The Mystery of the Vanished Prince

[Nair Snehalatha]

Yes- it really is wonderful.-- and as you say, Pete , there is no age for reading Blyton books. My son is 36-- but he really loves Blyton -- as it had been.'work from home' for nearly two years now-- he spends his free evenings reading Famous five find outers etc-- and me too. We read while having dinner too -- till quite late at night. The stand alone books are also a series.by themselves.-- and all make very good happy hours of reading.

[pete9012S]

36, Why he's still only a young lad Nair!
Do you like the audio books too?

[Nair Snehalatha]

I like the old original books-- with the brown coloured pages-- the old editions-- we love.those and those are the ones we have-- though some are a bit tattered. Still worth itsweight in gold-- I certainly wont go for the new age editions of Blyton with their white coloured pages -- and the names of many characters changed-- The old age.charm goes out of it.

[Nair Snehalatha]

My elder son too is an avid reader of Blyton.he's in canada-- but has taken a lot of Blyton books with him from home.Our family is a great lover of Blyton and her books-- my brother too-- I.must say I introduced Blyton to all of them ftom a very young age.-- and it has indeed done a tremendous amount of good.I love u Enid Blyton

[MysteryMagic]

This is one of the weaker books in the series, I’m never too fond of princes, and other Royals, turning up in books, it’s too fanciful for me. But, having said that, there is still a lot to like about it, and it is exciting at times.

[Bertie]

I'm quite fond of Vanished Prince. From my reading on this and other FFO threads, it seems more than I'd have expected view it as one of the weaker ones. And while it's not as strong as the very best in that high quality 4-14 run of books, I think it very much holds its own and is a good book nonetheless.

One thing that often puzzles me though, is Rollo's name compared to his siblings. Have they changed it now he's with the Fair folk, as it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the list? All the rest have the standard names Enid often gives to characters (especially of a certain class) - Alf, George, Reenie, Pam, Doris, Millie, Reg, Bob, Doreen, Marge, Bert. And then Rollo!?

[Yak]

Could have been a nickname I suppose but yeah, fair point.

[pete9012S]

Which version did everyone first read?

This was the version in my Junior School. My teacher's grown up son, Ian left a whole cupboard full of Enid Blyton's which I devoured voraciously!




















1965 Armada, illustrations by Dylan Roberts, cover by Charles Stewart
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... hed+Prince

[Anita Bensoussane]

My childhood copy (which is still my only copy) is this one:



I'm not too keen on Peter Wright's cover as the colours are a bit lurid. Your Charles Stewart cover is much more attractive, Pete. Fatty doesn't look fat enough on either cover - especially the one by Charles Stewart! My book has internal pictures by Jenny Chapple which aren't bad, but they're nowhere near as dramatic as the pictures by Dylan Roberts.

[Bertie]

Yes, that's the version I have as well, Anita. I've got all the paperback Dragon series, and also have got quite a few in hardback with awful cover pictures but the same inner illustrations as the paperbacks.

Incidentally, all Pete's (enjoyable) illustrations may have meant you missed my question about Rollo's name - I was wondering if anyone had any idea why it's so different to his siblings? There's Alf, George, Reenie, Pam, Doris, Millie, Reg, Bob, Doreen, Marge, Bert. And then Rollo?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've never really thought about his name, to be honest. It just reminds me of the name of the school in Mischief at St. Rollo's.

[pete9012S]

This is one book we can actually compare four different illustrators work on the same scene.
See what you think:


Treyer Evans 1951 _____________________________________Dylan Roberts 1965


Jenny Chapple 1968 __________________________________________Rodney Sutton 1991

[Bertie]

I've never really thought about his name, to be honest. It just reminds me of the name of the school in Mischief at St. Rollo's.

Yeah, I know it features in that book title as well. And it's fine for a Saint, and a school, name. But it's hardly as common a name for a child in that era as the likes of Alf, Bob, George, Marge, Bert, etc. Just always seemed an outlier to me (and the rest of my family who read them) that they'd go so normal for their other 11 children names but then pick such an unusual name for Rollo?

We always wondered if the fair folk had given him a different name / nickname? Or if Enid had just maybe given him a Fair sounding name (similar to Pedro) and then, when rattling off his siblings, had just gone down her usual type of names - forgetting that that made Rollo sound a real outlier for the parents to go with compared to the other 11 choices?

Anyway, it (surprisingly) doesn't seem to have hit anyone else as strange so maybe it's just my family that thought Rollo seemed to stand out amidst a list of Alf, Bob, George, Reg, Bert...

[Moonraker]

And then there is King Rollo!

Pete, original illustrations every time for me. Here is the edition I read first:

[Boodi 2]

Incidentally, all Pete's (enjoyable) illustrations may have meant you missed my question about Rollo's name - I was wondering if anyone had any idea why it's so different to his siblings? There's Alf, George, Reenie, Pam, Doris, Millie, Reg, Bob, Doreen, Marge, Bert. And then Rollo?

To be honest I never thought much about it, probably because some of the characters have unusual names, such as Theophilus Goon, which also differs from the more mundane Ern, Sid and Perce.