Personal Gems From The Cave Of Books

[Kate Mary]

I'm sitting here wallowing in nostalgia, I've said before that I like Eric Parker's illustrations because I first encountered Enid's later stories as serials in School Friend or Princess comics. The cover shown in Pete's post is the first issue of School Friend after it merged with Girls' Crystal, GC was an old trouper from the 1930s and possibly the only schoolgirls' paper that ran right through the war. How I wish I'd hung on to those old comics!

[pete9012S]

Release Date: October 4th 2018
Paperback: 352 pages
First edition: 2018
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Illustrator: Mark Beech
Category: Hodder Story Collections Series
Genre: Mixed
Type: Omnibus Editions

Anyone bought this or planning to yet?
Would make a great stocking filler!

[Katharine]

That's going to the top of my Christmas wish list. I have all the others in the series and really enjoyed those, so I'm sure this will be just as good.

I see from The Caves that there have been a couple of new additions to this series and 2 more planned for next yet. Yippee.

[sixret]

Definitely will buy it. I am beginning to love this series more and more because this is the only way to collect EB's short stories with the same theme! But I won't buy now. I wait until the price goes down.

[Rob Houghton]

Release Date: October 4th 2018
Paperback: 352 pages
First edition: 2018
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Illustrator: Mark Beech
Category: Hodder Story Collections Series
Genre: Mixed
Type: Omnibus Editions

Anyone bought this or planning to yet?
Would make a great stocking filler!

I'm pretty sure I'll be buying it. For the last two years now I've made it a habit to read one story from the 'Christmas' collections each night leading up to Christmas - and I think I'll do the same with the Winter collection this year.

I also want to buy the 'Magic and Mischief' compilation, which I'll get shortly, before the Winter one.

[Courtenay]

I also want to buy the 'Magic and Mischief' compilation, which I'll get shortly, before the Winter one.

Aha, I saw that one in Sainsbury's today, obviously being promoted for Halloween. I hadn't seen any of these newer themed compilations in the shops before, so I was glad to see it looks like a nice book.

Actually, I was amazed to open it to the start of a story (I forget which it was or what it was about) that has a mother saying to her daughter "What queer ideas you have!" — yes, they left in the word "queer"!! I mean, that is one word that I wouldn't blame editors for changing, along with "gay", simply because the most commonly accepted meaning has changed and Enid's use of them can easily lead to sniggers and rude jokes nowadays. But isn't it nice to see that at least some editors trust children to be able to understand that words can have more than one meaning and that's OK? (Now if only the makers of the recent Swallows and Amazons film could have taken the same attitude to Titty... )

[Tony Summerfield]

This is a deliberate move by Hodder to change things back to the wording that Enid Blyton used originally. I have been asked a few times what the original wording was in a story and also about the original currency in short stories. At present I know that this only applies to these short story compilations.

[pete9012S]

This is good news - thanks for the update Tony.

[Courtenay]

Very glad to hear that, Tony. Who knows, fingers crossed that they might one day even restore the ACTUAL classic text to the "classic" Famous Five editions (though I'm not holding my breath)...

[Rob Houghton]

Personally, I think the word 'queer' is gradually taking on its old meaning again, as its starting to be unacceptable as a way of describing homosexuals, so probably many children wouldn't even know the slang version. I think 'Gay' is another matter though, and I must admit, even though I of course know the original meaning, it does pull me up short when I'm reading a book that says something like 'he was a very gay fellow' or 'he looked very gay indeed!' etc! So I'm quite happy for the word 'gay' to be replaced - after all, there are many better words to describe something bright or colourful or happy!

[Boatbuilder]

Does anybody remember the Irish TV presenter known as Gay Byrne? I wonder how he feels about his name - albeit short for Gabriel - being used in the context it is? However, I notice from the link above his middle name is Mary.

[sixret]

The good news indeed! Very glad to hear it, Tony. It's time for the publishers use the original texts!

[Fiona1986]

That is a pleasing turn around! Now if they could only apply that sort of sense to all their Blyton books.

[Courtenay]

Yes, and restore things like the original monetary values, or the boys vs girls comments in the Famous Five, or the children's original names AND Dame Slap in the Faraway Tree books! (Not to mention the infamous "furriners" exchange in Five Go Down to the Sea. )

[sixret]

The boys vs girls comments in The Famous Five? I didn’t aware of that until now.