Journal

What did you think of the latest Journal?
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Journal

Post by Rob Houghton »

very well done: a really useful resource.

I hate to pick flies when you've done such a brilliant job, but I, too, would have liked the writers and contributors to the Journal placed under surname rather than first name perhaps. the only other thing I noticed was 'Run-About's Family' instead of 'Run-About's Holiday' under the Younger Family series. 8)

Congratulations on all your hard work though. 8)
'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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Tony Summerfield
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Re: Journal

Post by Tony Summerfield »

It is indeed a splendid effort and I am sure it is something we can work on. However I don't really see the point of the author index which tells you very little, when you have them all listed again with their articles in the index that follows. This index will be very useful indeed.

I think at the moment that the first index is possibly too vague - for example there are numerous entries under Enid Blyton, but they tell you nothing at all about what the references refer to. What you have done is a really good starting point to build on and I think we need as much feedback as possible on it. I have certainly saved it to my computer!
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Lenoir
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Re: Journal

Post by Lenoir »

   Thanks for the feedback. I see the first author index isn’t that useful, but I was just trying different ideas really. I can change it to surname, first-name hopefully without too much effort. I will fix the little errors as well.
I will also try another version with the articles listed just to see what it looks like.
The entries without details were the articles that I wasn't able to categorise. In these cases the actual articles would need to be read and then more information added.
I will leave it for now, and see what else comes up in the week.
tix
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Re: Journal

Post by tix »

Congratulations to Lenoir for the excellent index. A lot of candles must have been burnt at both ends so, hopefully, the result will be given a permanent place on the site and can be added to by anyone with an interest in any particular subject provided it can be done without taking too much of Tony’s time. It would be good if those interested could just add subjects as they think of them but I doubt if it would be possible unless the codes or whatever it is that are used were taught to all Forumites. As well as that, you could imagine what might happen if someone outside the world of Blyton, and with a sense of mischief, found out about it. “The Blarney Books,” “The Twins in a Portuguese Dope Den,” or even “Josie, Click and Bum” might become the order of the day.

Feedback has been requested so here’s a little: One useful section that can be expanded is the first part that has key words. I thought of “Railways” and sure enough I found the various references were listed but the subjects are endless of course and that’s why it will be good to have an “add-to” facility. Amelia Jane, Anna, Angela … Jack, Jo, Julian – there could be headings for all of them provided there’s a little substance in the particular passage. Oftentimes a character’s name or a subject is remembered and the journal is consulted - but where to look?

An example would be the F. F. Television series. The Famous Five have a mention in 2:21 that could eventually be added to so that a “Television Series” heading is also down at 2:21. A few pages along, there’s another reference to the TV series in an interview with Helen Cresswell, and there’s also a “Bits and Pieces” that has been faithfully recorded as “In Miniature” So it’s there all right but not that it’s about a Bekonscot produced booklet containing an original Enid Blyton tale.

The Adult Stories might also be cross-referenced by their titles. “The Children at Green Meadows and the Woman At Green Hedges” could be listed under the second part as well (W.A.G.H.) because they might be the only words remembered of that critique’s lengthy title. A stand-alone article index (it has been mentioned) would be handy just to save looking down all the lists of authors’ names to find a particular item; I spotted “The Secret Seven and Susie” at one stage and then when I looked again it took a while to locate. A “Darrell Rivers” plus a “Rivers Darrell” entry could eventually record all (or most) of the references to this key character such as that in “Why Do the O'Sullivan Twins Have a Pleasant Irish Lilt in Their Voices?” (3:27), and for that matter the Twins could do with their own listing (and so could “Lenoir”).

All to be added to over the next months, years, or centuries. With hundreds of forum members and subscribers the additions are limitless or at least I think they are provided thousands of pages won’t produce hefty bills for web space - but I don’t know anything about that side of it!

Congratulations again.
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Re: Journal

Post by Lenoir »

tiq wrote:
A stand-alone article index (it has been mentioned) would be handy just to save looking down all the lists of authors’ names to find a particular item; I spotted “The Secret Seven and Susie” at one stage and then when I looked again it took a while to locate.

the Twins could do with their own listing (and so could “Lenoir”).
Thanks. It was a fair amount of work. At least the initial part went quickly – I just had to copy and paste all the journal catalogue contents, that Tony has already uploaded to the Fireside Journal section, into a file and work from there. QuIte enjoyable. :)
A stand-alone article index is quite possible and I will see how it turns out. That particular article is filed under "Secret Seven reviews" in the main index, so it can be misleading if you're searching for Susie.
The twins are filed under St. Clares.

Lenoir doesn’t get mentioned much in the journals, maybe I should write an article on him!

I will upload a MarkII version within the next week, incorporating some improvements and corrections, most of which I have done ready.

I thought of a few things myself. Should the “Naughtiest Girl” be indexed under Whyteleafe?
Should I file “The land of far beyond” and The boy next door” as Land of far beyond and Boy next door or is it ok the way they are, because they are under the heading “One-Off Novels”.

The thing is, a person can now do a find (ctrl F) within the document and look for anything quickly. Admittedly, though, there is no reference to characters, for example Fatty, Bets, Julian, but they are mentioned so many times in the articles on the Find Outers and Famous Five respectively that it might not be all that helpful to list them all.
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Journal

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Lenoir wrote:I thought of a few things myself. Should the “Naughtiest Girl” be indexed under Whyteleafe?
Should I file “The land of far beyond” and The boy next door” as Land of far beyond and Boy next door or is it ok the way they are, because they are under the heading “One-Off Novels”.
Anything that helps users locate an article more easily would be of benefit, I think. I appreciate that all this is a lot of work but personally I know I'll find the index very useful.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Lenoir
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Re: Journal

Post by Lenoir »

    The Journal 31 article mentioned by Daisy in another thread is categorised under “Imagination” in the journal index and that is accurate enough, but the article refers to quite a few characters from various books and that sort of detail won’t be found in the index.
    I think I’ll leave the book titles with the “The”, although it might mean a lot under T. The reason is most of them are under a heading so it looks ok. I’ll see how many more things I can look up to improve certain areas that are vague, and then publish a new version.
Tony Summerfield
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Re: Journal

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Usually in indexes 'The' and 'A' come at the end of a listing:-

Castle of Adventure, The

Day at School, A

Otherwise as you rightly say you can have an awful lot of entries that start 'The'.
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Re: Journal

Post by Moonraker »

Yes, I endorse Tony's post, there would be far too many entries starting with 'T' or 'The'. I hesitate to make any suggestions as you have obviouls put in loads of hard work on this, I am sure it will be a fantastic asset to us all - more so for those who have all the Journals (of whom I am not one!)
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Re: Journal

Post by Fiona1986 »

I would definitely suggest not aphabetising using The. Its very frustrating to look for a particular book/subject/article and not find it in a list, then think about The and have to look in a separate place. (not every one knows about ctrlF of course :wink: ;) )
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.


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Lenoir
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Re: Journal

Post by Lenoir »

I have uploaded the new version of the Index. It’s not vastly different to the first but I have filled in more detail in some places and tried to include as many of the suggestions as possible.
Available here.

By the way, when I was checking the index I discovered that the Journal Catalogue contents page for Journal 22 is missing the article on The secret of Killimooin:
The Secret Series (Part 4) by David Cook (48)
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Re: Journal

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Lenoir wrote:By the way, when I was checking the index I discovered that the Journal Catalogue contents page for Journal 22 is missing the article on The secret of Killimooin:
The Secret Series (Part 4) by David Cook (48)
Not any more! Thanks for spotting that, I vaguely remember my apology to David Cook at the time, now that you mention it. :oops:
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Re: Journal

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Excellent work, Lenoir! :D The index is looking great and I hope Keith will be able to make it possible for us to add it to the "Fireside Journal" section of the website.

A few small things:

CATEGORY INDEX:

Artist's Life 8:14, 9:6 - These articles (Part 1 and Part 2) are about illustrator Norman Meredith so it would probably be better to add his name under "Illustrators" and put those Journal references there.

Barney Mysteries - "Introduction to the Series 20: 20" is the first of my articles on the series so it would be neater if it was listed just before "Rockingdown Mystery, The, 21:10".

Biography - David White 13:46 - His name is not so well-known so you could mention briefly that he was a publisher for Sampson Low. This article could also be listed under "Noddy".

Blyton, Enid - Sheffield Connection 10: 43 and 11: 42 could also be listed under "Biography" as the articles are about Enid Blyton's family/ancestors.

Ellisdons 17: 13, 18: 32 - It's not clear what "Ellisdons" is so you could list it as "Ellisdons catalogue of jokes, tricks and novelties".

Just George - Again, it's not clear what that is. You could refer to "Just George books by Sue Welford".

Letters - Yours - 41: 72 should come at the end of the list.

Mary Carries On - You could state that it's about writer Mary Cadogan.

Old Thatch, Visit To - Add 26: 11

Periodicals - Enid Blyton's Adventure Magazine - Add 40: 59

Quiz - "Adventurers Three" (not "Adventures Three") is the title of a book, not a quiz.

Ransome - Perhaps better as Ransome, Arthur 20: 14


AUTHOR/ARTICLE INDEX:

Bensoussane, Anita - Would look neater to move "A Visit to Peterswood 26: 11" to after "Barney Mysteries: The Ragamuffin Mystery 26: 46".

Gustafson, Terry - A New Zealand Perspective, Part 2, 8: 19
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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Rob Houghton
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Re: Journal

Post by Rob Houghton »

very good index indeed, and it will be very useful. :D :D

the only thing I noticed, regarding my articles, is that 'The Caravan Family' is not listed separately, but is included under the heading of 'The Saucy Jane Family' because it appeared in the same article. It would maybe be useful to have it listed separately? :D

But you have certainly done something that will be exceptionally useful to us all, Lenoir: many thanks. 8)
'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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Lenoir
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Re: Journal

Post by Lenoir »

It was supposed to be listed separately like it was in the first version. I will reinstate it and do some more checking to see if anything else has disappeared!

Thanks for the other suggestions Anita. I have made a note of them.
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