Canterbury Beaney Exhibition

[Courtenay]

It really was excellent, as Walter has attested! I took some good notes and am looking forward to doing a write-up for the Journal, as Anita suggested. (I spoke to Mr Rudd briefly afterwards and he was very happy for me to do the article.)

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm glad you enjoyed the talk and exhibition, Walter and Courtenay, and it's always nice to meet a fellow forumite face to face.

[Poppy]

Glad you enjoyed the Lecture and the Exhibition, Walter and Courtenay.

[Tony Summerfield]

Just one thing. The exhibition mentioned that the Enid Blyton Society holds an 'Enid Blyton Day' every spring. Is there something you're not telling us Tony?

It would certainly be a novel way to sell tickets, organise an Enid Blyton Day and not tell anyone about it.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Glad you both enjoyed it.

[Susan Webster]

hi is the exhibition coming anywhere in the midlands . pity it wasnt in the super new library in birmingham . its huge place and i was there with our college art class last week before we went to the art gallery. cheers sue

[Courtenay]

As far as we've been told, Sue, it's only Canterbury at present and then Plymouth in about June (dates TBC).

[Lucky Star]

(2012 was the last one I think.)

Good lord has it really been three years since we last met up in Twyford? I feel depressed now.

[sixret]

Glad both of you enjoyed the seminar.

I thought there was a meet up with others?

[Courtenay]

No date has yet been proposed for a meet-up with others yet, Sixret, as far as I've heard - this was just an evening lecture at the exhibition.

I wouldn't mind going again if a number of other Society members would be meeting up there and having lunch or afternoon tea together. I'm not desperate to go back solely to see the exhibition itself again - interesting and very well presented, but aimed more at children and families than single adults who aren't the hugest fans of the Famous Five and/or Secret Seven.

On that note, I was a bit disappointed to see that my very favourite series, the Adventure series (which I only discovered about half a year ago!), only rated one brief mention in the entire exhibition. I did, however, notice two incredibly beautiful framed giclee prints of Stuart Tresilian's dust wrapper illustrations for Castle and Sea - both of which, according to the signs, were "on loan from the Enid Blyton Society". Tony, you wouldn't happen to be the owner of these, would you? And if so, what kind of price would you be asking...?

[Katharine]

I went to see the exhibition today. I spent about an hour there. My 9 year old daughter loved it, she enjoyed sitting in Noddy's car, going down the slide in the Enchanted Wood area, and building a house out of Noddy's building 'bricks'. I'm sure if we'd chosen a day where an activity was being held, we'd have stayed longer.

I enjoyed seeing Enid's diaries - how I would love to read them all the way through. I also drooled over the many framed items on the walls, especially a booklet of songs from the Noddy play, and the plates from the Nature notes. It was a lovely feeling to see several items labelled as being on loan from the Enid Blyton Society, knowing that I'm a member, even if I haven't actually contributed anything myself.

I was pleased to see a steady flow of other people there, mostly families with young children, although I did spot a few senior citizen visitors too. From the odd snippets of conversation I heard, the children visiting were already familiar with Enid's books.

The only thing that jarred the visit was a section with various newspaper articles about Enid. I started to read someone's rant about how terrible the commemorative stamps were, and how someone was considering not sending something by post rather than using such offensive items! I had to stop reading the article before I blew a fuse, and it took a while before I could shake off such unpleasantness and remember the better points of the exhibition. I realise that it was probably trying to show the whole picture of the Enid Blyton story, I just would have preferred to have all the nice bits without any of the controversy. In fairness though, I didn't read any of the other articles in case they also wound me up, so maybe that was the only negative item.

Just one other teeny disappointment, it would have been nice if they'd mentioned that Enid did her teacher training in Ipswich, after all she did spend 3 years here and it was an important start to her career. That's just nit picking though really.

I'm glad I didn't spend a fortune travelling to Newcastle to visit it, as I don't think it was worth a trip just on it's own, so it was handy that it was included in a visit to my daughter. However, if it was closer to me, I would definitely pop in again from time to time, and if I visit Canterbury again before it moves away, I'll go again. As a member of the EBS, I'd already seen several photos and letters printed in Journals, so there wasn't a great deal there that was new to me, although it was nice to see them in the flesh at it were.

It definitely made me long for a dedicated Enid Blyton museum, the small selection of Noddy toys and Enid's typewriter are probably only a fraction of items that could be displayed.

I'd also love to know if the unpublished story about Mr. Tumpy will ever be printed. I read the first page which was on display and longed to read the rest.

[Fiona1986]

Glad you and Susan enjoyed it, Katharine. I wish I'd been able to fit down the slippery-slip when I went .

[Eddie Muir]

The exhibition sounds great. I'm pleased to hear that you and your daughter enjoyed your visit, Katharine.

[Katharine]

Never mind Fiona, maybe one day there will be an Enid Blyton theme park built with a slide big enough for adults too. It's a good thing my daughter is small for her age as she only just fitted herself. I think it was really aimed at a younger age group.

Yes, Eddie it is a great exhibition. Thinking about it since, it made me realise just how big an exhibition could be created if more was included about her life. For example, there was a brief mention in one of her diaries about counting silver paper during the war, but I don't remember there being anything else about all the charity work she was involved in, so that could have made a small display if there was information about all that. There was mention made of her interest in nature, but again there could have been more included about that, maybe pictures of Old Thatch, maps of the layouts of her gardens etc. Also more information on her many pets and how they featured in her books. Again it was mentioned, but in a larger exhibition could have been expanded.

I'm not criticising what was there, just feel there is the potential for something even bigger. If copyright wasn't an issue, it would be good to see clips of the various films/TV programmes made of her work.

I'm not desperate to go back solely to see the exhibition itself again - interesting and very well presented, but aimed more at children and families than single adults who aren't the hugest fans of the Famous Five and/or Secret Seven.

I think that pretty much sums it up. If I'm the area of any of the exhibitions, I would go back and have another look, but I don't think I'd make a special trip just to see it again.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm glad you and your daughter enjoyed the exhibition, Katharine. Just wondering whether they also had the Malory Towers schoolroom with the old-fashioned lacrosse stick and desk, and the school reports and Stanley Lloyd artwork on the walls, and the notes Enid Blyton made for the Naughtiest Girl, St. Clare's and Malory Towers series.