Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Lucky Star »

Rob Houghton wrote:I always presumed Smuggler Ben was around 14, as he doesn't go to school, apparently, and goes fishing instead. I can't recall (even after having just read the book!) if his age is ever mentioned?
His age is not mentioned but I always took for granted from the contexts that he was roughly the same age as the other kids. They all play the same games and he never calls them "babies" or any other such insult.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Daisy »

I assumed it was the summer holidays, so no school for any of them.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Courtenay »

pete9012S wrote:Image
:lol: Good one, Pete. :wink:

I did notice the bit about the children getting up at 6 am. Not so unlikely, though, in the height of summer when the sun is up before 5. I've been known to get up that early in summer, especially when on holiday somewhere exciting! :D
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Love the doctored illustration, Pete!
pete9012S wrote:It was 6.30am went they set off.What time did they rise? 6am? In their holidays.They make the Famous Five look like layabouts!!
I used to like to get up early on holiday - but not that early.Anyone else get up at 6am when young?
My sister and I used to get up at around that time on summer mornings, climb out of our bedroom window (we lived in a bungalow!) and play in the garden in our nightclothes and slippers!
pete9012S wrote:
The world looked clean and new. "Just as if it has been freshly washed," said Hilary,
Which other characters uttered similar lines and in which books? Can anyone remember any? I keep meaning to do a bit of research on that one.Maybe Anne and Lucy-Anne perhaps??
Anne definitely said something similar, and perhaps Lucy-Ann too. I don't recall which books though. There's a description of that sort in The Secret Island as well.
pete9012S wrote:...Alec appeared at the door in his bathing-trunks. He had nothing else on at all, and his face was excited. " I'm going for a dip," he said in a low voice. " Are you coming? Don't wake Mother. It's early." The girls almost fell out of bed in their excitement. They pulled on bathing-dresses, and then crept out of the cottage with Alec. It was about half-past six.

...the water around Britain is jolly cold.Icy cold.Even in high summer as I jumped off some rocks in Anglesey in my holey underpants to try and impress my future wife when we were courting.

I nearly caught hypothermia because the water was so cold.Crystal clear and ever so inviting,but so so cold!
Anyone else able to brave the British water by the sea without feeling absolutely freezing?

...Maybe kids were made out of sterner stuff than my generation (1960's& '70's).Nonetheless,Enid's depictions and descriptions gave me something to aim for and aspire to.
:lol:

From the age of twelve or so my sister and I used to go swimming in the sea at Colwyn Bay with two friends of ours who were also sisters. Sometimes we went on cold days as it was fun to have the sea to ourselves. It felt okay once our shoulders were under but we'd emerge from the water with blue lips and faces. Even a trip to The Rothesay Café for a steaming pot of tea didn't stop our teeth chattering! We never went for a dip at half-past six in the morning though!
pete9012S wrote:Enid Blyton has also had a massive lifelong subconscious affect on my attitude toward 'Trippers' too.

I long for wild open spaces,secret coves,moorland,mountainous country without another soul or 'tripper' in sight.
It's too late for me to really change now,but I really must try and remember that the countryside,seaside,mountainside if for all to enjoy and not just those hell bent on living an Enid Blyton dream-like 1950's lifestyle!!!
:lol: :lol: :lol:
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Courtenay »

I don't know whether it's the fact that we all grew up on Enid Blyton, but my family have always had a similar attitude towards — well, we don't use the term "trippers" in Australia, but towards "tourists". As my parents would always remind me and my sister when we went on holiday, "We're not tourists, we're holiday-makers!" The difference in our minds being that tourists are the sort of people who blow in and blow out and just spend their time and money doing tacky touristy things and never truly get to know the place, while holiday-makers want a quiet time in unspoiled places and genuinely care about and support the locals. A bit like Blyton characters, I guess. 8)

Incidentally, the usual Cornish dialect word I've heard for tourists/trippers is "emmets" (literally "ants") — no, not "furriners"!! :wink: I've successfully avoided being called that myself when over there, mind you — so far, at least...
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Daisy »

I imagine people who live in a holiday resort won't wish to insult the visitors on whom they rely for their livelihood. What they say behind your back might be another matter!
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I am someone who lived all my early life in the South West and the only word I ever heard used for tourists was 'grockles'. According to the definition from Mr Google a grockle is - 'a holidaymaker, especially one visiting a resort in Devon or Cornwall.'
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Daisy »

I have heard of 'grockles' but not 'emmets'. Is this a case of new words becoming more common as time goes on?
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Carlotta King »

I lived in Weston-super-Mare for a few years, and on Exmoor too, and the word 'grockle' was common in those places too.
A neighbour of ours used to have a sticker on his car that said "I'm not a grockle, I'm local".
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Daisy »

Right... have we exhausted Smuggler Ben now? It feels like ages since I finished Cliff Castle and I shall need to look at it again before commenting on it, I think!
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Rob Houghton »

I've just started reading Cliff Castle - but no need to wait for me as long as enough have read it. I will be probably reading it for around a week, as I like to take my time - one or two chapters a day. :-)
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hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Liam »

I’ll just get one last Smuggler Ben in. :)
pete9012S wrote:
The world looked clean and new. "Just as if it has been freshly washed," said Hilary,
Which other characters uttered similar lines and in which books? Can anyone remember any? I keep meaning to do a bit of research on that one.Maybe Anne and Lucy-Anne perhaps??
Anita Bensoussane wrote: Anne definitely said something similar, and perhaps Lucy-Ann too. I don't recall which books though. There's a description of that sort in The Secret Island as well.
Anita, you have a really good memory! You even remembered it was not a character that said it in the Secret Island, but the author. It is one of those memorable lines that you never forget.
Secret Island 10:37 wrote: “Nora, you won’t have time for a dip before breakfast if you don’t come now,” shouted Peggy. So Nora ran out, too. What a lovely morning it was! The thunderstorm had cleared away and left the world looking clean and newly washed. Even the pure blue sky seemed washed, too.
Five on a Treasure Island 8:7-8 wrote: The sun was now shining brightly, though it was still low in the eastern sky. It felt warm already. The sky was so beautifully blue that Anne couldn't help feeling it had been freshly washed! 'It looks just as if it had come back from the laundry,' she told the others.
They squealed with laughter at her. She did say odd things at times. But they knew what she meant. The day had a lovely new feeling about it -- the clouds were so pink in the bright blue sky, and the sea looked so smooth and fresh. It was impossible to imagine that it had been so rough the day before.
Valley of Adventure 20:1-2 wrote: THEY slept very soundly indeed that night, for they were tired out. The rain fell all night long, but towards dawn the clouds cleared away, and the sky, when the sun rose, was a clear pale blue. Lucy-Ann liked it very much when she parted the soaking fern-fronds and looked out.
"Everything's newly-washed and clean, even the sky," she said. "Lovely! Just look!"
It occurs first in the Secret Island, not directly uttered by any character, but associated with Peggy who was the character looking at the morning. It occurs three more times. Two of them have the name “Ann” - Anne and Lucy-Ann. Three of them are blonde, at least depicted so by the illustrators, and one is a redhead. This made me think that all three characters that the above observation is associated with are quite similar in that they are the quieter, sensitive type. It turns out that assumption is wrong.

Frances is the sensitive type - feels an affinity to all creatures as in wanting to experience life as a gull, timid, doesn’t like quarreling, vivid imagination, all characteristics of Anne in the FF.

Hilary likes food, adventure and loses her temper a lot, can row quite well for a girl, things always happen to her, no love of books, love of the outdoors, she is eager to play smuggler, takes the lead in everything, actually seems a bit hyperactive. These are qualities of Dick, but also of George. The love of food and adventure is Dick. The tendency to lose temper, the rowing like a boy, not taking to books, loving the outdoors, is George. The quote we are discussing, selecting the food in the shop, expressing the sentiment that she prefers deserted vacation spots, is Anne.

Hilary’s characteristics cover a rather wide range (compared to the FF characters). She does seem most like George, but I feel reluctant to give her that because in my mind the book already has a George in Smuggler Ben. So since we can fix the George type pretty firmly in Smuggler Ben, the Anne type in Frances, the Julian authority figure in Alec (older, in charge of the girls, natural leader), that leaves Hilary to be the Dick type.

Maybe there is a mechanical way to construct characters after all. The core character type remains fixed, though a few traits can be ‘out of place’. Or maybe there are just a small number of character types: the authority figure, the helper (sidekick), the challenger, and the vulnerable.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by pete9012S »

Thanks for that info Liam.Most appreciated and very interesting.
I have always wanted to make a comparative list of all the times the line or a very similar one was mentioned in all the books.

Regards

Pete
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Liam wrote:
pete9012S wrote:
The world looked clean and new. "Just as if it has been freshly washed," said Hilary,
Which other characters uttered similar lines and in which books? Can anyone remember any? I keep meaning to do a bit of research on that one.Maybe Anne and Lucy-Anne perhaps??
Anita Bensoussane wrote: Anne definitely said something similar, and perhaps Lucy-Ann too. I don't recall which books though. There's a description of that sort in The Secret Island as well.
Anita, you have a really good memory! You even remembered it was not a character that said it in the Secret Island, but the author. It is one of those memorable lines that you never forget.
Thanks, Liam. It's not long since I wrote about the Secret series for the Journal so certain things have lodged in my mind. Thanks for listing the relevant quotations from The Secret Island, Five on a Treasure Island and The Valley of Adventure. It's nice to read them one after the other.
Liam wrote:Hilary likes food, adventure and loses her temper a lot, can row quite well for a girl, things always happen to her, no love of books, love of the outdoors, she is eager to play smuggler, takes the lead in everything, actually seems a bit hyperactive...

Does Hilary have "no love of books"? Although she says at first that she doesn't fancy dipping into Professor Rondel's old books, she's the one who suggests that they consult them to see what they can find out about smuggling in the area. We learn that she has even taken a look at one of the books by herself: "I looked into one of the books the other day, and it seemed to be all about this district in the old days." Also, one evening she chooses to read a book of her own on the cliff-top rather than going for a walk with Alec and Frances. She tells Ben that it's "terribly exciting" and offers to lend it to him. He is grateful, saying, "I can't get enough books."
Liam wrote:Frances is the sensitive type - feels an affinity to all creatures as in wanting to experience life as a gull...
Reading about Frances wanting to be a gull for a little while reminded me of Enid Blyton's editorial letter in Enid Blyton's Magazine Vol. 5, No. 10, May 8th-21st 1957:
I am sitting by the sea to write you this letter. The tide is just coming in, and there are dozens of little waves running in to shore one after the other, with little curled edges of white.

Overhead the great winged gulls soar and glide and swoop. If I were a bird I would like to be one of those gulls! It must be lovely to sweep through the air as they do, with strong slow wing-beats, or swoop down to the water, close their wings and bob up and down happily on the waves.
"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."
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Daisy wrote:Right... have we exhausted Smuggler Ben now? It feels like ages since I finished Cliff Castle and I shall need to look at it again before commenting on it, I think!
I finished reading Cliff Castle a few days ago. I'd be happy to move on from Smuggler Ben soon, though if others want to wait a little longer to begin discussing Cliff Castle that's fine by me.

Once we've moved on, it's perfectly okay for people to continue commenting on Smuggler Ben if they've thought of something to add.

I don't think I've yet mentioned how much I enjoyed all the colloquialisms/popular phrases of the era that crop up in Smuggler Ben - "I vote we...", "You're a sport!", "You really are a brick", "...you're a wonder!", "Simply marvellous!", "Oh, blow!", "heaps of", "I say,"... It may be a short book but there are plenty of them! In Chapter 7 Alec cries out, "I say, I say, I say!" I half wondered if he was beginning to tell a joke! :lol:
"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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