The Enid Blyton Society

Bringing a big smile to my facce on this miserable morning is Journal 58 which has just landed with a hefty thump on my doormat. I have just resubscribed for my next three.

Mine has arrived too this morning, and already, I have read - What Happened Over The Wall by Enid Blyton. A lovely little story, even though it was a bit of a risk to put their dog Paddy into the van!

Looking forward to reading the rest later today.

My Journal has just been delivered. What a great surprise to cheer me up on a very wet and dismal day. Many thanks, Tony.

You people have inspired me to dash downstairs and check what's come in the post — and yes, I have my Journal too! What a treat! Oh, there are so many articles in this one I'm looking forward to reading properly, judging by the first quick flick-through, and I have today and tomorrow off, so I've plenty of time.

Love the Christmas theme sprinkled throughout — how nice to have the reproduction of the dust wrapper from the first edition of The Christmas Book! I have that book now myself (sans DW), so I'll be reading it for the first time a little closer to Christmas.

Thanks in advance to all the contributors — especially the familiar names I can see on the contents page — and an especially BIG thanks to Tony for putting it all together once again!

Yay! Mine arrived today too! It's unusual for so many to arrive on the same day - usually someone feels they're missing out! Glad it's not me!

Mine's here too! Looks like a fantastic edition - I just love the Christmassy front cover! Thanks very much to Tony and all the rest of the contributors. I can't wait to start reading.

Mine has just arrived. Looks great,renewal payment made. Great weather for staying in with a good read.

Yes, I wasn't expecting it to arrive yet! A welcome delivery from the postman, for a change.

I was just laying down some lead guitar on a track I have been working on in my home studio when my neighbour banged on our door.

You know the one,Lady Brenda,whose son Ian (who was in Iraq) but is now in Spain had his leather jacket stolen from the shed last year.

I was feeling a little sorry for myself as my Journal did not come today and I noticed the parcels Brenda had taken in for me just contained three new shirts,a security light,12 boxes of herbal tea and the complete set of Secret Seven's I have just bought.

But alas,no Journal.
However,unwrapping all the stuff I noticed the postman had attached my Journal to the underside of the Secret Seven books with an elastic band!

So whoopee I say!!

Just read Angela Cannings article on Stuart Tresilian. Excellent article, very enjoyable indeed, and I've just read Enid's letter from February 5th 1941. She mentions Daddy is coming home today for 24hrs, so I guess she is meaning Hugh.

Just about to read the rest now. Great Christmassy cover, and centre page picture too.

The thing I found most interesting about Stuart Tresilian - as I'd never seen a photo of him before that I recall - was that he was totally unlike anything I'd imagined. Somehow I thought he'd sort of look like Horace Tipperlong - no idea why!

I usually read my Journal over several days, but today was so wet and miserable that I made a cup of chocolate, curled up on the sofa and read more than half in one sitting. A super collection of articles as always. I'm leaving the story What Happened Over The Wall until last. I've never seen this story before, interesting to see it's illustrated by Bertram Prance, I associate him with the early Lone Pine books. I love the covers for The Christmas Book, my copy no longer has a dust jacket either.

I have 'What Happened Over The Wall' in 'The Children's Own Wonder Book' - and also read the article about it in The Journal once (or am I mistaken? I looked through a load of past Journals but couldn't find any reference to it!). It's wonderfully illustrated, and is a fine story - strange it was rarely reprinted while others of its ilk have been reprinted numerous times. Good to see it here.

Just returned home from a day with our granddaughter and there's the new journal on the mat. Looks full of goodies too.

I was pleased when I spotted my copy on the mat this morning. Often my copy gets held up in the post. I haven't had a chance to look through it yet, other than to spot the form to renew my subscription. However the colourful cover was a pleasure to look at on this wet, miserable day.