I finished reading
Journal 58 last night and, in answer to Tony's Editorial, there were plenty of nice surprises in it for me, thanks!
Angela Canning's article on Stuart Tresilian (or "Tres"!) made for extremely interesting reading, being packed with information. I love Stuart Tresilian's tribute to his wife: "If I've ever done anything worthwhile, its owed to her never-failing help." The
Human Anatomy for Art Students sounds intriguing!
Robert Houghton wrote: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 imagined him to be lean, dashing and determined-looking with dark, wavy hair!
As others have said, it makes quite a contrast to see the very different interpretation of Kiki accompanying Kiki's letter. The portrait of Mr. Twiddle is charming as well, and the covers of the "Little Books" on the back of the Journal make for a colourful carpet.
Moonraker wrote:Julie's portrait of Snubby was another well thought out article, raising some issues that I hadn't noticed. He always irritated me, yet I hadn't thought about his insecurities.
Like Julie, I've often thought about Snubby's background and circumstances and how his over-the-top behaviour may relate to that. Julie's article is heartwarming and thought-provoking and I think she's right that Enid herself had a soft spot for the mischievous Snubby. I do too, and it's great to see cooks etc. making a fuss of him and "mothering" him a little. I like Julie's observation about Snubby building a "wall of security around himself, brick by brick, of tricks, pranks, and jokes." Snubby is a thoroughly likeable pest and he's my favourite character in the Barney series.
I've really enjoyed Robert Houghton's warm, chatty reminiscences of his childhood reading. The mention of montbretia takes me back to the shed that my sister and I played in as children. We used it as our headquarters when we had a Detective Club and then a Booklovers' Club. The shed door opened onto a narrow path surrounded by montbretia - which for years I thought was called
mombretia! I was most entertained by Robert's stories of the orange wool and the hollow oak! Regarding
The Rilloby Fair Mystery, I too would count Hurly and Burly among my favourite Blyton animals - and I also found the story deliciously mysterious and puzzling as a youngster.
It's interesting to read in Enid Blyton's wartime letter about Hanly losing his warehouses and offices in an air raid. I hope Enid helped him out too, and didn't just leave it to Gillian! Enid's Christmas shopping spree is fun to read about, later in the Journal.
Robert Houghton wrote:I'm interested that many people had never heard of the story 'What Happened Over The Wall' as there was an excellent article all about it, in two parts, by John Atkins, in Journals 26 and 27. I guess many people might not be lucky enough to own those particular Journals, and it's nice to be able to revisit the story in the latest Journal.
I really love the illustrations, and I bought The Children's Own Wonder Book purely on the strength of that 2005 article.
Julie2owlsdene wrote:... 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!
I remember John Atkins' article and I was pleased to be able to read the story itself at last. A lovely tale with entrancing illustrations by Bertram Prance, though it's amusing that Prance includes Paddy in the picture on page 76 when Paddy isn't actually present as he has gone off in the van (I agree that it was risky to put the dog in the van, Julie!)
Nick Hopkins' article on the making of ITV's
The Castle of Adventure is wonderfully detailed and I enjoyed reading the many comments from people involved with the serial. What a lot of trials and tribulations! It's great to see the summaries and artwork for
Ship and
Mountain, which were sadly never to be filmed. The script pages are fascinating. I look forward to reading Part 2!
Like Poppy, I find Enid's nature writing engaging and it was delightful to read Poppy's overview of it. What a pity that a lot of people are not very familiar with this aspect of Enid Blyton's work.
John Pickup wrote:As usual, Anita has written a comprehensive piece about Secret Of Killimooin and describes the characters and setting in such a way that you really want to start reading the book for yourself.
Thanks, John. Enid takes us to an amazing variety of places in the Secret series.
Many thanks for another brilliant Journal, Tony!