Enid Blyton's Daffodil Story Book - 1949 - 1954

[pete9012S]

This is a truly wonderful book.
It seems to be getting more expensive, and harder to locate the first edition.
But, the second edition does have coloured internals.
Let's take a look at some and conclude with a story from the book:


The first edition cover

First edition: 1949
Publisher: John Gifford
Cover Art: Hilda Boswell
Illustrator: listed with stories
Category: Foyle's Flower Story Books
Genre: Mixed
Type: Short Story Series Books

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... Story+Book




The 1954 second edition cover


Rarely seen - complete second edition cover.

Let's now compare the internals. The second edition are coloured. Which ones do you prefer?













Personally, I'm leaning towards the coloured illustrations from the 1954 second edition. How about you?

Finally a short story from the book. Just the title alone shows the power of Enid's vivid imagination!

The Mischievous Tunnel
Illustrations: Kathleen M. Gell
Story: Sunny Stories No.265 Feb 6, 1942

A marvelous book. Do you have either the first or second edition?
What are your favourite stories from the book?

[Debbie]

I've definitely read that story before, but I don't think I had the Daffodil book. Was it in any other story collections?

[pete9012S]

You may have read it in another publication from this list in the cave Debbie?

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/sea ... ous+Tunnel

[Katharine]

I love daffodils. I have a couple of the flower story books, but don't think I have that one.

I recently read the Mischievous Tunnel, but couldn't think where as I don't have the Daffodil book. Thanks to The Cave I realised it was in the Story Time book.

[Jomo]

I rather like the second edition with multiple colours, it’s the same artwork, just a more complex printing process, four colours instead of two, so it was more expensive to produce, but no doubt justified by the number of sales
Can you imagine any of Enid Blyton’s original editions ending up in the ‘remainder bin’? I don’t think so!

[Debbie]

You may have read it in another publication from this list in the cave Debbie?

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/sea ... ous+Tunnel

Thank you! I think we had the Storytime book at home, so that would be it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I read 'The Mischievous Tunnel' in Storytime Book too. I always wondered how long a typical clockwork engine would run for, once fully wound. Does anyone know?

The coloured internal illustrations are nicely done and I slightly prefer them to the ones with a single colour.

[pete9012S]

I noticed on ebay there is even a tunnel for sale that looks a bit like the one on our story..

Vintage 1930’s Hornby Railways O Gauge Train Tunnel Model

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384674560765 ... SweqVh3alJ

[Jomo]

I always wondered how long a typical clockwork engine would run for, once fully wound. Does anyone know?

The running time of a clockwork engine would depend upon the length and tension of the spring and the ratio of the gears that release that tension.
In my childhood experience, they seemed to run down rather quickly, giving movement for no more than a couple of minutes, but these may have been inexpensive and inferior mechanisms. Good quality machines could probably run for several more minutes.

[Kate Mary]

The coloured illustrations of the second edition are lovely, my copy is undated but the single colour on the pictures prove it's a first, it has a few embellishments by a previous owner however. Thanks for posting the pictures Pete.

[Tony Summerfield]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned already, but there is quite a big difference between the two editions as the original had 128 pages and the new edition only had 60 pages and so unsurprisingly it had under half the number of stories.

[pete9012S]

The contents page from the 1954 second edition.
I'm not quite sure if the info about the second edition being sixty pages is in the cave.

[pete9012S]

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/aut ... book-1.jpg






Sadly, the second 1953 edition of the Bluebell Story Book is much shorter too.

As a collector I would be most disappointed to receive such a shortened version.
This is important information.
Looking at the other books from the eight in the cave it looks like just the first two (Daffodil & Bluebell)have been shortened for second edition version..

[Lucky Star]

Beautiful books. I would love to have either (or preferably both) editions in my collection as they are both so lovely. If I had to choose though I would go for the first edition with the longer page count. Both sets of illustrations are lovely too. I think I prefer the second edition's coloured pictures but it's a close call.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I always wondered how long a typical clockwork engine would run for, once fully wound. Does anyone know?

The running time of a clockwork engine would depend upon the length and tension of the spring and the ratio of the gears that release that tension.
In my childhood experience, they seemed to run down rather quickly, giving movement for no more than a couple of minutes, but these may have been inexpensive and inferior mechanisms. Good quality machines could probably run for several more minutes.

Thanks, Jomo!