The Enid Blyton Society

Mines arrived.

I don't know about everybody else but when I open the front door and see it lying on the floor I get quite excited

I was pleased to receive mine this morning. It acts as a reminder to catch up on my reading. I've managed to get hold of copies of all the issues of the journal and have been (very) slowly working my way through them in order. I think I'm up to no. 8 at the moment, so a little while to go before I get to read number 47, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

Loved the section on Eileen Soper - she sounded a lovely person. Just the kind
of information I enjoy reading.

Look forward to mine arriving, hopefully it will come tomorrow.

The Journal has landed. Have had no time to read it yet, that will be tomorrow but the cover is especially lovely this issue with a great picture and little characters crawling all around it. It looks superb as always.

The latest issue of the Journal looks like a topping read as usual. I am spending the weekend in an apartment overlooking the harbour of a quiet seaside town so I am taking it with me and shall enjoy it with a glass of wine or two. However, I could not resist reading John Lester's article about Enid's favourite book, "The Princess and the Goblin" it is a favourite of mine too.

Kate

The article about The Princess and the Goblin sounds interesting. I bought a copy of the book last year, but haven't got a chance to read it yet.

Just got home to find plump white envelope containing said journal reposing snugly in the letterbox.

Cover pics of Mr. Twiddle fantastic; also love the centre pages illustration by Hilda Boswell (I'm not really familiar with the Holiday Books, though I got No 8 second hand a year or so ago).

Looking forward to enjoying the rest of the contents. A quick glance through the pages tells me that once again it contains a wealth of info about Enid and her works which I was unaware of before, which is one of the main reasons I appreciate the Society Journals.

Thanks Tony

Mine landed on the floor with a satisfying thump not that long ago. I haven't dared open the envelope yet for fear that even a quick browse of the journal inside will end up making me late for work. I'll be able to have a look at it when I get back though, gives me something to look forward to during my shift!

Having immersed myself in the world of Twiddle in order to write about him, it was fantastic to see the cover of Journal 47 simply teeming with Twiddles in full colour! I very much like the comical Hilda McGavin drawings accompanying my article too. I can't help thinking that McGavin could have done some fabulous illustrations for the Find-Outers series if she'd had the opportunity.

What an attractive issue altogether, with the glorious Hilda Boswell Holiday Book plates on the centre pages, the nice photo of Enid Blyton with the Magazine Club member and umpteen mouthwatering illustrations throughout. I like the way "EB Day - Sat. May 12th" has been added to the Sunny Stories calendar!

As always, the Editorial was the first port of call. I love the idea of Tony as a "thrifty squirrel" scurrying about all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and purposeful, storing articles here and there for future use!

Enid Blyton's account of her cruise on the Stella Polaris in 1930 is fascinating. Not very flattering to the Portuguese, though! That shop in Seville with "eight thousand different shawls, some of them very, very old" sounds delightful.

John Lester's article on The Princess and the Gobin is interesting, with some gorgeous illustrations. I've read the book and can easily picture the imaginative young Enid being enthralled by such a magical, winsome tale.

'A Fairy Punishment' is typical of Blyton's early fairy stories. As a youngster I was both enchanted and unnerved by tales of that kind, wondering whether the Little Folk might see fit to punish me in some way if I were ever to encounter them! It was also good to read the wartime story 'They Showed a Light', with its references to evacuation and the black-out.

John Henstock obviously likes Maria Charlesworth's Ministering Children rather more than I do, and I enjoyed reading his views. I quite often feel thrilled by the delicious solemnity of "preachy" old-fashioned children's books, but Ministering Children left me cold. Perhaps that's partly because we don't get to engage closely with one or two characters in particular, the way we do in some other such novels (favourites of mine being A Peep Behind the Scenes by Mrs. O. F. Walton and The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch and The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's by Talbot Baines Reed). Those books have an intimacy and quirkiness that, for me, is missing from Ministering Children. And there's an over-emphasis in the latter, I think, on items and activities being better if they're useful - not merely decorative or fun. It is suggested, for instance, that a girl is foolish for embroidering a picture of rosy-cheeked children when she could instead have spent her time making something practical like a rug or purse. The same girl owns a "best frock", a possession which is considered by the more high-minded folk to signify vanity and frivolousness. I find all that a bit too much! Another novel criticised in one of E. Nesbit's books is Eric, or Little by Little by Frederic W. Farrar. I have a copy of that sitting on my bookshelf and I look forward to reading it in due course!

John Henstock remarks on Enid's apparent lack of awareness that her main characters' behaviour is sometimes questionable (e.g. the Secret Seven's treatment of Binkie). I find his suggestion that this was perhaps "a symptom of Enid's own immaturity" thought-provoking. We know that she could be childishly spiteful at times, for example when she put her little neighbour, Lucy Nottingham, into a story called 'Lucy Loud-Voice' after Lucy had disturbed her by singing.

Moving on to 'Sadness in the Magical World of Noddy', the errors in the 1968 Daily Mirror article (Enid Blyton dying "of a broken heart", Green Hedges being described as a "cottage", etc.) show just how little was known about Enid Blyton before her biographer Barbara Stoney started her research.

I already own a copy of Wildings by Duff Hart-Davis, but it was smashing to wallow in the world of Eileen Soper with Angela Canning and to be reminded of Soper's wonderful rhyme on modern art. I've had a chuckle on more than one occasion at exhibits in the Tate Modern!

Interesting reflections by Dennis Worley on governesses, and by Enid Blyton on the increasing role played by radio and television programmes (in 1955) in Christmas celebrations.

I was intrigued by the title of Evelyn Irons' piece ('The Secret of Enid Blyton') when John Lester referred to it in a previous Journal, so I was pleased to have the chance to read it. Evelyn Irons writes of Blyton earning £10,000 a year (in 1948 I suppose, since Irons' article was published in January 1949) and I was wondering how that compares with the national average wage of the time - and how much a three bedroom semi-detached house would have cost back then.

It was great to read Part 1 of Robert Houghton's analysis of Those Dreadful Children. It's a book that raises questions about social class and family dynamics - issues which Robert addresses with his usual thoroughness and insight. Regarding his comments about Annette, both my children were able to count up to a hundred at the age of three. I like Robert's remark about the fairy-tale elements Blyton brings in: "...then came the third night..." and I agree that such devices set up certain expectations in the reader.

Thanks, Tony, for producing yet another quality Journal!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Thanks, Tony, for producing yet another quality Journal!

Hear! Hear! I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the latest issue of the Journal, which is teeming with good things. I particularly liked your Mr Twiddle article, Anita and the wonderful Hilda McGavin illustrations.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I can't help thinking that McGavin could have done some fabulous illustrations for the Find-Outers series if she'd had the opportunity.

I think you're right, Anita.

A while ago, Hilda McGavin's granddaughter asked a question about one of the books that her grandmother illustrated. I sent her an email answering her question in detail and pointing her in the right direction to get a copy of the book. I also asked if she could tell me something about her grandmother who was probably Enid's most prolific illustrator over a period of four decades. Sadly she never replied!

The book in question was Boys' and Girls' Circus Book. Despite its strange title this is one of the longest novels that Enid ever wrote and it is illustrated throughout by Hilda McGavin. Again because of the rather misleading title it has the distinction of being the only major Blyton book never to appear in paperback, and it has been out of print for about 70 years. This is a great pity as it is a really good story.

I just looked up the book Tony mentioned and found it gave me the answer to something that has puzzled me for many years.

I've had the Dean book Happy Hours Story Book since childhood and the final two chapters are about 2 children called Pip and Suzy-Ann. I always felt that the ending to the second chapter wasn't in keeping with Enid's usual work. If I remember correctly, it ended with the children getting sadly into bed having had a lovely day at the circus, but knowing that in the morning they would be sent to separate chidren's homes. Where was the family that came to adopt them as had happened in so many other similar stories I often wondered. Now I realise that it's part of a larger book I'm guessing that maybe there is a happier ending in store for the children.

All I need to do now is get my hand on either the original book (don't fancy my chances, or hope that the rest of the story is tucked away somewhere in one of the few Dean books I've yet to read).

I've got my torch and some snacks ready as I feel a need to go exploring the cave this morning - well it's too wet outside to do anything else.

I don't think it's too hard to get a hold of Katharine - I picked up the second edition published by Latimer House on eBay a while ago, and I'm sure I only paid a fiver or so for it. The second edition is simply called "Enid Blyton's Circus Book", though it contains the exact same story.

Thanks for the info Fiona. I'd be quite happy spending around £5, and as long as the story hasn't been modernised I'm not worried whether I've got a 1st edition or not.

Something else to set up as a watch alert on e-Bay