The Holiday Books

[Timmylover]

Am new to the society, so may be asking a question that could be answered elsewhere on the site.
I have just started sorting through some of my (now grown-up) children's books in order to extract the Blytons and add them to my main collection, and have discovered four Holiday Books. The first, I assume that's what it is as it's just titled 'The Enid Blyton Holiday Book', doesn't have a printed date but does have a Christmas 1949 inscription. The Second, Third and Twelfth Holiday books also don't have dates. I think I must have bought the Twelfth second hand, and that only the first three were my original childhood books. Could anybody please tell me what years the Holiday books were published, and did they originally have dust jackets? The First and Second are bound in orange cloth, with orange spines. The Third is also orange, with a green spine. The Twelfth is pale blue, with a dark blue spine.

Hope someone can help me with this, and any more information about the Holiday books.
Thanks.

[Tony Summerfield]

That's what the Cave of Books is here for Timmylover, it isn't just for Timmy to chase rabbits into!

Here are your Holiday Books.

[Kiki's new mam]

hello

That's what the Cave of Books is here for Timmylover, it isn't just for Timmy to chase rabbits into!

Here are your Holiday Books.

i was just wondering if these holiday books are rare?
when i go into different shops i have never seen any holiday books.

are these a sort of series or short stories?

Leila

[Fiona1986]

I don't think they are particularly rare, I have the Second, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth which I got on eBay. Some, such as the second holiday book seem to appear much more frequently than others though. The Holiday books are full of short stories with a few poems, puzzles and activities thrown in, and if you follow the link Tony posted earlier you can see the contents for yourself.

[Kiki's new mam]

I don't think they are particularly rare, I have the Second, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth which I got on eBay. Some, such as the second holiday book seem to appear much more frequently than others though. The Holiday books are full of short stories with a few poems, puzzles and activities thrown in, and if you follow the link Tony posted earlier you can see the contents for yourself.

thanks fiona, i did look in the link what tony had posted but as there were 12 holiday books
i just wondered if they where a series,

Leila

[Aurélien]

Must say I like the big 'Annual' size of my only EB 'Holiday Book' - the ninth. Great coloured illustrations, too.

Don't have the dustjacket, more's the pity.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’

[Katharine]

I have 11 of the holiday books all bought from second hand book shops over the last few years. Unfortunately none with dustjackets.

Does any one know why they were called 'holiday' books, were they issued for the summer holidays, or Christmas? The pictures on the inside have mainly summer type themes, but 2 or 3 of mine also have inscriptions which suggests they were given as Christmas presents.

None of mine have a date of publishing in them, and I'd always assumed (rather hopefully) that they must be 1st editions, but I've just noticed that my copy of the 6th holiday book is dated Christmas 1953, which dates it 2 years after the first publication. I'm guessing these books must have been quite popular and around for several years, although I'd never heard of them until I spotted a couple in a shop about 5 or 6 years ago.

Anyone out there have any knowlege they can share?

[Tony Summerfield]

Unfortunately the Cave of Books does not allow me to put in a month of publication, but I can tell you that all were published in July, August or September and I believe that is why they were called Holiday books as they were published for the summer holidays. At that time school holidays tended to be in August and the first half of September. They were actually published as annuals and as the last one (12) came out in 1957, all would be undated as Sampson Low didn't start putting any dates into their books until 1958.

They were obviously published in huge numbers as they are relatively common and fairly easy to pick up, but for some reason the dustwrappers tore very easily and copies with nice dustwrappers are quite hard to find. You also want to check that they have their colour plates when you buy them. I have recently been putting some of these into the centre pages of Journals.

[Katharine]

Thank you Tony, that's very interesting. I wondered why some books have dates and other don't. I hadn't made the connection that publishers had differences.

Although I only noticed them in book shops a few years ago, I have seen quite a few since I have been looking for them, although as I previously mentioned, not with dustwrappers. I wonder if the size of the books had any bearing on the dustwrappers tearing more easily?

I'm probably being a bit thick, but I can't think what you mean by them having their colour plates. A couple of them are a bit worn, having puzzles filled in etc., but I haven't noticed anything obvious missing. I shall definitely have to subscribe to the journal to see the centre pages you mention

[Tony Summerfield]

All the Holiday Books have eight colour plates - in other words eight shiny pages printed in full colour (actually just four pages with a colour illustration on both sides)as opposed to the rest of the book which simply uses illustrations printed in two colours.

[Aurélien]

You also want to check that they have their colour plates when you buy them.

All the Holiday Books have eight colour plates - in other words eight shiny pages printed in full colour (actually just four pages with a colour illustration on both sides)as opposed to the rest of the book which simply uses illustrations printed in two colours.

Worth knowing, Tony, as the only mention of the plates in the Contents of #9 is the rather vague:

• Colour Plates by
  GRACE LODGE

Thus it is only from your post that I now know no plates are missing from my solitary Holiday Book!

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’