Journal 68

[Chrissie777]

Usually I read the Journal from the first to the last page in order, but this time I couldn't resist reading at first the fascinating article by Winfried Secker, "From the Land of "Honey" and "Nunny".

Winfried, this is another (former) German member in EBS writing to you. I would like to tell you that I enjoyed your article thoroughly. Just would like to add one thing that everybody who writes about Astrid Lindgren keeps forgetting to mention: starting in 1946, Lindgren wrote a truly great trilogy on "Kalle Blomquist" who was re-named in the English translations Bill Bergson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bergson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalle_Blomquist" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And this Bill Bergson aka Kalle Blomquist had some very blytonesque adventures in a small Swedish town just like the Famous Five or the FFO & Dog.
Those suspenseful books have been filmed in Sweden in 1947, 1953 and in 1957. And as a child I fell in love with the filming locations of the last film "Mästerdetektiven lever farligt" aka "Kalle Blomquist - Sein schwerster Fall" (1957), which was filmed in Trosa near Stockholm. Finally in 2014 a big dream became true: my husband and I flew to Stockholm, rented a car and visited Trosa which looks just the same like it looked way back in the 1950's.

[Kate Mary]

I'm working my way through the articles in the Journal as the fancy takes me and I've just read the 'Ladies Year Book 1929', what an amazing find this diary was and quite a momentous year with the sale of Elfin Cottage and the purchase of Old Thatch. I look forward to further instalments.

I've read the letters to Horace Knowles as well, it is a pity we don't have more of this correspondence and Knowles' replies, and it's a mystery why he didn't illustrate any more books when it seems Enid was so taken with his style, but the cover of the Book of Fairies is splendid. I particularly like the owl, I was reminded of Franke Rogers who drew The Robin Family for the Woman's Weekly, she was the best at drawing dressed birds.

The article by Winfried Secker was very interesting, who would have thought Enid was so popular in Germany.

Lots more to enjoy in this brilliant number of the Journal.

[PaulB123]

This is my first Journal and I must admit was surprised by the amount of content, detailed writing, interesting articles, old photos etc, well to be honest the whole blooming lot !!
Thanks for everyone involved for all for the hard work and time taken in producing, great job one and all.
Cheers

[pete9012S]

That's fantastic to hear Paul - Tony puts a tremendous amount of work into producing the Journal.
Maybe you might even be able to write an article about Enid Blyton for the Journal yourself in the future.

[Boatbuilder]

I have managed to resolve the issue concerning my edition of Journal 68 having heard from Tony.

When Tony sent out the No. 67 issue in November he included a reminder slip for the subscription. However, as I had only joined at the end of May last year I disregarded this as my membership seemingly had a further six months to run until this May. However, as Tony sent me issue 65 at the beginning of June, I had had all three issues covered by my subscription by November, despite only being six-months into the membership.

I therefore renewed my membership earlier today and Tony has now sent out my issue 68. Just a mis-understanding on my part so apologies to Royal Mail who was receiving the blame. I'll now remember to renew my membership again in January next year in plenty of time.

[pete9012S]

Glad you got it sorted out John.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yes, that's good to hear.

I'm pleased you enjoyed the Journal so much, Paul. It's incredible value for money. I'm busy at the moment so I haven't quite finished reading it but it's entertaining, attractive and informative as always. Thanks to all the contributors and a big thank you to Tony for putting the Journal together, writing pieces himself, choosing illustrations to go with the articles, finding interesting stories and other items by Enid Blyton, getting it printed, keeping records, dealing with subscriptions and sending it out. A great deal of work is involved but it's a wonderful publication.

[Chrissie777]

A great deal of work is involved but it's a wonderful publication.

Tony's labour of love. We are all so very lucky to have him!

[sixret]

Thank you so much for letting us know, Anita.

[Rob Houghton]

Letting us know what? I think I missed something?

[pete9012S]

I think sixret is thanking Anita for letting us know just how much effort Tony puts into preparing and producing each issue of the Journal for us.
Every issue is excellent, but I thought this issue was especially sumptuous and well put together.

I think the illustration of The Book of Fairies – Wrapper by Horace Knowles would have frightened me a bit when I was little!

[Rob Houghton]

I agree, Pete - Tony always does an amazing job, and its a big job too! Every issue is better produced than the last one - which almost seems an impossibility - and I agree this latest one is beautifully produced.

[sixret]

I think sixret is thanking Anita for letting us know just how much effort Tony puts into preparing and producing each issue of the Journal for us.
Every issue is excellent, but I thought this issue was especially sumptuous and well put together.

I think the illustration of The Book of Fairies – Wrapper by Horace Knowles would have frightened me a bit when I was little!

You’re right, Pete. It is because Anita told us the inside story of how much effort Tony puts. We just see the excellent output without realising “behind the scene” activities.

And thank you Tony for your hard works and all the contributors for the excellent articles/write-ups!

[Boatbuilder]

My copy of the Journal arrived this morning. Thanks Tony.

[Lucky Star]

Well I have now sighed deeply and put Journal 68 onto the shelf with all of it's predecessors. Or as many of them as I possess anyway. What an excellent read it was. Tony's editorial unfortunately contained more alarming news of dropping subscription numbers and yet again I was left to wonder how on earth anyone with an interest in Enid Blyton could forego renewing their subscription to this brilliant publication. This malaise is both saddening and puzzling, let us hope it does not spell the end for our Journal. Not just yet anyway.

So onwards I went and Rob Houghton's latest recipe cheered me up immensely. This has been a rollicking good series of articles kept very fresh (pun intended) by the seemingly random but cleverly chosen books which have gone into each dish. I had to smile at Rob's description of reading and then promptly re-reading a book with the last pages missing. I once bought a hardback of Burnt Cottage from ebay and there was a leaf (2 pages) missing from the middle of it. This threw me into a bad temper for the rest of the day and I put it aside and ordered another paperback from ebay. So Rob definitely has more patience with damaged books than I have.

Like Rob I love Pantomime Cat. As a child I never guessed who the culprit was until the end, I thought it a great whodunnit. Mind you I couldn't figure out the mysterious round marking in Invisible Thief either! I was glad to see The Rubabdub Mystery get a mention here. In my opinion it's probably Blyton's best ever book all things considered. It has a dark maturity to it's plot and setting that lifts it far above the usual run of adventure or mystery stories. I may prefer Valley of Adventure as a story but Rubadub is her finest writing hands down.

I was surprised to hear that Rob grew out of reading for a few years. I grew out of Blyton for about twenty years but never out of reading. I just replaced Enid with a wide variety of authors and subjects that I still enjoy today. Unlike past entries Rob did not give mention of another episode of the cookbook so perhaps it's finished now? Like any good Blyton character I could certainly go another helping but if it's over then my congratulations to Rob on a really entertaining series of articles.

On to A letter from Enid Blyton. A very interesting one. Who could have guessed that Soper only got the FF job because Knowles was busy. Of such little oddities and coincidences is history often made. I then enjoyed as always the vintage story. In this issue it's The Unlucky Feather. I'm sure she wrote another story featuring the strangely named Flopperty Bird? It sounds familiar anyway. The story is another gem from the vaults. It reminded me slightly of It Came Back to Him in the End, another short story in which somebody's mean action ended up coming back to bite them.

Tim Venning as always gave us an informative and thought provoking article on the 1978 FF series. I was especially intrigued to hear that the spook train still runs on the Isle of Wight. I have long mulled a visit to that island. A further incentive to go methinks.

John Henstocks article on the Six Bad Boys made many interesting points; I particularly liked his comparison with Forsyth's Day of the Jackal. Yes Enid could have made Bob a nicer child but there would have been little or no story in that case. As always she knew exactly what she was doing.

Anita does a great job of championing Anne Kirrin in part two of her excellent Five on a Treasure Island dissection. This is one of my favourite FF books and indeed one of my favourite Blytons overall. As Anita says it is a real start of the holidays book. The children are young, there is great excitement and the reader knows that another twenty adventures stretch out before him / her just like the long days of a newly started holiday. Like Anita I first learned the word Ingots from this book. I was to go on to learn many words from Enid Blyton which I believe is a certain rebuke to anyone who dismissed her prose as boring or immature.


I was happy to see an article giving the German perspective on some of Blyton's work. Although I'm not that familiar with some of the German authors mentioned it made a different and fascinating insight into how children in other countries were reading Blyton just as I was. I hope that Winfried Secker will write more for us.

I've never seen the annual referred to in Angela Canning's article but it does sound like a mouthwatering mix of Enid's best work. Plenty of stories and articles to keep little minds both entertained and educated. And William Ferguson gave us a great analysis of Smuggler's Top including suggestions of where it was set. I personally favour St Michael's Mount as it's the only one of the mentioned places that I've been to and I thought of Castaway the moment I set eyes upon it.

Another wonderful edition of the EBS Journal. My heartfelt thanks go as always to all of the hardworking contributors for continually creating new and informative articles and of course to Tony for his endless work curating and producing the beautiful finished article. The hard work of them all is what keeps the magazine fresh and vibrant every single time.