Rob Houghton wrote:We start with the cover story - 'Anne Gets Into trouble' - and its an entertaining one, though not very exciting. I'm also not sure that she really got into trouble...maybe you can decide! Some great illustrations as always by an uncredited artist - I really love their style. Such a shame these artists weren't credited!
I love the illustrations too. I enjoyed the story but felt the ending was somewhat abrupt. It's clear how Mark feels at the end but Enid Blyton doesn't take us inside his head or describe his emotions as she normally does in stories of this kind.
Rob Houghton wrote:In Enid Blyton's Editorial Letter ...we hear that Enid has now returned home from her holidays, and done her usual tour of the garden to see that all is well.
Most people would probably be thinking how much the garden had overgrown during their absence, but Enid and Kenneth would have had a gardener to keep things in check! It's good to hear that Enid is still keeping hens, just as she did at Old Thatch almost 30 years earlier.
Rob Houghton wrote:...we hear of some children in India, looking for British pen-friends. How anyone can accuse Enid of racism or xenophobia, I don't know. She always comes across as being very enthusiastic when talking about children from other lands, and very encouraging of the idea that our children should pal up with Indians by letter.
True. If Enid Blyton had been xenophobic she wouldn't even have responded to Maitry Sen's letter in the first place.
Rob Houghton wrote:After the puzzles, the Famous Five take centre stage in the fourth chapter of FIve Get Into A Fix - with two lovely illustrations, which have now been added to the Cave under the book listing. They are slightly different to those that later appeared in the book.
It's lovely to see all the magazine pictures for
Five Get Into a Fix (thanks, Tony!) though it's a pity that the addition of colour (green, red or blue) is sometimes rather slapdash.
Rob Houghton wrote:Simple Simon Fights A Battle is the second uncollected short story ...Its not a bad story - wonderful illustrations by another uncredited artist - but the story is very predictable - and rather like a Noddy story. I guess that's to be expected with a character like 'Simple Simon' - a name that I'm sure wouldn't be allowed these days for PC reasons!
I remember Tiq mentioning on these forums that an Enid Blyton story called 'Simple Simon and the Goat' had been renamed 'Silly Simon and the Goat' in a modern edition. That makes me wonder whether the traditional rhyme 'Simple Simon Met a Pieman' has been removed from books of nursery rhymes.
'Simple Simon Fights a Battle' reminds me of a Brer Rabbit story which is very similar, though I'm not sure whether the Brer Rabbit tale is one of the originals collected by Joel Chandler Harris (which Enid retold) or one of the ones that Enid herself made up.
Rob Houghton wrote:Next we have an advert for Enid's latest Find-Outer book...and its interesting that they quote a few passages from the book, and include an illustration. It's the Mystery of the Strange Messages - one of my favourite Find-Outer books. The extract reads - And then Ern behaved magnificently. he reached up a hand and swept a whole row of kettles and pans off the shelf just above him. They clattered to the floor with an awful din, and startled the two men out of their wits. Then Ern leapt up into the air, hands above his head, and moaned in a horrible, hollow voice. "I'm coming! I'm coming!' the two men took to their heels and raced out of the kitchen door. Interesting that a scene involving Ern was chosen...and also a rather silly scene...! It shows how popular Ern obviously was as a character though.
In Our News Sheet... she says - I have written a new Mystery Adventure for all of you who like to solve these. It is called "The Mystery of the Strange Messages" and is about Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets - and Buster the Scottie of course. It's a most mysterious mystery - and I am quite sure you won't solve it. Be ready to laugh a lot if you read this book! Interesting, as I think this book is more serious and less comic than the others...one reason why I like it!
That's interesting, Rob. Maybe Enid's readers had begged her to write another Find-Outers book involving Ern. I agree that the overall tone of
Strange Messages is serious rather than comic but it does contain one of my favourite humorous moments - i.e. when Fatty forgets he's disguised as a dirty rag-and-bone man and tells a startled Mrs. Henry that she promised to put aside some clothes for his mother's jumble sale, only for her to say in astonishment, "
I don't know your mother!" and shut the door in his face.