How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by John Pickup »

I could never get into Arthur Ransome either, nothing much seems to happen. I prefer the Bannerdale series of books by Geoffrey Trease but they're nowhere near as thrilling as Enid's work.
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by stardust »

They are meant to be set in modern times? But I have many paperbacks and they still feel old fashioned (in a good way). The language with which the kids speak to each other isn't how kids actually talk these days? Nothing is realistic for the present day?
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Completely agree!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Fiona1986 »

There are no smartphones or computers, so there's no way the books could be set in modern times.
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree! Shows how stupid the modernisation and 'improving' (such as taking out Anne's reaction to TV) is! If the publishers genuinely felt the books weren't set in 'modern day' they wouldn't alter references like that.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by db105 »

I think it has to do with the belief, I don't know how accurate or inaccurate it is, that young readers are not able to deal with references to things outside their lifetime experience, that they take them out of the story and make them want to throw away the book and run to play video games.
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

:lol: probably!

As a child of the 1970's, I must admit that I read every Enid Blyton book believing that they were set in the 1970's - and the Famous Five on TV seemed perfectly okay with flared trousers and Chopper bikes. My ideas were helped by the fact that my favourite series at the time, The Secret Seven were all paperbacks, illustrated by Derek Lucas in typical 1960's - 1970's fashion.

However, I don't think technology changed all that much between 1950 and 1980 really - its the 30+ years since then where the greatest technological advances have taken place. I'm sure it will get harder and harder to pretend these books are set in 'modern day' as the century progresses.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by KEVP »

It seems to me that the same is true about "old" books that were written for adults.

Anyone who reads Dickens, or Austen, is going to be someone interested in reading a book set in another time period. Even though when they were written, the books were "modern". But to a modern reader, they are set in the past.

(However when I was a child I enjoyed books set in the past, I was curious about history)

It may be hard for us old folks to understand, but younger people are really beginning to have a difficult time imagining how people lived before the internet and cell phones. Its when these folks begin to ask "How did people live? What did children do for fun?" that we can give them Enid Blyton books. Children going outside, camping, exploring, swimming and so on. Maybe some modern children would get interested in these "old-fashioned" activities.
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

It's a strange attitude on the part of the publishers. When I was young I loved books which gave me an insight into the past and some of my favourite authors were Frances Hodgson Burnett, E. Nesbit, Dorothy Edwards, Noel Streatfeild and Enid Blyton. Other favourites opened the door to different cultures as well as to the past - e.g. Johanna Spyri, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Susan Coolidge, Mark Twain and L. M. Montgomery. When books were turned into TV dramas, more often than not they were set in the correct period and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of them. I wanted fiction to take me somewhere fresh and tell me something new - not reflect my everyday life!
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree. As a child I preferred books that took me away from the hum-drum every-day type of existence! I rarely read a modern book, and as I got older, the idea of children actually wanting to read books about drugs and gangs and child abuse etc left me numb! I never wanted to read about those things, and to be honest I still don't.

I've read modern-day thrillers etc, but I wouldn't enjoy reading about real-life problems that supposedly teach us something and educate us. It seems most children's books, adult books, and TV programmes have to have hidden messages and realism these days. It's like reading hundreds of episodes of Eastenders or Coronation Street - nothing but angst. I don't understand why everyone seems to enjoy this these days!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I have been reading posts from the last two or three days in this thread and I do disagree with some of the comments. Some of the posts are getting into the Armada versus Puffin category, Armada being the books that children want to read and Puffin the books that adults think children ought to read. Enid Blyton belongs to the former category and Arthur Ransome to the latter one.

One of the questions I frequently get asked by the media is why are Blyton books still popular today (usually just asking about the Famous Five) and my answer is normally the same, because they are virtually timeless. The early books were all written in the war, but there is no mention of that or indeed of the severe rationing and I think it is quite reasonable to remove a remark about the amazement at seeing television for the first time.

Letters and emails I get to Enid Blyton asking when I am going to write a new Famous Five book would seem to me to indicate that publishers have done a good job of keeping them like this as the shelves of bookshops still have a wide range of Blyton books available. It is not just children who think that Enid is still writing as recently one of our members was setting up an exhibition of her Blyton artwork at her local library and the librarian asked if Enid Blyton might be able to attend! :D

I think publishers are trying to keep them timeless rather than set the books in 2017, so there is no mention of any 21st century technology and it is perfect okay for children to go off on their own without constant adult supervision. When you look at all the competition that is around today, it is a sensible question to ask about why these books are still selling so well, without a single mobile phone in sight!

Sometimes you need to remember that these books were written for children to enjoy a good story, easy to read and understand, with a beginning, a middle and an end and they were not intended for adults who want to dissect them in detail.
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I have been reading posts from the last two or three days in this thread and I do disagree with some of the comments. Some of the posts are getting into the Armada versus Puffin category, Armada being the books that children want to read and Puffin the books that adults think children ought to read. Enid Blyton belongs to the former category and Arthur Ransome to the latter one.
Hmmm...I have to disagree, at least on a personal level. One of my favourite books from childhood - The Enchanted Castle - being my most favourite non-Blyton book, was a Puffin! :wink: I must have read it at least five or six times since the age of 8 when I first read it. :-D No adult ever suggested I should read it though, lol! ;-)

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'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Daisy »

There will always be exceptions to a generalisation. I enjoyed Arthur Ransome books from about the age of 13 while still reading every Blyton I could lay hands on and getting Sunny Stories too! I must admit I didn't read E. Nesbit until much later and still do not find her stories hugely gripping. I did enjoy the TV adaptations though!
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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Rob Houghton »

Tony Summerfield wrote:
Sometimes you need to remember that these books were written for children to enjoy a good story, easy to read and understand, with a beginning, a middle and an end and they were not intended for adults who want to dissect them in detail.
I agree this is why they were written, of course, but without us adults dissecting them in detail, there just wouldn't be an Enid Blyton Society, in my view, as most of the forums and a good part of The Journal rely on this dissecting!


I do agree to a certain extent that it doesn't really matter if Anne's reaction to the TV is taken out - it doesn't really spoil the book, except for reasons of historical context - but all the same, its a shame it was removed. I also feel its a shame that references to shorts were removed and replaced with 'jeans'. To me, these changes just seem pointless.

I agree with the books being 'timeless' and that is their greatest strength. As you say, Tony, Enid mostly avoided references to contemporary life, and this is their biggest strength, as a child from any era can identify with most of the descriptions used...but I think as KEVP says it will become increasingly more difficult for children to identify with stories that don't contain mobile phones, computers, hover-boards, etc etc etc. It worked well for decades because childhood life had altered so little between the 1950's and 1980's/90's but these days things are vastly different. Hopefully, the attraction of escapism will win over and the books will still be popular in 20 years time. :-)
Last edited by Rob Houghton on 05 Feb 2017, 13:34, edited 1 time in total.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: How much of Enid's work is 'out of print'?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I can see that publishers have been trying to keep Enid Blyton books "timeless" ever since the late 60s or early 70s but I do feel that something is lost when books are repeatedly revised. Enid Blyton uses such a light, conversational style that I don't think many of today's children would find the original texts too problematic. The occasional word or expression has become obsolete (e.g. "goloshes", "field-glasses" and "Do let's!") but the meaning is clear enough from the context. Reading about characters living in a society different from one's own appeals to many youngsters, which explains why fantasy books are popular. I'd have liked seeing Anne watching TV for the first time but that passage wasn't in my 1970 copy of Five On Kirrin Island Again. Most Blyton books hadn't yet been edited when I was a child, however, and I enjoyed reading about characters listening to the wireless, spending shillings and sixpences, darning stockings, chopping wood for the fire and sitting around oil-stoves. Phrases like "That's jolly decent of you", "I say" and "You're a brick!" were delightful. It was interesting to be taken into a slightly different world and it didn't stop me identifying with or admiring characters who loved adventure and fun, did their bit and fought for justice.

Puffin may have started out publishing books that didn't have much popular appeal, but by the 1970s and early 80s they were publishing a lot of the books I bought for myself by authors like E. Nesbit, Noel Streatfeild, C. S. Lewis, Antonia Forest, Laura Ingalls Wilder, L. M. Montgomery, Clive King, Helen Cresswell, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Philippa Pearce, Nina Bawden and Roald Dahl. No one ever told me I ought to read those authors. I read them because I loved their stories.

Having said all that, it can't be denied that few of the authors I've mentioned are still read by large numbers of children today. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and C. S. Lewis are still popular, but what about the others? As we know, Enid Blyton's books have been revised textually as well as having the covers refreshed frequently. It's different with Roald Dahl and C. S. Lewis. Their book covers have been updated (and internal illustrations too in the case of Roald Dahl) but I don't think the stories have been touched - except for one or two details that were considered racist in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It does seem that giving books a more up-to-date look works in some cases, but whether it's really necessary to modernise the language and cut out episodes which date the narrative is debatable.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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