The Enid Blyton Society

A little more info about Bruno Vincent and an extract from his work:

About Bruno

Bruno Vincent was a bookseller and book editor before he was an author. His humour books for grown-ups, co-authored with Jon Butler, were national bestsellers and have been translated into seven languages. The TUMBLEWATER books are his first for children. Bruno lives in London and is available for events.

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/bruno-vincent" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It will be interesting to see what the general public think of this idea - well the ones that read the Daily Mail anyway.

MailOnline - news, sport, celebrity, science and health stories

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... newcomment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rob Houghton wrote:I was wondering why Francis was calling Enid Blyton 'Tony'...

I had better stop there before I get into more trouble!

My theory is that they need to make some money on their Blyton investment after years of piling-it-high-and-selling-it-cheap which is a great way of selling loads of books for no profit. It is a good strategy for selling things you use every week, such as baked beans and toilet rolls, but paperbacks will last for decades.

In the Ginger Pop Shop I still have a good range of Blyton, but don't have many in reserve, not out on the shelves. Last year I think I sold more copies of a book of 11+ questions than any Famous Five other than #1. Children are still reading Blyton, there just isn't the need to buy them new because second hand is widely available.

I'm selling quite a lot of the adult Ladybird books, but had a serious complaint from one lady who thought it quite appalling that I should sell something quite so cynical in a shop for children! She didn't seem to mind my lovely golliwoggs...

As for the "adult" Blytons... Enid Blyton went to Court to assert that all books with her name on them had been written entirely by her. This is treating the author with utter contempt.

Viv

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote: Children are still reading Blyton, there just isn't the need to buy them new because second hand is widely available.

That's a good point - maybe they should attract buyers by reverting back to the original hard-back editions with dust wrappers! (he suggested hopefully!)

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:As for the "adult" Blytons... Enid Blyton went to Court to assert that all books with her name on them had been written entirely by her. This is treating the author with utter contempt.

Agreed.

The law doesn't cover parody or pastiche (if it did, you'd never have any comedy in the world)

At last, a sensible Daily Mail reader:

Indomitable Man, London,

Can't believe these books are allowed to carry Enid Blyton's signature as if she is somehow connected to them.What a blatant cash in.Shame on the publishers for allowing this to go ahead.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... newcomment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think Enid Blyton's signature was trademarked at some point, so publishers can get away with putting the signature on covers of new books because it's regarded as a logo rather than a name. Maybe the law needs changing so that a person's name in the form of a signature or any other design can't be used as a trademark?

Gary Russell wrote:The law doesn't cover parody or pastiche (if it did, you'd never have any comedy in the world)

True, but is it right for them to put Enid Blyton's name on the books as if she had written them, as opposed to simply parodying some of the characters she created? There have been Famous Five send-ups before (Five Go Mad in Dorset et al.), but as far as I know, they didn't come with any insinuation that Enid wrote or sanctioned the content...

Does anyone know how to find the details of the Court Case when EB took on a librarian who said that EB hadn't written all of the books with her name on them?

Viv

Courtenay wrote:

Gary Russell wrote:The law doesn't cover parody or pastiche (if it did, you'd never have any comedy in the world)

True, but is it right for them to put Enid Blyton's name on the books as if she had written them, as opposed to simply parodying some of the characters she created? There have been Famous Five send-ups before (Five Go Mad in Dorset et al.), but as far as I know, they didn't come with any insinuation that Enid wrote or sanctioned the content...

I love Five go mad in Dorset & other similar send-ups, but it's a different ball game when you're putting an authors name to a book, etc, without the said authors blessing, just for sheer profit. Remove the authors name & ill be fine with any send up!

All trademarks/logos used under fair usage/parody/humour...

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:As for the "adult" Blytons... Enid Blyton went to Court to assert that all books with her name on them had been written entirely by her. This is treating the author with utter contempt.

Viv

This has always surprised me as in 1954 a series of books were published by Collins and advertised in Enid Blyton's Magazine as the latest series by Enid Blyton. However, these books had already been published in France some time before with an anonymous author. The artwork in the book below has the copyright date of 1952 in it. Although in some other books names were changed, the story in this book is an exact translation of the French edition.


In later years the Darrell Waters Company always suspected that these books had not been written by Enid Blyton and for that reason they were never reprinted.

Published in board covers, this is an advertisement for the new Ford Fiesta in the form of a Famous Five spoof. It was written by Caroline Rice and Gary Carless, and illustrated by Peter Gregory.

"Five really do have more fun. Join Justin, Rick, Charlie, Anna and Jimmy the dog as they head for the beach in their all-new Ford Fiesta for a fun day out."

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Enid-Blyton-F ... SwH71XO3zX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a parody/pastiche that cleverly avoids using any trademarks or names used by Enid Blyton.
I'm sure there was another one? Possibly by Renault?

Viv of Ginger Pop wrote:My theory is that they need to make some money on their Blyton investment after years of piling-it-high-and-selling-it-cheap which is a great way of selling loads of books for no profit. It is a good strategy for selling things you use every week, such as baked beans and toilet rolls, but paperbacks will last for decades.

In the Ginger Pop Shop I still have a good range of Blyton, but don't have many in reserve, not out on the shelves. Last year I think I sold more copies of a book of 11+ questions than any Famous Five other than #1. Children are still reading Blyton, there just isn't the need to buy them new because second hand is widely available.

I'm selling quite a lot of the adult Ladybird books, but had a serious complaint from one lady who thought it quite appalling that I should sell something quite so cynical in a shop for children! She didn't seem to mind my lovely golliwoggs...

As for the "adult" Blytons... Enid Blyton went to Court to assert that all books with her name on them had been written entirely by her. This is treating the author with utter contempt.

Viv

Couldn't agree with you more, Viv - that is exactly what they are doing.
I will be coming to Corfe in June and the first I will do is go to your shop and buy some nice Enid items.

I can confirm from my own legal dealings over the issue of reproducing Blyton cover images for the illustration section of my Blyton sites book that the 'trademark' rights to the Enid Blyton signature covers the use of the name 'Enid Blyton' as well as the well-known signature in its usual (or indeed any) form. I could not reproduce any artwork drafts for covers that had the Blyton name, in a normal layout like the rest of the cover wording, but not her usual signature on them. There is also a separate trademark rights grant re: the names of 'Malory Towers' and 'St Clares', presumably taken out when the publishers were planning the 'official' six follow-up books in the MT series featuring Felicity and co. and three in the StC series so nobody could do a rival series.
This being the case, there does not seem a definitive reason why the 'spoof' books 'have' to have the usual Blyton signature on the cover, ie as if they were part of the Famous Five series, and could not have just used the name in a normal font like the rest of the lettering. The style of the cover for the projected 'Glutein-Free' spoof suggests that the cover's artist in question is imitating Eileen Soper's 1950s covers (and her use of colours), quite cleverly, as a part of the nostalgia appeal. But it is hardly usual - yet - for people to bring out a series of books spoofing an author without making it more evident that it is a spoof, eg by including the actual author's name; this is a trend which I think has worrying implications long-term.
It would make a most interesting legal case in the UK High Court as to whether a 'name' as opposed to a signature should really be trademarked and how far this should extend. Is a person's name as such a 'brand'? (What if someone wanted to write a series of books about another school called 'St Clares' ? - a common enough name. Or if an author called 'John Smith' went to court to have his name trademarked and no more John Smiths could publish books under their own names .) If a name can be legally ring-fenced like this, we could end up like the situation where UK businesses that have accidentally used a name like a US worldwide logo have ended up being chased by US lawyers for breach of copyright. But at least there, the issue is the seemingly unauthorised use of a company name or imaged logo, not a person's name.