Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Interesting thoughts, Rob. I don't normally mind stories featuring princes and princesses but in this case the princess feels rather like a fairy princess, suddenly appearing and bestowing upon the children a magnificent and most unlikely-sounding car in which they drive off down the lane. It's as though we've stepped into a completely different book!
Nicko wrote:When Brock was trying to hide from the baddies, I did think to myself, "Please don't let him sneeze!" :D This obviously became one of Enid's favourite motifs and was used in The Missing Necklace, one of the Secret Sevens, The Strange Ruby and probably elsewhere.
I love the way Enid Blyton describes the sneeze: "Now when Brock sneezed, everyone knew it, for he sneezed heartily and well." :lol:

I also like the sentence a little later about the men failing to spot Brock, who is "able to dart out and elude their outstretched hands". It conjures up quite a scary image of the men's hands as tentacles eager to ensnare.

By the way, I was wondering about the "currant pasties" which the children have for tea in Chapter 2. Are they similar to Eccles cakes or Chorley cakes? I hadn't heard the term "currant pasty" before.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Interesting thoughts, Rob. I don't normally mind stories featuring princes and princesses but in this case the princess feels rather like a fairy princess, suddenly appearing and bestowing upon the children a magnificent and most unlikely-sounding car in which they drive off down the lane. It's as though we've stepped into a completely different book!
I agree, Anita — that's what I felt to be one of the main weaknesses of the story, that this Princess of Larreeanah (even the name is so absurd I can't remember it and have to keep looking it up!) just suddenly appears in the last couple of pages to conjure up such an over-the-top gift, all of which hardly seems to fit with the rest of the story.

I don't usually mind stories featuring princes and princesses or other royalty either, but in a lot of Enid's books — with a few exceptions like Prince Paul and Gussy — her royal characters are fairy folk or otherwise magical, not human, and are probably best suited to magical realms only! :wink:
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Rob Houghton »

Doing a search, I found this recepie for a 'Westmorland Currant Pasty' -

https://mike0326.wixsite.com/wattlesbor ... rry-cake-1

It's the only one I could find!
'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: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Wolfgang »

Rob Houghton wrote:
The Vanished Prince is one of my least favourite Find Outer books because it contains a prince, and I'm not really very keen on The Secret of Spiggy Holes either - though Prince Paul is maybe one of the most 'realistic' royal characters - as is Gussie in The Circus of Adventure.
Maybe you'd like to read the German editions of the Secret series, Rob, there's no Prince Paul but Larry King, the son of a millionaire ;-).
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Rob Houghton wrote:Doing a search, I found this recepie for a 'Westmorland Currant Pasty' -

https://mike0326.wixsite.com/wattlesbor ... rry-cake-1
Thanks, Rob!

As usual, I enjoy being taken into an old-fashioned world of porters and pony-carts and hearing expressions like "I vote", "What ho", "You old brick!", "What luck!", "Thanks, old man", "I say" and "My word." And I never get tired of village women warning of mysterious lights and queer goings-on - even though we meet them in umpteen books!

Enid Blyton twice describes the countryside as "smiling" in the sun, while the castle seems to "look down on them [the children] with a frown." A simple but effective contrast.

We're told that Brock has a meccano set in his play-house. I recall that Prince Paul also has meccano at his palace in The Secret of Killimooin.

A couple of details remind me of Smuggler Ben, e.g. Brock having "a fierce-looking knife" and Peter saying at the castle, "We might find it rather fun to come and play smugglers or something here." Maybe the seeds of the Smuggler Ben story were starting to take root in Enid's mind while she was writing Cliff Castle.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Rob Houghton »

Wolfgang wrote:
Rob Houghton wrote:
The Vanished Prince is one of my least favourite Find Outer books because it contains a prince, and I'm not really very keen on The Secret of Spiggy Holes either - though Prince Paul is maybe one of the most 'realistic' royal characters - as is Gussie in The Circus of Adventure.
Maybe you'd like to read the German editions of the Secret series, Rob, there's no Prince Paul but Larry King, the son of a millionaire ;-).
I think the 'son of a millionaire' would be worse!! :lol: I actually don't mind Prince Paul - as I said, he's about the best, along with Gussy. :-D Strangely enough, I think it would be harder for children to identify with the son of a millionaire than it would to identify with a Prince. A Prince is somehow more of a victim than a millionaire's son would be.
'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: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Wolfgang »

Wolfgang wrote:Smuggler Ben of the Bloomsbury edition is also shortened, but not in the Werner Laurie edition (comparison based on my German edition). It is a pity that Cliff Castle wasn't published by Werner Laurie as well. It's also a pity (for me) that the Adventury treasury features Smuggler Ben completely and not Cliff Castle ;-).
The last German edition of Cliff Castle is also shortened.
Obviously "Werner Laurie" published "The secret of Cliff Castle":
http://www.ebay.de/itm/The-Secret-of-Cl ... SwCGVYB4t~
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by pete9012S »

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I'm reading the 1959 Two - in one edition which I sadly assume has been heavily edited??

Re- reading Cliff Castle at the moment. So many little errors that would be just like the 'Kirrin' name saga in this book.

Perhaps a good job the story wasn't enormously popular and developed into a lengthy series.
The children haven't seen Brock for ages and are looking forward seeing him again - yet when they return it's as if they are seeing the castle on the hill for the very first time!

Brock lives in the country and knows everywhere all around and yet knows nothing about the intimidating castle dominating the skyline!

They are collected by pony and trap and the cottage they live in is very Kirrin Cottage - ish!
The children stared out of the window at the lonely castle on the top of the steep hill. It suddenly seemed very mysterious and exciting to them. It stood there, with the sinking sun behind it, and looked rather black and forbidding.
Still, I'm enjoying the book which feels much more like a prototype or forerunner to the later more fleshed out Adventure/Mystery books Enid would go on to produce as Rob mentioned earlier in this thread.
" Where are you off to? " asked the woman, handing out three small bottles of lemonade. " To explore round about Cliff Castle," said Peter.

" Oh, I wouldn't do that," said the woman. Really, I wouldn't. It's a queer place. And people do say that funny lights have been seen there lately. Well, that's very strange, isn't it, in a place that's been empty for years? "

" Very queer," said Brock, staring at the woman, and feeling rather excited. " What sort of lights? " " I don't know," said the woman. " I only know I wouldn't go near that place in the dark, or in the daytime either! There's always been something queer about it—and there is still! "
Very Moon Castle - ish!!
The countryside lay smiling in the afternoon sunshine.
What a wonderful view! " cried Pam, peering out of one of the slits. She saw the whole of the countryside to the east lying smiling in the hot August sun. It looked marvellous."
A nice descriptive expression I can't recall used in any other books?

I'm sure there's an expression in this book that states that food in the countryside tastes much nicer than food in the town/city but I cannot seem to find it again now?? (Could be in The Rockingdown Mystery - as I'm reading that book at the same time as this?)

For all that I'm enjoying the book and I always read The Secret seven book with the telescope and also The Castle Of Adventure for comparison when I get to the end of The Secret Of Cliff Castle!

ImageImage
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Rob Houghton »

The Collins version with two books in one, is indeed quite heavily edited in places. I'm not sure when this edit took place though. Maybe it was as early as when the books were republished as written by Enid Blyton. I only have the Collins two in one version and the Mary Pollock version.

Here's some of what I wrote earlier on page 14, and onwards of this thread -


Rob Houghton wrote:in my Mary Pollock version there is quite a bit more...

She was surprised when the three children did not seem pleased about it.

"Well!" she said, "I think you're rather ungrateful! I thought it would be a lovely surprise for you!"
Pam didn't like to hurt her kind aunt. She went up to her and squeezed her arm. "Of course we'll love to go!" she said. "We'd planned to do something else - but that can easily wait till another day, can't it boys?"

"Oh yes," said Brock and Peter, a little gloomily.

"Well it can't be anything very important" said Brock's mother. "I'm sure it can wait a little."

So they went off for a picnic...
and later -

I think its a shame they took some of them out, as it takes away the atmosphere. For example, the paperback reads -

"Goodbye, Mother! Goodbye!"
"Be good!" called Mother. "Goodbye! Have a lovely holiday! Give my love to Auntie Hetty!"
"I hope Brock will be at the station to meet us," said Peter.... etc

Originally the passage was longer and more descriptive -

"Goodbye, Mother! Goodbye!"
"Be good!" called Mother. "Goodbye! Have a lovely holiday! Give my love to Auntie Hetty!"
The train went round a corner, and the two children could no longer see their mother. They sank back in their seats and looked at one another, trying to hide their excitement. It was such fun to go off on holiday alone like this. They had never been a long journey in a train by themselves before.
"I hope Brock will be at the station to meet us," said Peter...

Later on, as Wolfgang says, Mary Pollock's version has this description -

..."Do you really?" said Pam, feeling all excited too. "Ooh, I hope we do have some. School was so dull last term that I could do with something exciting in the hols!"
The train went off, panting and puffing, for it was a small, slow train, drawn by an old fashioned express...
"Goodness, isn't it slow, after the express!" said Pam...
'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: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Chrissie777 »

"Cliff Castle" is actually a pretty good story, but the editor should have replaced EB's usage of the word "queer" (probably 38 times throughout the text) by some synonyms.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by John Pickup »

I've always liked Cliff Castle, I have the 1955 Werner Laurie edition. I'm not sure if the text has been changed much from the original Mary Pollock version though.
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by pete9012S »

Thanks John - that is the question I'm asking too - can anyone help?
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by sixret »

I do not know about Cliff Castle but I can confirm that the Smuggler Ben, Werner Laurie edition, at least the 1950 one has the same text like Tower House. :D
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Re: Readathon - Smuggler Ben and Cliff Castle

Post by Rob Houghton »

pete9012S wrote:Thanks John - that is the question I'm asking too - can anyone help?
I don't have the two in order to compare, but I would have thought it was probably the same as the original Mary Pollock version.

I presume you don't have the Werner Laurie version, or else you would be able to check against what I posted further up? Unfortunately I only have the original Mary Pollock book of Cliff Castle, and the Collins double one.
'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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