Journal 66

[Chrissie777]

I was wondering where I got a similar idea from when I wrote 'The Rawlins' Reach Mystery' lol. Now I know!

Rob, it's one of my favorite scenes in the FF books (wasn't it in "Secret Trail"?) and in "Castle of Adventure".
I'm looking forward to read about it in "Rawlins Reach Mystery"!

[Daisy]

I have now read the journal from cover to cover and have thoroughly enjoyed it, as usual. I was intrigued by "Illicit nights with Enid" - a clever title for a very interesting article. I am fortunate enough to have visited Viv's Ginger Pop shop and also the Eileen Soper Illustrated Worlds - what a great place that was. It's sad that neither are still there.
Rob's delightful cookery book with the Farmyard Fancies was as mouth-watering as ever. I hadn't realized just how many books there were about farm life!
I loved the little article about the Faraway Tree too - a firm favourite ever since I first read "the Magic Faraway Tree" when I was about 10.
The comparison between George and Nancy Blackett was interesting. I read the Swallows and Amazon books at roughly the same time as I was immersing myself in Blytons (I won't say 'drowning' ) Does anyone remember why Nancy changed her name? She was, so she said, actually Ruth, but as a pirate she had to be ruth-less so her name had to go!
As always, Anita's article was fascinating - E. Nesbit was not an author I ever "got into". I keep telling myself I should try again. I have enjoyed seeing the film "The Railway Children" and the TV series about the Five Children and It, so I really must get hold of some of her books.
I had never heard of "Blue Moon" but Angela Canning's article was quite enlightening... I wish I had seen it, but with so short a run I guess there are very few copies still about.
Thanks Tony for all your hard work in putting together such a super journal. It is good to read on our facebook page that it is appreciated by people who's names never appear on the forum.
Here's to the next one!

[sixret]

Thanks for the reviews!

Hope to read more reviews.

[Daisy]

It would be good to hear your reviews too, sixret.

[pete9012S]

Or your review of the reviews!

*runs quick*

[Kate Mary]

Back from my fortnights holiday today and at last I have my hands on the latest issue of the Journal. I haven't read any of it yet not even Tony's editorial, it will have to wait until I've caught up with things, but sometime next week I'm planning an afternoon in the garden with a long ice-cold drink and the Journal. Perfect.

[pete9012S]

I've just read the Journal from cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed it -there was such a great variety of articles and I really enjoyed the uncollected stories.

[Eddie Muir]

Hear! Hear! I agree totally.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Journal as usual. A huge thank you to Tony! What a super, summery cover with the roses and foxgloves. I chuckled at the humour of the editorial, though it's sobering to think that Tony had such trouble getting articles. It's heartening that Pete and María Esther are considering writing something in the future and I hope there are others who feel they could contribute something too.

Sad news about Sheila Ray. I've read her book The Blyton Phenomenon two or three times and learnt some interesting snippets of information from it.

Thanks to people who have commented on my article.

I'm very sure that Enid was influenced by E. Nesbit...and yet i have always found it strange that in The Story of My Life Enid mentions several influences, but never mentions E. Nesbit! Maybe she felt that some of her ideas were just a bit too close in style and theme!

I must admit that that thought crossed my mind too, Rob! However, although there are a few similarities there are also numerous differences and the authors have their own very distinctive styles, so I don't imagine that mentioning she was familiar with E. Nesbit would have caused any problems for Enid Blyton. It's likely that she read E. Nesbit books as serials (they were printed in The Strand and elsewhere), so perhaps that's why they didn't come to mind when she was recalling childhood books.

E. Nesbit was not an author I ever "got into". I keep telling myself I should try again. I have enjoyed seeing the film "The Railway Children" and the TV series about the Five Children and It, so I really must get hold of some of her books.

I certainly hope you'll give them another try, Daisy. I love Nesbit's style - she moves seamlessly from wonderfully witty to gloriously poetic and her characters are fresh and real.

So far I've read and enjoyed Rob's latest Cookery Book article (I haven't read any of the farm stories yet, so now I really must!), Some Questions about the Faraway Tree (none of which I asked myself as a child either! )...

I too enjoyed Rob's exploration of the farm stories, especially his personal reminiscences about his mum's driving and watching a calf being born, etc. I agree with Rob that the Six Cousins books contain some "brilliant characterisations" - though isn't it Jane (rather than Susan) who goes round in old jodhpurs and a holey jumper and doesn't bother about her appearance?

Selwyn Goodacre's questions about the Faraway Tree didn't occur to me either when I was a child, Courtenay, though they did when I re-read the books as an adult. I was also shocked on my later readings that Jo, Bessie and Fanny (aged about 5 - 10) have to do so much housework and gardening, including ironing and making toffee unsupervised. I remember Selwyn Goodacre well from Enid Blyton Days so I was pleased to see his name on the contents page. Nice too to see the advert for The Enchanted Wood (p.18 of the Journal) and the message for parents - "It is an ENID BLYTON BOOK - which means that children will enjoy every word!"

Also just read "The Stolen Cocoanut Cakes" (love the old-fashioned spelling, although the "coco" in coconut isn't related to cocoa as in chocolate!). I love these early stories of Enid's and this one is a delightful example of her imaginative "how it came to be" tales with a magical explanation of something in the natural world, rather along the lines of Kipling's Just So Stories and indeed of legends from many different cultures around the world.

I like those kinds of tales as well. O'Reilly's illustrations for 'The Stolen Cocoanut Cakes' make me hungry for cake!

I was intrigued by "Illicit nights with Enid" - a clever title for a very interesting article. I am fortunate enough to have visited Viv's Ginger Pop shop and also the Eileen Soper Illustrated Worlds - what a great place that was. It's sad that neither are still there.

I also visited both places and feel sorry that they've gone. It was lovely to read the comments from customers in Shelley Dockrell's article and I found myself nodding my head at Shelley's remark that "In my opinion nothing beats escaping into a good book, it is the most wondrous way to get away from all life's problems and stresses."

I had never heard of "Blue Moon" but Angela Canning's article was quite enlightening... I wish I had seen it, but with so short a run I guess there are very few copies still about.

I had heard of Blue Moon but it was interesting to learn more about it and see some of the artwork.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I thought my last post was becoming rather long so I'll carry on in a new post!

Daisy's 'Sid's Wonderful Evening' was a delightful read - Sid to a tee!

It was a little strange to see Brer Rabbit smoking in the advert for Heyo, Brer Rabbit! - and is he also drinking wine? I was struck by the line, "Get Dad to Buy You this Lovely New Book". It seems it was taken for granted that dad would be the one with the money!

I watched the 1970s Famous Five TV series as a child so the account by Tim Venning was of interest. The Watch House is one of my favourite buildings from the series so it was good to see the close-up photo of that.

Regarding the Eileen Soper illustration for 'The Ugly Little Girl', I can't say that either child could be described as "ugly". Don't tell me it's one of those stories in which a girl is considered "ugly" just because she wears glasses!

Adorable pictures of the donkey for A Load of Mischief. It's always exciting to hear that a new book has been discovered and to learn something of its history. 'Vain Miranda' was fun to read and I love the illustrations of a cheeky-looking Topsy for Topsy's letter. 'The Dolls' House Exhibition' was an interesting true story and I like the look of the Sunbeams badges.

[MJE]

Enid mentions many times that gorse smells like coconut. I think its in at least two or three Famous Five books, and probably in a Barney book. :-) I think its also in my Famous Five book, but that was just me copying Enid! :lol:

     Is the smell really obvious? When I was about 10 or 11, I was living in an area in the Adelaide hills where there were lots of nice areas to go wandering (which I did sometimes for miles and hours, totally without any adult supervision), and some of those areas had thickets of gorse bushes - I recall sometimes finding paths that wound through them like a maze, with the gorse forming impenetrable barriers all around: unless you could find a break, you definitely weren't ever going to get to the other side. While I never thought to stick my nose into a gorse bush (it would be been rather prickly), I never noticed any particular smell around them (I do remember the small yellow flowers, though).
     I have a certain respect for someone who can hide inside a gorse bush to spy on what their enemies are doing, as I seem to recall the Famous Five did once or twice - not something I in the least aspired to do. That is true dedication to solving the crime!

Regards, Michael.

[MJE]

     I got my Journal just a day ago, and so haven't read a lot yet; but it was interesting to read accounts of events from the point of view of Sid and Richard Kent. It seemed that Sid had no idea of the adventure going on which prompted the Five to detain him for a few hours - I don't recall whether any of this was explained to him in the book itself; I presume not. But this piece gave more details on the level of poverty he apparently lived in, which details are probably quite realistic but not really mentioned in the book itself. Not really dire or severe in his case, but enough to seem to cast a rather depressing pall over his life. But I guess he was used to it and didn't think much about it.
     And Richard's letter was interesting; it seemed he was genuinely remorseful for his behaviour, and essentially a likeable boy, and one hopes the Five would have accepted his apology and seen good in him. From having read all the books, I feel I know the Five a bit, and I think they would. I wonder if they would even continue a friendship with him - but a noticeable feature of the Famous Five books is that they rarely seem to continue a friendship with the "extra" characters, even in the cases where they genuinely like the extras all along, as with Nobby, for instance.

Regards, Michael.

[Kate Mary]

It took two afternoons in a shady corner of my garden and several ice-cold drinks to read the Journal from cover to cover and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sid's Wonderful Evening and A Letter from Richard were brilliant, Anita's articles are always worth reading and this one on the parallels between Enid's and E Nesbits work is very interesting, it has never occurred to me before but it certainly makes me want read more E Nesbit books. Angela Canning's article on Blue Moon magazine made me want to find out more, according to Wikipedia there were just twelve fortnightly issues so it lasted only six months, such a shame. Rob's Enid Blyton cookery books continues to be a fascinating read, so much so I'm just starting The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, it's ages since I last read it. I'm glad to know there will be more articles in this series. And half-a-dozen contributions from Enid herself is the icing on the cake.

Thank you all for such an interesting mix of stories and articles and thank you Tony for putting it all together, I only wish I could think of something interesting to contribute but I can't think of anything. It makes me even more impressed with all the articles in the Journal.

[Rob Houghton]

Rob's Enid Blyton cookery books continues to be a fascinating read, so much so I'm just starting The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, it's ages since I last read it. I'm glad to know there will be more articles in this series.

Thank you Kate Mary - and all the others who have mentioned my articles.

I've just worked out that there are still another 6 parts to my Cookery Book article, so I'm pleased people are enjoying it!!

I've been really slow in reading The Journal this time - as I've had a busy couple of weeks - but I should be getting to it shortly and will post feedback later.

[Lucky Star]

Well another wonderful Journal comes to an end. No.66 can take it's place proudly on the shelf next to it's siblings. I always read Tony's editorial the minute I open the envelope and though it was a little alarming to read of his bare cupboard it was also terribly funny to read of the lady who wrote a letter suggesting a letters page and then cancelled her subscription because her letter was not published in the non existent letters page!

Anyway I was peckish so ploughed straight on into part four of Rob Houghton's ongoing Blyton cookbook series. Rob recently said he had several more episodes of this to go which is great news as these are a very entertaining series of articles indeed. Farmyard stories dominated this entry and as always I am broadly in agreement with Rob's analyses. I too rated The Children of Cherry Tree Farm rather low due to it reading more like an extended nature lesson than an exciting Enid Blyton story! I personally found Tammylan a boring character, possibly because my interest in plants and wildlife is a bit lower than seems common among Blytonians. I much preferred Twigg from The Six Cousins books as he was a part of an actual narrative rather than a sort of lecturer. As always the generous sprinkling of Rob's own personal experiences added considerable spice to the dish and I was interested in his farm memories and had to smile at the driving story. A similar thing happened to us when we were returning from holiday one time and my Mum was driving. She had not long since passed her test so was still rather nervous and a tyre blew out causing us to skid wildly across the road. Fortunately we ended up on a wide grass verge shaken but unhurt.

I also enjoyed Selwyn Goodacre's Faraway Tree article. Some very inconvenient questions were raised in it such as where on earth did Dame Washalot get her water supply from? My own feeling would be that since this book series is so patently set in the realm of fantasy it is probably best to just suspend all disbelief and imagine that water gushed magically from some crevice of the tree. As Selwyn said the books are pure childhood wish fulfillment and therefore defy any attempt at rational adult analysis.

Shelley Dockrell's article brought back nostalgic memories of the now sadly defunct Ginger Pop enterprises in Dorset. How wonderful to read all the lovely comments made by customers there. We certainly lost a chunk of the Blyton world when those shops closed.

On to Sid's Wonderful Evening by Ilsa. Very enjoyable indeed. Ilsa has a real talent for taking a slightly alternative look at famous events and characters in Enid's work. I thought it very clever how she took the few bare details Enid gave us about Sid and fleshed them out into a very sensitive portrait of what life must have been like for the young man. He now has a personality as opposed to just being the "extra" that Blyton threw in as a plot device. Well done Daisy.

You can't really go wrong with an Enid Blyton story set in Fairyland and so I really enjoyed The Stolen Coconut Cakes. The illustrations were wonderful too. I always say this but I am so glad that these otherwise long forgotten little stories are given another breath of life thanks to our Journal.

This is getting long so I'll post it and finish my review in another post.