Enid Blyton!

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digs

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I realised that this barely scrapes into 'young adult', but I couldn't find anywhere else to post about the jolly old gay adventures [sic] of Jo, Bessie, Fanny and the gang (and the assorted dwarfs, child-abusing grannies, suspiciously named children and various other characters-that-for-reasons-of-political-correctness-will-remain-unnamed of her other series).

I work in a children's bookshop, and thought it was pretty cool today that a young mum who told me she'd loved Enid Blyton as a kid bought the same books and gave them to her daughter. It instilled in me the notion that perhaps there is hope for these young'uns yet, as well as reminding me of how much I used to (and still do) adore these books.

I first read The Faraway Tree series at something like the age of 7 and I've never stopped loving them, or any other Enid Blyton series. For me these books are forever imbued with the magical innocence of a lost time of good-natured naievete, sandals with long socks and corporal punishment for children. Oh, such times! The children of Blyton's books seem to inhabit flawless worlds where the beauty of nature mingles harmoniously with the simple needs of man: there are always pristine forest glades to explore, fresh eggs and lemonade to consume there, and wondrous lands of fantasy and magic but a winged chair-ride away.

I realise I'm going on a bit, but I'm struggling to find a way to express the delight I still get from Blyton's writing. While I try to find the words, has anyone else here, like me, been so touched by The Faraway Tree, or The Wishing Chair, or Noddy, or whatever else, that they can't walk past a giant tree without craning their necks to see what land is at the top? (That's meant to be some kind of metaphor, interpret it how you will! Or take it literally.)
 
Good on you for bringing this topic up. Those are really lovely memories you relate here.

The wishing chair and the magic faraway tree series are amongst my first ever memories of reading stories actually....:)

In a way I think we try to reconnect with that magical sense of innocence in our reading as we progress through to adulthood but in a way never can as it's somehow out of reach as one can never really fully reproduce that "first time" sense of wonderment and excitement one got when first exploring the worlds of fantasy and the imagination. As Bruno Schulz (whom I look forward to hearing your own thoughts on Diggs) believed, myth is perhaps the manifestation of humankind's attempt to reconnect with its childhood past.

Interesting stuff Diggs; thanks for posting....:)
 
I too grew up with old Enid, although I think she is pretty obscure to our American friends. The Magic Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair had pretty lasting impressions on me and when I found a large illustrated version of the Magic Faraway Tree I couldn't resist buying for my daughter, who has so far had it read to her about 5 times and will probably be able to read it herself soon enough. A great thing about these books is that they are also pretty easy to find in charity shops and second hand book stores, my favourite haunts.
 
They're also constantly in print, although some of the older illustrated editions are beautiful.
 
I loved Enid Blyton books as a child. My favourites were The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and Amelia Jane. We used to get them from the travelling library.

One thing I always remember is the smell of all of Amelia Jane books. I can't describe the smell or why they smelt different though.
 
Apart from Five Go to Smuggler's Top, my Enid Blyton reading was restricted to a little bit of Noddy - including a disturbing one where he was not only in the noddy but found himself almost dismembered** - and Mary Mouse.





** - I'm sure I recall that he was held together with springs. (I'm willing to believe that this might have been a childhood nightmare.)
 
I loved Enid Blyton also. In fact, I was probably a case of arrested development as when I went to my grammar the teacher told my mum that at 11 I was a bit old to be still reading them... (and I had a reading age of 15 at the time, which is more than some adults achieve nowadays!)
 
Moonface!!! Oh, I loved Moonface, as a kid! I read The Faraway Tree series, too, donkey's years ago...

I wish I'd kept the books.


Moonface02_the_Faraway_Tree_Blyton.jpg


(Image from The Magical Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton: The Treefolk - MoonFace)



Hey - how do you know your reading age, as a kid? I never got told mine! But when I was 11 I was reading the books in the Orange Section, which were the most advanced ones. I wish I'd known my RA.
 
I don't know how it came about. Something to do with the 11+ I imagine. I don't suppose I was told officially; more likely it was my junior school headmaster telling my mum and me finding out from her. Though thinking about it I might have been present when he told her as I do recall being with them when they were discusssing which grammar I should apply for. He recommended one on the basis that if in years to come I was known as a old girl of that school, it would be of help to my future husband in his career...
 
The cheek! Judge, I can't believe someone would say that, about it helping your future husband!

I didn't have problems in finding which secondary school to go to; I grew up in a seaside town in Yorkshire, and there was only one primary and one secondary. Funnily enough, though I loved reading and considered myself good at it, I sucked at grammar and punctuation in secondary school. I'd not absorbed any good techniques from reading. :eek:

I had to self-teach myself everything when I was in my early twenties.


Oops, better get back on topic! :eek:

Enid ROCKS!
 
And here's where I completely blow any cred I've got - I recall devouring my sister's Malory Towers books, when I was ooh, about 13....

:eek::eek::eek:
 
Well, you know, Leisha, back in the Stone Age that kind of casual, unthinking attitude was everywhere. I know that my mum was often told -- sometimes by members of my dad's family! -- that educating a girl was stupid because she'd just get married and have children. Even those, like my headmaster, who saw education as a good thing, saw it as a means of the girls marrying well and raising intelligent children (ie sons), not for the girls to have future careers in their own right.

Sorry, digs, for going off topic. Though in a sense it's relevant, because -- if memory serves -- one thing EB didn't do was patronise her girl characters in quite the same way as some other books. I imagine** the parents were stereotype mother = housewife, father = breadwinner, but the girls were as important as the boys, which I must have found liberating.


** I'm sorry to say I can't recall any of the stories now, not even which ones I may have read. I've half a mind to find some and start reading through them again...
 
And here's where I completely blow any cred I've got - I recall devouring my sister's Malory Towers books, when I was ooh, about 13....
Click to expand...

I've not read those....

And I think we lack street cred, anyway, to be posting on a fantasy and SF forum. :p But who wants to earn approval from the masses? I ain't no sheep! And people here love you regardless.

(Hello, btw! I'm baaack!)
 
The Judge said:
Well, you know, Leisha, back in the Stone Age that kind of casual, unthinking attitude was everywhere. I know that my mum was often told -- sometimes by members of my dad's family! -- that educating a girl was stupid because she'd just get married and have children. Even those, like my headmaster, who saw education as a good thing, saw it as a means of the girls marrying well and raising intelligent children (ie sons), not for the girls to have future careers in their own right.

Sorry, digs, for going off topic. Though in a sense it's relevant, because -- if memory serves -- one thing EB didn't do was patronise her girl characters in quite the same way as some other books. I imagine** the parents were stereotype mother = housewife, father = breadwinner, but the girls were as important as the boys, which I must have found liberating.


** I'm sorry to say I can't recall any of the stories now, not even which ones I may have read. I've half a mind to find some and start reading through them again...
Click to expand...

I'm really wanting to re-read the books now, since this thread.

And it appears you showed them all who has the last laugh, being a successful lawyer. :)

I love female characters who are independent and forceful. One thing that puts me off a book is a female who seems only to be there as a love interest. I mean, give us some credit!
 
Excuse me but I still have the Malory Tower books, a number of the Secret Seven and Famous Five books on my shelves and admit to still reading them now and then. Wish I still had Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books. Mind you they still may be in my mum's attic. Enid Blyton is probably the author who gave me my life long love of books along with Mary Norton. By the way does anyone else remember Malcolm Saville?
 
I'd never read the Wishing Chair books, now you're all making me wish I had. The Faraway Tree, though, was a favourite, and I read every famous five and secret seven book I could get hold of at our local and school library (tiny libraries for a tiny town - but they seemed like a treasure hoard at the time!) I grew up in a family of readers, and Mum used to take us to the next little town (the one with the library) once a fortnight to gather our treasures - we loved it! (Tintin! Asterix! Thomas the Tank Engine in those cute tiny books!)

There was also a series of books I got onto, not Enid Blyton but maybe the same era, I'm squinting hard trying to remember the details - a boy and a girl magically transported somewhere (a castle?) - amazing wonderful things happening, lots of adventure - riding something that flew - possibly older than Blyton actually. Big thick books they were and I wished they would never end. Anyone have half a clue?? Its possible I am getting everything confused as I have an appalling memory...
 
Leisha, that pic of Moonface is terrifying! I always imagined him as plumper and much more jolly than that, maybe in a little suit and waistcoat...or maybe I'm thinking of Bilbo Baggins.

Judge, I think generally you're right about the little girls always being portrayed as equal to the boys - I think Blyton's good at that across all of her works, especially The Famous Five. I think, however, that there are some situations where this collapses (understandable, I guess, given the time of writing), like when, for example, something breaks and it'll be up to a boy to fix it, unless it's torn clothing of course, in which case it's up to the girls to sew it up. It's a pretty minor thing but still, an indicator of the times.

The other thing that still gets me with Blyton's books is the food. She can make me long for something as simple as fresh bread and butter and lemonade. And pop biscuits sound amazing.
 
I remember that pic - or one like it - from my copy of The Faraway Tree. Was it possibly on the front cover, or was it an illustrated version? Can't recall.

But yes, that image is a bit.... outdated. Makes me snigger, actually. He does look quite scary now I'm older, though - and I loved him as a kid. :D
 
I love Enid Blyton (along with Malcom Saville and Arthur Ransome) despite now making a living writing stuff that's about as far away from the faraway tree as you can get.

I have heard rumours (please tell me that they aren't true) that her books are getting edited these days to remove certain references (I remember several books featured Golliwogs when I was a child and could still stand up straight and look my Father's knee in the eye) and Fanny and Dick have been changed too for more 'modern' names so my source tells me.

If it is true, it also begsa the question of whether books should be edited in later editions (presumably) without the consent of the Author? Personally, I don't think so as it seems wrong to tinker with some-one else's work even if they are representative of values of a time that has passed.
 
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