Journal 60

[Daisy]

Well I should think the majority of the poplulation will have seen the film and know the story even if they haven't read the book!

[walter raleigh]

My Journal arrived safe and sound here in South Wales, and I look forward to reading it when I've a few spare moments.

[Rob Houghton]

good to see you Walter! I thought you might have disappeared off the face of the earth!

[Courtenay]

Well I should think the majority of the poplulation will have seen the film and know the story even if they haven't read the book!

Yes, but at the age of whatever-it-was (I think about 9, as I said), I obviously hadn't. I have since, of course, and am delighted to be going to see the stage play on Saturday, with a great ticket at a great price, thanks to Rob's tip-off on another thread!

[pete9012S]

I would like to highlight two outstanding parts of the latest Journal.

The Eileen Soper centrefold is outstanding and shows her off in the best possible light.
Are the scenes from the books? I thought the picnic scene on the moor could possibly be from Hike or Mystery Moor?

Also the back cover features some lovely full colour pictures that must have taken quite some time to collect,edit and display in such good quality.

I don't mind the reviews of books in the Journal that give the plot away.If I've read the book I like to read someone else's take on it.

Many times the Journal will review a story I haven't heard of.Then I try and track it down and buy it for myself and then go back and read the review in the Journal.

One of the Journal's very best features (in my opinion) are the stories,articles etc it reprints from volumes I would realistically have no hope of ever tracking down.


http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... liday+Book" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Take for example the above book.Hard to track down and locate.
(Journal 57 included an article and poem Enid wrote about Butlins.)



Enid Blyton and Butlin's (43)
Holiday Village by Enid Blyton (44)
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/jour ... php?id=137" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's access to these otherwise unattainable items and articles that makes the Journal extremely special for me.

[Moonraker]

I have my Journal but haven't had time to look at it yet. I hope to remedy that soon. Meanwhile, the spoilers in previous posts have whetted my appetite to read it asap!

As for Blyton spoilers, it would be a very thin Journal were we not to have any articles on stories in case someone hadn't read it!

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Eileen Soper centrefold is outstanding and shows her off in the best possible light.
I think the scenes are possibly not from the books? Although the picnic scene on the moor could possibly be from Hike or Mystery Moor?

Eileen Soper painted those illustrations specially for the Bestime jigsaws, Pete. I agree that they're lovely.

Also the back cover features some lovely full colour pictures that must have taken quite some time to collect,edit and display in such good quality.

Yes, the pictures for the Birthday Time Books are stunning and Tony has displayed them beautifully.

I don't mind the reviews of books in the Journal that give the plot away.If I've read the book I like to read someone else's take on it.

Same here. Even if I haven't yet read the book, I don't much mind spoilers. I love hearing people's opinions, comparisons and experiences. It's particularly nice when writers put personal anecdotes into their reviews, e.g. talking about their first encounter with the book or relating childhood memories.

[Daisy]

I fully endorse what Pete said about the beautiful illustrations - and the way the books on the back cover are arranged. The whole Journal is full of little gems. To comment on every article would take too long... I enjoyed them all. The piece about the village of Blyton is very interesting, including as it does, the mystery of Gillian's name!
I enjoyed hearing about the background to the filming of the Castle of Adventure - one doesn't realize how much has to happen in the background in order to produce a good film.
I appreciated the detective idea to engage school children in all sorts of activities which teach them in such an imaginative way. Lucky children to have such an inspiring teacher.
Enid's letter was as pleasing and entertaining to read as ever. She certainly had a way with words!
Her story about adopting a child was lovely. It rang a bell with me too - I have a feeling I saw it years ago when I was friendly with two families who adopted babies sometime in the 60s. I wonder how many children were helped by hearing that story when they were old enough.
I never mind reading about books I have already read - especially when the writer makes his own comments and observations about them. There have been one or two books in the past which I had not read, but I still read the article about them and then looked out for the book itself. It hasn't happened often as I, like most of us here, have all the main series and many of the stand alone books too.
So thanks to everyone who made a contribution and to Tony for compiling another great journal.

[Julie2owlsdene]

All this talk of the Journal is whetting my appetite and being away I can't read it yet!

I too don't mind reading spoilers in the Journal, as most of the writers add their own opinions etc of the books, which makes the articles interesting to read. Also like Daisy, I have read so many Blytons that I know most of the books anyway, so the endings etc are not a surprise. When I do come across a book that has been written about and I haven't read it, or got it, I too tend to search this book out wanting to read it to see what I've missed.

I certainly couldn't miss out reading any article from the Journal, when the writer has kindly put forward an article in support of the Journal and writing it in their own time

[John Pickup]

I think it must be extremely difficult to write an article about a book, short story or series without incorporating spoilers. I have never owned the hardback editions of the Secret series and I hadn't read them for many years. When I read Anita's excellent reviews of each book in the last few journals her articles encouraged me to buy the new paperback editions of these books so for me the spoilers had the desired effect, they tempted me to re-read these great books.
As for my own article, I wanted to explore my opinion that not all of the characters in the Secret Seven books were required or even necessary. To do this, I had to feature the plotlines to reveal which of the Seven took very little part. I can't see any other way of doing it.

[Tony Summerfield]

I meant to say that regarding the Secret Series I carefully checked the new edition of The Secret Forest to see if all mentions of The Secret Mountain had been carefully edited out and indeed they had!

[Daisy]

Oh, doesn't it make you cross! Mind you I suppose it would have been a bit strange to leave them in if they hope and expect newcomers to the books to read all the series from the same print run.

[Daisy]

As for my own article, I wanted to explore my opinion that not all of the characters in the Secret Seven books were required or even necessary. To do this, I had to feature the plotlines to reveal which of the Seven took very little part. I can't see any other way of doing it.

Yes John, that is understandable and it was interesting to see how some of the children had a very small part in the adventures. I think when reading the books for the first time, especially as a child, that would not necessarily be obvious as the story carries one along without thinking "where's Pam, or Barbara?" .
I have enjoyed your summaries.

[Tony Summerfield]

I don't think that it will be just this print run, as I suspect The Secret Mountain has gone for good. I argued hard about it for nearly two years and the print kept getting delayed, but once they had made up their minds that it was not politically correct I can't see it ever coming back. Over the last few years we have seen numerous alterations in Blyton books, but I have yet to see any book reverting back to the original text.

[Rob Houghton]

I'm surprised they are still publishing the Adventure series - as most of them are politically incorrect, with the settings mostly being in foreign countries and many baddies being foreigners. I'm sure 'River of Adventure' will be the next one to go.