redraw the illustrations so they looked like Jean de Brunhoff's originals but without the colour.

Anita

I have just compared Enid's version with the original books, and it is not only told in her own words, but it is actually a much fuller account than the original books. I got a bit of a shock when I was looking at Olive Openshaw's illustrations, they are just line drawing copies of the original colour illustrations, but there are 164 of them!! A week or two ago I wrote that the Boys' and Girls' Circus Book had more illustrations than any other Blyton novel, but this one leaves it a long way behind!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I have just compared Enid's version with the original books, and it is not only told in her own words, but it is actually a much fuller account than the original books.

I bet she had fun padding out the stories. Perhaps in Enid's version Babar plays Woo-hoo-colly-wobbles and Racing Demon, and comments that food tastes so much nicer out of doors!

Anita

[Julie2owlsdene]

Just had a look on the book listings for a book called At Seaside Cottage. As it came up on a Secret Seven question. What lovely illustrations there are in this book. I love the train station, and the colour train too. In fact the whol illustrations are wonderful. I did think though, that the inside cover picture by Eileen Soper, could have been George and Anne playing with Timmy in the sea. She certain was a lovely illustrator.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Just had a look on the book listings for a book called At Seaside Cottage. As it came up on a Secret Seven question. What lovely illustrations there are in this book. I love the train station, and the colour train too. In fact the whol illustrations are wonderful. I did think though, that the inside cover picture by Eileen Soper, could have been George and Anne playing with Timmy in the sea. She certain was a lovely illustrator.

spotted this book on EBAY. As I've never read it, I might give it a whirl.

[Ian Regan]

Tony, I was just browsing through the wonderful Book Listing pages for what must have been the umpteenth time, and I suddenly noticed that A Treasury of Enid Blyton's School Stories by Norman Wright and Mary Cadogan appears to be missing. I assume that you simply haven't got around to adding this book yet, as opposed to it being an unintended omission.

Also, the entry for the Adventure Treasury compendium seems to be missing the Adventurous Four short story from the list of contents:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/auth ... hp?id=1629" target="_blank

Cheers!

[Tony Summerfield]

That's the sort of feedback that is really helpful, Ian. I have already added the Adventurous Four story and the School Treasury has gone into the pile for today's scanning! You are right in saying that I still have quite a number of books to add, but I am doing it slowly!

[Ian Regan]

You're very welcome Tony. The Blyton back catalogue is so big and varied, that I cannot imagine the difficulty involved in building and maintaining a resource as comprehensive as the Book Listing.

If I find any more omissions or errors, I'll duly let you know, and I would implore everybody else to do likewise.

[Tony Summerfield]

Tony, I was just browsing through the wonderful Book Listing pages for what must have been the umpteenth time, and I suddenly noticed that A Treasury of Enid Blyton's School Stories by Norman Wright and Mary Cadogan appears to be missing.

Not any more, I have now added it! In case anybody wonders, I follow the standard practice of taking the full title from the title page of a book. This is not always quite the same as the cover. An example of this would be the two Adventure Squad books where the cover is completely different to the title page.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Just read the review of The Luck of the Laytons. Terry does a very good review of this rare book. It is one I haven't read, but am totally intrigued by what Terry has told of this book. I girl pointing a gun at an intruder! And the poor mistress who's dress caught fire. I guess as mentioned, you'd not be allowed to put this into a child's book these days.

Very good review none the less.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Terry Gustafson writes in his review of Noddy and Tessie Bear: "Robert Lee is down as the illustrator and I think his pictures have a nice balance to them — a good example would be the one where Noddy and Tessie Bear discover the basket in the bracken. They are, as usual, very colourful and would be as good as any of those produced by the artists of the previous books."

Yes, the illustrations in that book are lovely - thank goodness, as the story is complete drivel (only my opinion! ) Noddy and Tessie Bear was one of the few Noddy books I had the misfortune to read as a child and even then I thought the idea of a heavy milk churn flying through the air attached to a kite was ridiculous. And somehow my son acquired a copy of the book when he was about three, so I ended up reading it aloud to him a couple of times. Luckily it wasn't a particular favourite of his! The colourful pictures were the only thing that kept me going!

Anita

[Rob Houghton]

Yes, the illustrations in that book are lovely - thank goodness, as the story is complete drivel (only my opinion! ) Noddy and Tessie Bear was one of the few Noddy books I had the misfortune to read as a child and even then I thought the idea of a heavy milk churn flying through the air attached to a kite was ridiculous. And somehow my son acquired a copy of the book when he was about three, so I ended up reading it aloud to him a couple of times. Luckily it wasn't a particular favourite of his! The colourful pictures were the only thing that kept me going!

Anita

That's really interesting and quite funny, because 'Noddy and Tessie Bear' was one of my favourite Noddy books as a child! (only my opinion!!) I used to like the idea of the churn flying through the air and the eggs raining down mysteriously on everyone. it never occured to me until just now that the churn would be too heavy for a kite to carry!

However, my nostalgic fondness for this story might have to do with the fact that it was the first Noddy book I came across, without a cover, from my sister's collection, and one of the first books my sister 'allowed' me to own!!

I agree the illustrations are lovely, though.

[Julie2owlsdene]

I've now read the lovely little book The Luck of the Laytons. As I've said before, Terry's review of this book is very good. It makes such an innocent read this book, shows signs of the Treasure Hunters, as Terry mentions, and these days probably wouldn't get published due to the fact that in the Uninvited Guest, Elsie holds the escaped prisoner almost motionless with a gun pointing at him. It's a lovely little picture, with Elsie in her party clothes, and high heeled shoes, holding the gun, whilst the prisoner is on the floor. Then of course in Jack and Jill the poor Miss Tomkins, almost escaping serious burns, the fact that she comes out of this with a bandaged hand is quite frankly a miracle.

But a most simple enjoyable read, almost child like in its way.

[Moonraker]

Noddy and Tessie Bear was one of the few Noddy books I had the misfortune to read as a child and even then I thought the idea of a heavy milk churn flying through the air attached to a kite was ridiculous.....

And a chair that sprouted wings wasn't.....?