Journal 79

[Judith Crabb]

Delighted to report that at least one Journal 79 has arrived in the Antipodes - in my letter box this afternoon (Tuesday 22nd Nov). I am especially looking forward to my evening read.

[Kate Mary]

Life has been difficult lately but the arrival of the Journal was like a ray of sunshine in the gloom, I read it from cover to cover and enjoyed all the articles. I'll mention just a few that I particularly liked. Norman Wright's account of the Enid Blyton Days had me wishing I had attended more of them but I consider myself lucky to have gone to the last four and I didn't know the Society existed until about 2007. I would have loved to have seen Gyles Brandreth, Sir Tim Rice and George Greenfield though.

I've loved Anita's series of her favourite seasonal stories, many are my favourites too, of the nine in the autumn selection I have seven in books in my collection and as before it's inspired me to read them again.

I agree with John Henstock the Adventure Treasury is a glorious mixture of stories and extracts, I have a 1999 edition and I originally bought a copy for my niece as a Christmas present but then went back and bought a copy for me too, it's a wonderful book to dip into.

As always David Chambers' research into Enid's work that was published in periodicals is fascinating, who would have thought so much appeared in Australian magazines?

Thank you to all the contributors and to Tony for putting it together, the Journal has brightened all my days since it arrived.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry things are/have been difficult for you, Kate. The Journal is a wonderfully cheery and comforting constant, whatever else is going on. It's good to hear that you've been able to re-read seven of the autumn stories. Since reading John Henstock's article, I've taken the Adventure Treasury off my shelf and dipped into it.

[Judith Crabb]

Kate Mary you've said it all, the only difference is that I was never lucky enough to make it to England for an Enid Blyton Day, but Norman Wright's article certainly conveyed the warmth and delight of what it must have been like. David Chambers' article was fascinating. I got from the shelves my Chuckler's Weekly magazines (not the ones I bought as a child which went long ago but a fair few I've managed to get since).
I typed 'Chuckler's Weekly' into the Cave of Books and was amazed at how many fine novels by Enid were serialized over the years, with some full-cover illustrations directly related to the Blyton. (One of them August 26 1955 I think is described in a rare books library catalogue as 'an Enid Blyton Game'.) So it appears.
Good grief, should have left here long ago. Will finish this later.

[MJE]

It's good to hear that you've [Kate] been able to re-read seven of the autumn stories. Since reading John Henstock's article, I've taken the Adventure Treasury off my shelf and dipped into it.

     I have a copy of that "Adventure Treasury" which I bought over 20 years ago, when it was fairly new (I'm talking about the 1999 version, not the old similarly titled "Enid Blyton's Treasury" from 1947) - although I have to say I don't know where it is at the moment. Are some of those autumn-set stories you mentioned, Anita, in that?
     For that matter, is this publication identical in contents with the old "Enid Blyton's Treasury", or partly overlapping? I have a copy (sadly, without dustjacket) of "Enid Blyton's Omnibus!", and that is certainly very much worth having, as it consists of 5 stories added later to various series - stories which are available nowhere else that I know of. Is the old version of the "Treasury" similar, in that it adds new stories to old series?
     Does it contain any stories about the young detective John Hollins (which I noticed Tony mentioned in his editorial)?
     I have often wondered how many John Hollins stories there are, and the best I could arrive at was that there were up to four stories, although a couple of them have question marks over their membership of the series. I actually researched this a couple of decades ago, so, just in case it interests anyone, I will summarize what I found here - sorry if the columns in this table don't line up properly - not sure I can do anything about that.
     I'll use the following abbreviations to indicate the collections I have these stories in.
  SH = The Secret of Skytop Hill and Other Stories (1998)
  SC = The Smuggler's Caves and Other Stories (1993)
  EBsAT = Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury (1999)

Known John Hollins stories
  The Mystery of Melling Cottage  SH
  Number Sixty-two                     SH  EBsAT
  The Case of the Five Dogs         SH  EBsAT       (a)
  Adventure up a Tree                                 SC  (b)

  (a) Doesn't mention John's surname.
  (b) Not only doesn't mention John's surname, but doesn't mention that he is known by others as a boy detective.

     If anyone knows of any John Hollins stories than these four, I'd be very interested to hear their titles, year of publication, and collections (old or modern) that they appear in.

Regards, Michael.

P.S.:
     You can make table items line up *roughly*, at least, if, instead of ordinary spaces, you instead use the invisible character Alt-0160.

[Anita Bensoussane]

You can see the contents of Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury in the Cave of Books, Michael. It tells you which items come from Enid Blyton's Treasury:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... e+Treasury


Enid Blyton's Treasury (1947) consists of complete stories, poems, nature notes and things to make. It's different from Enid Blyton's Omnibus! in that it doesn't add new stories to existing series. However, a number of the tales it contains are longish and "meaty" and the book is beautifully illustrated with quite a lot of colour plates, so it's well worth having. You can see which stories and poems it contains here, though the things to make and the nature notes are not listed:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... s+Treasury


When I talked about "the autumn stories", I meant the ones I looked at in my own article.

I have often wondered how many John Hollins stories there are, and the best I could arrive at was that there were up to four stories, although a couple of them have question marks over their membership of the series.

I'm not aware of any others either.

David Chambers' article was fascinating. I got from the shelves my Chuckler's Weekly magazines (not the ones I bought as a child which went long ago but a fair few I've managed to get since).
I typed 'Chuckler's Weekly' into the Cave of Books and was amazed at how many fine novels by Enid were serialized over the years, with some full-cover illustrations directly related to the Blyton. (One of them August 26 1955 I think is described in a rare books library catalogue as 'an Enid Blyton Game'.) So it appears.

That's interesting, Judith. I've just looked it up in the Cave myself and the game is on the cover:

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/bly ... perid=3778

Do we know for definite that the game was inspired by Enid Blyton? I can't see her name or characters mentioned on the cover, though the image is quite small so I'm not sure I can read everything. And of course, there could be a reference to the game inside the magazine which confirms its connection to Enid Blyton.

[Boodi 2]

Sorry for taking up so much space (I promise this will be my very last comment on Journal 79), but I would feel bad if I did not mention that I really enjoyed "Return to Rilloby Fair" by John Pickup. The Barney/R Mysteries are among my favourites (I wonder if I could add them to my profile to reflect that fact?) so it was great to read a review of what I consider is an excellent story. The "sausage sandwich" incident has stuck in my mind since I first read the book many years ago and at one stage made me avoid such sandwiches at all costs!!!
My final comment concerns the quotation from Keats' poem "To Autumn", which I know very well due to the fact that my late mother won a prize for reciting the poem at a school concert when she was young, about which she was very proud and often recited the poem for me when I was little!!!

[Kate Mary]

Regarding Michael's thoughts on how many Detective John Hollins stories there are, it's just three. "Adventure up a Tree" (I have this in The Twelfth Holiday Book") is not a John Hollins story, the two boys in that story are called Jack and Alan. All three John Hollins stories are in Enid Blyton's Treasury (Evans 1947).

[Moonraker]

My final comment concerns the quotation from Keats' poem "To Autumn", which I know very well due to the fact that my late mother won a prize for reciting the poem at a school concert when she was young, about which she was very proud and often recited the poem for me when I was little!!!

We had to learn this at school as part of our English Literature work.

[Boodi 2]

While we did have some poems by Keats at school as part of our English Literature work (as far as I can remember "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer") we did not study "To Autumn" (no doubt much to my mother's disappointment).

[Judith Crabb]

Do we know for definite that the game was inspired by Enid Blyton? Anita (I've not managed to copy posts in the neat way everyone else does) I think that there is no doubt that it is inspired by Enid's Famous Five, but there is no evidence in the magazine to connect it with the author herself. It was almost certainly created by an unacknowledged Australian illustrator. In contrast the previous week's cover (Aug 19, 1955) has the Soper illustration of George being kidnapped with the caption 'Five have Plenty of Fun' by Enid Blyton - starting this issue', with, added inside, 'not yet available as a book in Australia'.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Judith. I wasn't sure because I didn't know whether or not stories about children and smugglers' caves featured fairly often in Chucklers' Weekly.

It's interesting to hear of Keats' 'To Autumn' being learnt and recited - and to know that your mother won a prize for her recitation, Boodi. At school we read 'To Autumn' and compared it with other autumn-themed poems but we didn't learn it by heart or recite it.

Regarding Michael's thoughts on how many Detective John Hollins stories there are, it's just three. "Adventure up a Tree" (I have this in The Twelfth Holiday Book") is not a John Hollins story, the two boys in that story are called Jack and Alan. All three John Hollins stories are in Enid Blyton's Treasury (Evans 1947).

Thanks for clarifying that, Kate.

Sorry for taking up so much space (I promise this will be my very last comment on Journal 79)...

The more posts the merrier, so please don't limit yourself!

[Boodi 2]

Thanks Anita, but don't tempt me, as I know I can be long-winded and repetitive at times!!! My main aim is to express my thanks and appreciation to Tony and all the contributors for yet another excellent journal.

Education methods were probably different 90 years ago when my mother was at school, with more emphasis on learning things by heart and being able to recite them word for word.

[pete9012S]

I'm really, really enjoying this Journal. I woke slightly earlier today at 6am and made a start on it.
It's brilliant reading so far and I have enjoyed every article.
I will do a more detailed overview presently.

I'm now up to page 44.
I know we don't have The Enid Blyton Day any more, but having the Journal delivered full of such interesting articles and illustrations is like having the minutes of an Enid Blyton Day delivered through your letterbox three times a year.

I'm sure there must have been a mix up at the printers on my edition on pages 16 & 17 - unless I am mistaken?
I will try and scan/photo the pages and post them here so you can compare them with your copy when I get a minute...

[pete9012S]