August 2026 round up

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Fiona

What I read

I beat last month’s record by three. I’m definitely getting good value for money from my Kindle Unlimited subscription this year. You’ll notice a theme… all I can say is KU is too good at recommending books based on what I’ve just read when it comes to romance. For some reason it’s not as good when it comes to any other genre. At least it’s not ALL hockey, though? Weirdly I actually enjoy reading the actual hockey parts of hockey romances. I’ve actually read some hockey romances where I’ve thought ‘there could be more hockey in this’.

You may also notice… no audiobooks! I’m still crawling my way through Murder at the Vicarage and also listening to a lot of music. (Ninth Key are my new favourite band and I’ve had them on repeat.)

Quick stats:
23 books read
138 out of 150 so far
38 ahead of schedule
1 BABAL*
0 Val McDermids
11 new authors
4 library books

August’s five star reads:

Gravity – Tal Bauer
Although this is a hockey romance it’s quite different from most of the other ones I’ve read. Much more emotional and really beautifully written. Tal Bauer’s author bio says that he writes breathtaking, heartfelt, and often action-packed gay romance novels. His characters are head over heels for each other and fight against all odds for their happy ending. Which sums it up far better than I could. Gravity is a story of two hockey players who become close friends at the All-Star tournament. Hunter’s not ready for it to be any more than that, which he comes to regret until he and Bryce end up on the same team.
Tear rating 3/5 tears. Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Secret Romance.

I could faint. I could also puke, right onto the ice, right between his skates. “Hi,” I squeak. “I wear your number.”

The Rest of the Story – Tal Bauer
I don’t know why I was surprised that this one made me cry so much after reading Gravity. Both have a (non break-up related) dramatic and tear-jerking final quarter. This one’s a bit heavier on the emotions all the way through, though. Morgan is traded to a new team and quickly finds out why it’s the worst team in the league – the players are falling apart under the abuse of the team captain. After raising hell Morgan is given charge of putting the team back together with his new co-captain Shea.
Tear rating: 4/5 tears. Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Grumpy x Sunshine.

Love was an unused muscle inside me. I’d ruin this seventeen ways before the week was out. Shea would be done with me before we’d even begun, and I’d deserve getting kicked to the curb. So I couldn’t be the guy he was waiting for. He needed someone much better than me.

The Fall – Tal Bauer
The only negative thing I have to say about this is that it ruined my run of reading a book a day. I was on six books in six days and then grabbed this thinking I could read it in 24 hours. Turns out it’s over 800 pages, so it took me a few days. But what an 800 page book it is. The blurb sounds a little bit unhinged. Torey’s hockey career is crashing, he’s got nothing to live for. Then he wakes up a year later in bed with a boyfriend he doesn’t remember, in fact he remembers nothing from the last year. He’s determined to hold onto this wonderful new life, though, and decides to fake it until he makes it. Crazy, right? Well, that’s only a fraction of the story. I don’t want to give away any of the twists but I really had no idea how it was all going to be explained in the end. I cried so many times while reading it as it gets very dark in places, there’s a lot of heartbreak and a lot of emotional moments.
Tear rating: 5/5 tears. Tropes: Amnesia, Hurt/Comfort

He is both tide and shore: every wave that threatens to swallow me ends up carrying me home to him.

Trick Shot (All These Lights #1) – LA Jasper
I spotted this one in Tesco but resisted, only to find it was 99p on Kindle and that I couldn’t resist. Nick and Matt were so cute together and although I prefer my hockey romances where both MCs are hockey players I loved Matt and his rock band.
Tear rating: 2.5 /5 tears. Tropes: Secret Romance, Hockey Player x Musician

Nick can’t imagine the kind of steel nerve it takes to expect to get clocked and still kiss somebody anyway. He’s never been that brave. He can’t imagine someone being brave enough to take that risk for him.

Unrivaled (Hockey Ever After #3) – Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
Grady and Max sort of hate each other. Max is a rat on the ice, always trying to wind up the opposition to draw out mistakes and penalties. He really gets under Grady’s skin. So when he sees Grady on a dating app he assumes it’s someone catfishing. Only it isn’t. Somehow Max ends up trying to help Grady find someone to date, because they can’t date. They’re enemies… Lots of snarky fun as these two try their best to still hate each other even though they clearly don’t.
Tear rating: 2/5 tears. Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Secret Romance

Grady rubbed his fingers over his stubble, but it didn’t hide the smile, which crept all the way up to his eyes and made the skin at the corners crinkle. It was such an obviously besotted expression that Max couldn’t help smiling in return. Then Grady shook his head and said, “Guess he missed my pretty face,” like he hoped it was true.

The Unlikely Spare (Unlikely Dilemmas #3) – Jax Calder
My favourite of the trilogy. Book one (see below) was a fairly standard romance. Book two (also below) introduced a more dramatic plot and book three follows on in an even more dramatic fashion. The royal spare, Prince Nicholas is off down under for a Commonwealth tour. What he doesn’t know is that threats have been made and it may be an inside job. Enter Eoin O’Connell, a police detective masquerading as his bodyguard. This is a comedic/dramatic romance so it doesn’t take itself too seriously but the drama was good, and the love/hate relationship between Nicholas and Eoin was full of great snark.
Tear rating: 1.5 tears out of 5. Tropes: Prince x Bodyguard, Enemies to Lovers

“I just want to make sure I get it correct, since my royal training didn’t quite cover the protocol for when one’s protection officer kisses one senseless during an attempted kidnapping.”

August’s four star reads:

The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) – Jasper Fforde
This is my second reading of this. The next book in the series comes out later this year and so I needed to remind myself how the story went. Thursday Next is hard to explain. It’s the 1980s. Wales is an independent, self-governing communist country separate from the United Kingdom. Cheese is a major black market commodity. There’s a toast marketing board. Special Operations divisions include Literary Detectives (where Next works), The Chronoguard and Vampire and Werewolf Disposal Operations aka Suckers & Biters. And that’s not even starting on Thursday’s ability to enter books and change their endings…

Fire in the Flint (Norwich Map Runners #2) – Eva St John
Bish is now the special envoy to Norwich and is living there full time. Her envoy work is somewhat derailed by a high-profile murder, though. Cade’s still on the run and she still doesn’t know who he really is. Still loving the world building in this.

The Jewel Keepers – Sara Sheridan
Araminta McKenzie-Moore has never been to Scotland before. But then an elderly aunt – who she’d never heard of before – summons her to Edinburgh. Araminta is desperate to find out all about her family but her Aunt only has time to drop some baffling hints before she dies. Araminta is left reeling and with no idea where to start on the treasure hunt she’s inherited. An exciting romp around Edinburgh ensues with Araminta trying to unravel the clues before her enemies do.

The Treasure Hunters – Lisa Thompson
Brodie chose this as one of the books for the Summer Reading Challenge. Vincent hates any sort of sports and outdoor activities but somehow ends up as one of four children from his school signed up for The Wilderness Challenge. He is not happy. Hiking and camping and navigating by maps? Not his thing at all. Neither is hunting for real life treasure but somehow he gets roped into that as well by one of his team-mates. This was a decent read though the treasure hunting was actually quite a small part of it, much more time was given to the four misfits learning how to be friends.

The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3) – Lemony Snicket
After the death of Uncle Monty the Baudelaires are off to Aunt Josephine’s house. Unfortunately Aunt Josephine is terrified of almost everything from the telephone to the oven. She’s not afraid of Captain Sham, though, despite his shiny, shiny eye and poor grammar. She should have been…

Little Miss Marple: Bump in the Library – Adam Hargreaves
A funny little story with lots of famous Mr Men and Little Miss characters by Adam Hargreaves, the son of Roger Hargreaves. First Major Bump is injured in the library and then more mysterious things happen to him and Miss Marple has to unravel what’s really happening.

On Thin Ice (Maine Marauders #1) – Rebecca Norinne
A fairly standard hockey romance plot – grumpy veteran Ethan meets sunshine rookie Stryker and sparks fly. The one thing that stood out was that while Ethan was closeted Stryker was already out, which made the secret romance element more one-sided than usual.

Scoring Position (Hockey Ever After #2) – Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
I think I liked this better than the first book in the series. Ryan – a 3rd line nobody – is traded to a new team and expressly asked to make friends with Nico who’s supposed to be a superstar but is not meeting his potential. Nico’s furious about this so they get off to a rocky start but then become friends, roommates and then more. There’s also a deeper backstory behind the move which comes out later and adds more interest to the story.

An Unrivaled Off Season (Hockey Ever After #3.5) – Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
A novella with a bit more story about Max and Grady. I love getting more content about characters I love. Max and Grady are both trying to work out how to propose to each other over their summer break but nothing eve goes as plans.

Sex at a Funeral – K Sterling
This sounded fairly unhinged from the blurb but I’m glad I gave it a go. Skylar and Mason have liked each other since they were teens but then Mason went and married Skylar’s sister. Awkward. Skylar learns that it’s a lavender marriage but still… he shouldn’t go there. (But of course he does…) To be fair the family dramas in the background were unhinged, and I really felt for Skylar having to deal with that on top of Mason’s poor decisions.

Below the Belt – Marlowe Kent
Barnaby Fitznorman-Bicester is a marquess and an Olympic eventer. Lex Murphy is a heavyweight boxer from Barking. These two really shouldn’t be a match made in heaven, but they bond over weird Japanese snacks and become friends and then fall for each other. This is complicated when it is revealed that Lex and his friends had a running bet as to who could pull the most unobtainable athlete at the Olympics that year and Barnaby was top of the list… Ouch.

The Unlikely Heir (Unlikely Dilemmas #1) – Jax Calder
This is the more standard romance referred to earlier – or at least as standard as Prince x Prime Minister can be. Callum was an insurance agent, 11th in line to the throne. Until a royal scandal ousted the top ten. Newly first in line, and American to boot, he flounders but finds a steadying friendship in Oliver, the prime minister. Their friendship is really lovely, but then they have to deal with the fact that royals have to be politically neutral.

The Unlikely Pair (Unlikely Dilemmas #2) – Jax Calder
Oliver’s former chief of staff Toby hates the opposition leader Harry. So it’s very frustrating that they have to attend a climate change summit together. It’s even more frustrating when they end up on the same private jet on the way there. And it’s extremely frustrating when that jet makes an emergency landing and the pilot tries to kill them. Toby and Harry have to survive in the Finnish forest while evading a group of armed men. And they have to survive each other too. Loved the snark in this book and the inevitable romance was very sweet too.

August’s three star reads:

Play the Game (Maine Marauders #2) – Rebecca Norinne
This one suffered (for me) as it was a hockey player x political advisor story. It was also a second chance story, where the two characters went from hate to friends a bit quickly. Not enough hockey for another star.

Changing the Game (Offsides #1) JJ Mulder
I will say that this was very, very sweet. Unfortunately not much happened. Definitely a cosy romance but there was really no drama – beyond about two pages where Sam wasn’t sure how his mum was going to take him bringing a boyfriend home – or heartache or anything.

August’s two star reads

Revenge Puck – Sara Ney
I should have avoided this one from the blurb. Didn’t really like either of the characters. Aaron finds his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend. So he decides to make his best friend’s sister fall for him the break her heart. He lets that go on way too long. Juliette – the sister – is one minute shy and sensible then throws caution to the wind for the hell of it. Didn’t understand why anyone did what they did and was kinda rooting for Juliette to end up with one of the other hockey players.

August’s one star reads

The Painting Puzzle – Sufiya Ahmed
Will do a proper review later but for now… it was bad. So bad. Avoid.

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in August:

Square to the Puck (Offsides #2) JJ Mulder
Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1) – Agatha Christie
The Ring O’Bells Mystery
Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) – Jasper Fforde
The Portrait of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

What I watched

A few episodes of the Simpsons, and Only Connect.
We finished the first season of The Pitt which got way more dramatic towards the end.
Lego Masters Grand Masters of the Galaxy is now showing so we’ve watched the first couple of episodes of that too.

What I did

I started my new job so I’ve been getting to grips with running a community library
Brodie had his ninth birthday so we had a week off to do some fun things. We went to the aquarium where they’ve got otters now too, and I tried out Nando’s for the first time as a non-gluten eater. (They take it very seriously which is good.) We went for a few walks so Brodie could try out his new scooter and visited the zoo as well.
We went on a bear hunt in Perth and managed to cross the causeway in the Tay to Moncrieffe island, right before the tide rose and it was covered again. (There’s stairs from there up onto the railway bridge so we weren’t trapped.)
We went geocaching and found some which involved solving cryptic clues (followed by ice cream)
There was a Lego event in town so we went along to see all the models.

I made a more deliberate effort to record places my Kindle got used, so here are the results.

How was your August?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged August, Doing, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | Leave a comment

Monday #696

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Fiona

August has slipped past us now. The nights are definitely drawing in.

August round up

and

Letters to Enid part 90

If you are in Germany you are very lucky as there are facsimile editions of the Adventure Series being published now by Bocola Verlag. I can’t understand why British publishers can’t do something similar instead of cheap paperbacks featuring a chunk of Tresilian’s covers.

(My thanks to Pierre Menard for highlighting this, and for the link.)

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged August, Monday, Stuart Tresilian, The Adventure Series | 9 Comments

Letters to Enid part 89: From volume 5, issue 2.

Posted on August 23, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 2.
January 16th – 30th, 1957.

OUR
LETTER PAGE

A letter from Keith Williams, Aberdare, Glam.
Dear Miss Enid Blyton,
One day when I came home from school my mother was busy knitting. I asked her if she would do me a favour by knitting a lady’s jumper to raffle, so that I could send some money to the Centre for Spastic Children. My mother there and then put down what she was already knitting and asked me what sort I would like. She got out her box of patterns and I chose one. After two days knitting by my mother, we sold the jumper, and the result is a cheque of £5 5s. od. which I am sending to you. Hoping that it will help to give enjoyment over Christmas to the children.
Yours faithfully,
Keith Williams.

(We were surprised to have your large cheque, Keith, and delighted to hear that you had persuaded your mother to knit what must have been a truly lovely jumper. Please thank her VERY MUCH for me. I am awarding you the letter-prize because you wrote your letter so well.)

A letter from Peter Smith, Streatham, London.
Dear Enid Blyton,
Thank you very much for that lovely birthday cake you sent me. It arrived safely a few days before my birthday, and looked absolutely lovely. I had a very nice party. We had some super games, and a jolly tea, with lots of laughing. While I am writing to you I would like to say how much I like your books. I have all the “Famous Five” and “Secret Seven,” and my little sister loves Noddy. Thank you again for the lovely cake.
Yours very sincerely,
Peter Smith.

(Yours is one of the nicest thank you letters I have had, Peter, and I did enjoy hearing all about your party!)

A letter from Judith, P.O. Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.
Dear Enid Blyton,
At Christmas time here in Nairobi the swallows sit in long rows on all the telegraph lines, and on our roofs near Lake Naiurasha. One morning when we were having breakfast, we heard the boy shout and we looked out of the window, and there was a giraffe eating the top of a thorn tree in the garden!
Love from
Judith.

(Well, Judith, there isn’t a child in England who could have put that in a letter! How exciting to have giraffes in your garden.)

I hope Keith really did thank his mother seeing as 99% of the effort for raising the money was hers. She probably had to knit for 10-12 hours each day to get it done.

I wonder what Peter did to get a cake? It wasn’t a letter prize, but there were a lot of competitions and things in the magazine so it may have been one of those.

I can think of one child – June Mottershead – who might have been able to put that in a letter. June was the daughter of George Mottershead who founded Chester Zoo in the grounds of their house. I can’t prove there were giraffes there in 1957, but there definitely were ten years later!

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 5 | 1 Comment

The new Adventure Series covers

Posted on August 19, 2026 by Fiona

Recently Pan Macmillan have reissued the whole Adventure Series with new ‘retro’ covers by Rachel Dean.

Overall I’m a fan, as the series looks good as a whole.

Each book is colourful, and has a unique colour pallette. This means each one stands out and is recognisable, but at the same time they have the same art style and titles so they manage to form a cohesive series too.

They may still be a bit too modern for some – but they have to compete with new releases so it makes sense. I think they straddle the line really well. Modern without being overly cartoony. The children actually look like human beings for a start.

But let’s take a closer look at each one shall we?

The Island of Adventure

Admittedly this doesn’t quite capture my mental picture of the Isle of Gloom. It’s just not… gloomy enough. Gloom is rocky and spray-covered, not sandy and tree-covered. Also, there’s no big cave. This looks more suited to Kirrin or The Secret Island.

We do have the four children, though, and it’s obvious who they all are. Kiki matches the Stuart Tresilian depiction from the first editions rather than the text (which makes me wonder if the text is changed to match?). It’s just a shame the girls are running off into the distance.

The Castle of Adventure

This is supposed to be the castle of adventure, not the haunted mansion of adventure. And the hill’s not nearly big enough.

Aside from that, I like the colour scheme. And we get a much better view of the children. Jack and Lucy-Ann are obvious from their red hair. I think Philip and Dinah should have darker hair – and tufts! At least their clothes look fairly timeless though there’s a bit of Laura Ellen Anderson about the stripes.

The Valley of Adventure

I love the colour choice for this one too. It’s a very attractive cover though the aeroplane is all wrong, and where’s the waterfall?

I can’t remember them crossing the river anywhere apart from near the waterfall. I’m also wondering about the cave. Is that supposed to be the fern cave? If so… waterfall?

It’s a shame to have to criticize the cover as it looks so good. If only it was more book-accurate though!

The Sea of Adventure

Another lovely colour choice. This reminds me of The Adventurous Four which was also heavy on the red/blue (and a boat).

Of course it’s stylised and the islands wouldn’t have been so pointy, but it’s a great cover.

The Mountain of Adventure

I think I can forgive the inclusion of the ponies and the helicopter as covers often amalgamate story elements from through the book.

Somehow the story looks more like a fantasy than an adventure with a hint of sci-fi – with the green glowing light. Obviously inside the mountain does glow, but it doesn’t glow outside and it doesn’t have a whacking great obvious door. It’s very pretty, though!

Plus – where’s the helicopter landing? The pointy mountain top?

The Ship of Adventure

This probably has the least stylised colours of the series as everything a colour it might realistically be. It’s also the most similar (in my mind) to the first edition cover.

The scale’s fairly wild, though, if we’re supposed to believe that’s the Viking Star?

Still, it’s a good-looking cover.

The Circus of Adventure

My favourite book, but not my favourite cover. It’s attractive, but the red grass gives it a weird vibe. Like it’s post apocalyptic or something.

I also don’t think it captures the story particularly well? The children aren’t visiting a circus for frolics and fun. The four spend very little time there, and most of it hiding.

But the circus is in the title and has to be shown, and better four children than just Jack, I suppose.

The River of Adventure

I think this looks great – really pretty – and it does depict a scene from the book. It’s not too dissimilar to the first edition boards, with the palm-trees and the small boat from the final chapters on the river (though it’s travelling the opposite way).

The pink could give a fantasy vibe but to me it’s not, as it just about gets away with being the reflection of the sunset.

Sadly as far as I can tell these new books have no internal illustrations.

But what do you think of the covers?

Posted in Illustrations and artwork | Tagged Rachel Dean, The Adventure Series | 2 Comments

Monday #694

Posted on August 17, 2026 by Fiona

I started my new job last week so blogging took a bit of a back seat.

The new Adventure Series covers

and

Letters to Enid part 89

Country Life ran an Enid Blyton quiz on her birthday, which was nice. If only they’d bothered to get the answers correct themselves!

Q4, below, askFams who played George in the 1970s Famous Five. I very confidently hit Michele Gallagher… but the correct answer is apparently Jenny Thanisch. Jennifer Thanisch was Anne.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged 70s Famous Five TV Series, August, Monday | Leave a comment

July 2026 round up

Posted on August 13, 2026 by Fiona

School holidays are drawing to an end (already!) and I’m trying to get on track with posting regularly again.

What I read

My best month of the year!

Quick stats:
20 books read
115 out of 150 so far
25 ahead of schedule
1 BABAL* (And one about a journalist/publishing)
2 Val McDermids
8 new authors
4 library books

July’s five star reads:

Time to Shine – Rachel Reid
This is quite possibly one of my favourite books of all time. It has lived in my head rent-free for the past month and although I haven’t re-read it fully, I have kept it on my Kindle Unlimited shelf and dipped in and out reading my favourite parts again. I may also have bought the audiobook to listen to at bed time…

This is a grumpy/sunshine pairing between the Calgary Outlaws’ star left winger Casey Hicks and goalie Landon Stackhouse who’s just been called up to the Outlaws from the AHL to fill in due to an injury. Landon is quiet and introverted, and carrying a lot of grief and guilt. Casey talks non-stop, has no filter and hates being alone. Somehow Landon ends up agreeing to stay at Casey’s house and they fall for each other; only for Landon to be sent back down to the AHL when the Outlaws’ goalie recovers.

I cried. A lot. But it does have a happy ending. In as much as an ending can be happy when you’d like the book to go on forever.

The Kennedy Rule (On Thin Ice #1) – KC Carmichael
As you’ll soon see, I read A LOT of hockey romances this month, and I think I was trying to find something that made me feel the way Time to Shine did. Sadly, nothing hit that spot but this came close.

Connor Kennedy has it all; money, fame, the captain’s spot on his NHL team. He also has a spot on the USA’s Winter Olympics hockey team. But so does Gavin Marshal, an enforcer from Alaska. They hate each other. Until they suddenly don’t. Then it’s them against Connor’s father – who’s highly influential in the NHL and tries to instigate the Marshall Rule which says that two players can’t date.

The Call Up (On Thin Ice #2) – KC Carmichael
I may have liked this even more than The Kennedy Rule – but still not as much as Time to Shine.

Brandon Bouchard met Ryan Christianson when he was fourteen and Ryan roomed with his family as part of a hockey programme. Brandon’s older brother is already in the NHL and now it’s Brandon’s time to step up as a rookie, playing on the same team as Ryan. Only Ryan still calls him Baby Bouchard and now the whole team does, and all Brandon’s old feelings for Ryan have come back full-force.

July’s four star reads:

The Tiny Magic Bookshop (Tiny Magic Series #1) – August Bloom
I liked this but it was very emotionally heavy as Max wades through her grief after losing her mother. I liked the story around Max having to find her own way to run the bookshop her mother left to her, but I don’t think I was in the right headspace to appreciate it as much as I maybe should have when I read it.

Flint in the Bones (Norwich Map Runners #1) – Eva St John
When Eliza Barnaby – often better known as Bish – was a child something happened to the maps of Norwich. Something catastrophic which melded them – and the time periods the represented – together. Now Norwich is walled off, a city where wild magical waves tear people from their own timelines and dump them… well, nobody knows and they don’t ever come back. Quakes bring people forward, and collapse any building too modern to be on multiple maps. People from all centuries have had to find a way to live together. But Bish escaped to London. Until Cade, an escaped practitioner of magic is believed to have headed to Norwich and Bish is sent back home to try to catch him.

I loved the semi-magical world building and all the weird stuff that goes on in Norwich. Plus the mystery of who is Cade, really, and whose side is he on?

Moon Over Soho (Rivers of London #2) – Ben Aaronovitch
I’ve read the whole series in print so I’m revisiting in audio now. This one’s a fun story about what Peter calls Jazz Vampires – even if he is a bit thick about what’s been staring him in the face the whole time.

Check & Mate – Ali Hazelwood
I was mildly disappointed in this one until I realised it is actually YA. Mallory Greenleaf has given up chess forever. Until she loses her job and is offered the opportunity to play competitively again, with big cash prizes on offer. Plus, she’ll have the chance to beat Nolan, the world’s best – and most annoying – chess champion.

Booked for Murder (Lindsay Gordon #5) – Val McDermid
A friend of Lindsay’s has been murdered. Which is not unusual for a murder mystery series. What is unusual is that the dead woman was murdered in an identical way to one of her characters in her half-finished book. So Lindsay has to wade into the world of editors and literary agents to figure out who knew the plot and who had the means and motive to use it.

Still Life (Karen Pirie #6) – Val McDermid
Another twisty-turny mystery. A dead man’s pulled out of the sea. He was the main suspect in his brother’s disappearance some ten years before, but then disappeared himself. How is his death now connected to him maybe having murdered his brother a decade ago?

The Vicar of Nibbleswicke – Roald Dahl
A Roald Dahl I’d never actually read before. A funny little story about a vicar who often says random words backwards. Surprisingly rude for a children’s book as the vicar talks about drinks you must SIP and not to PARK on the grass.

The Rilloby Fair
Thoroughly enjoyed by Brodie who had all sorts of theories about how the locked-room thefts were carried out. Almost none of them correct.

The Tartan Thesis – Scott K Good
Set in Edinburgh, Beau from Texas and Torin from the highlands are both studying Scottish history. They both love Scotland and Scottish history, but after getting off on the wrong foot at their first meeting they become academic rivals, complicated by the fact that under it all they really do like each other. Then their tutor tells them to work together or face being thrown off the course for their disruptive arguments and that just makes it ten times harder.

Boyfriend Material (London Calling #1) – Alexis Hall
Luc O’Donnell is the kind of character I love. He’s a totally adorable mess. He has an estranged rock-star dad, he works for a ridiculous charity, his flat is a mess… somehow he manages to get papped every time he falls over drunk. He needs to start improving his public image, like last week.

Enter Oliver Blackwood – the straight-laced lawyer who’s already harshly knocked him back. But Oliver needs a date to some events, and Luc needs someone who’s going to make him look good…

Enemies to lovers via fake dating, basically. And a lot of fun, but with some strong emotional stuff as sub plots.

The Prince and the Bodyguard (Prince Pact #4) – Nora Phoenix
I’d been waiting for this for a month after reading book three and it didn’t disappoint. Prince Gregory (of the UK) finally gets his year at university in the states. Only he has to have a bodyguard. Enter Bash, a former marine turned secret service agent. His job is to protect Greg. Not fall in love with him.

OK it’s a little bit silly that the only way the two of them can room together on campus is to pretend to be a couple in the couples-only dorm. It probably could have worked without that as it already had the forced proximity trope. But if you ignore that, then Greg and Bash were incredibly cute together.

I’m sad this series is over but Nora Phoenix has a new princes at university series coming out at the end of the year so I guess I’ll just have to look forward to that.

Winging It (Hockey Ever After #1) – Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
This was silly but fun. Gabe and Dante fall for each other, but Gabe’s not ready to be out as a hockey player. And honestly I can’t remember a whole lot more than that about it – probably because I read too many hockey romances in such a short time.

July’s three star reads:

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – RL Stevenson
I wanted to love this because I know how influential it was for the genre, but being told by a third-party who’s only witnessing half the story, and other parts being told by letters… it was disappointing. Or at least, not what I was hoping for,

Winging It Holiday Special (Hockey Ever After #1.5) – Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
More cuteness from Dante and Gabe, but relied heavily on a fairly silly and very huge coincidence. And someone abruptly out of nowhere making a life-changing decision on a whim.

Old Banff & McDuff – Alan Cooper
It’s like a rule that when you go on holiday in Scotland your holiday house has to have an “Old…” book about the local area. My rule is that I always read them. I mostly read them to find out about the old buildings that are still around; what they used to be, how the harbour used to look etc. I’m not so into the little anecdotes about what one family did one time in 1885. So how I rate these depends on the balance of these elements.

July’s two star reads

Body Check (Chicago Storm #1) – Piper Cross
I liked the idea of this. The general plot – closeted grumpy veteran hockey player and out sunshine rookie. But it lacked depth and had a lot of annoying mistakes, a confusing timeline, and there are a lot of accusations that AI was heavily used in the writing. Unproven, but even if not, it really needed a good editor.

Cross Check (Chicago Storm #2) – Piper Cross
And yet I still read book two, hoping that the writing/editing would have improved. Again, I loved the idea. A player accused of a betting scandal is drafted to a new team and another player is asked to house them and keep an eye on them. Nico (the accused) is practically broken by all this, but slowly finds his way back with the support of Keiran. But again, lots of idiotic mistakes like them taking their assigned seats on the coach, one is in seat 3 and the other in 11. Yet the one in 3 was the one staring at the back of 11’s head? Plus a whole lot of annoying repetition and short punchy sentences which sort of made me lean towards thinking it is AI.

July’s one star reads

None, thankfully, though the above two came close.

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in July:

On Thin Ice (Maine Marauders #1) – Rebecca Norinne
Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1) – Agatha Christie
The Treasure Hunters – Lisa Thompson
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) – Jasper Fforde

What I watched

A few episodes of the Simpsons, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Only Connect and Wire in the Blood,
Red, White and Royal Blue (for the second time) and Jaws 2.
Family movies were Jurassic Park 3 and The Sheep Detectives (It took me a good few minutes to realise that the reported in The Sheep Detectives is actually Prince Henry from Red White and Royal Blue, and I think I only caught it because I watched them within days of each other.
We also started watching The Pitt which I’m not entirely sold on but I do keep watching

What I did

Visited a trinket trade box and swapped some of my extra mini books for a toy gorilla
Spent time enjoying the sun in the garden and eating strawberries we picked
Went to Broughty Ferry for their Window Dressing competition, where you had to spot the one ‘one-one-out’ item in each shop window – some were as small as a hair clip – and saw the lifeboat lego exhibition.
We went on holiday up to Banff and explored the area, mostly just wandering around exploring, finding geocaches and visiting beaches where we paddled and swam and collected sea pottery.

I have a habit of taking photos of my kindle if I happen to be reading somewhere more interesting than my house or the staffroom at work. Here’s a few of the places my kindle got taken in July.

Buying

I bought four books which I’ve posted about in more detail here.

How was your July?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged Buying, Doing, July, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | Leave a comment

Monday #693

Posted on August 10, 2026 by Fiona

Well, last week entirely ran away from me. So let’s see how this week goes?

July round up

and

The new Adventure Series covers

Seeing as I’m going to be looking at the newest covers, why not look at all the older covers and see how they compare?

There are actually two posts as there were so many editions, but who’s counting?

The Adventure Series covers through the years

The Adventure Series covers through the years part 2

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged August, Monday, The Adventure Series | Leave a comment

Holiday book-buying

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Fiona

When on holiday (or anywhere for that matter) it’s pretty much impossible for the to walk past a bookshop without going in. Or a charity shop or antique shop which may sell books.

I struck lucky on this holiday and picked up four new books (my shelves are groaning in horror the background as I type).

Banff bargains

My first two books came from Books Abroad in Banff.

First I spotted Jill Investigates by Valerie Hastings.

The arrival of a new girl at Hazelmere immediately arouses the curiosity of Jill and her fellow fourth-formers. When she turns out to be the daughter of an interfering and officious school governor their curiosity gives way to mixed feelings, which soon become hostile. Her apparent friendliness with an unpopular prefect, who has a grudge against the fourth, provokes further hostility and Jill’s natural sense of fairness is severely tested.

I had never heard of Jill or Valerie, but it had a nice illustrated hardcover (sort of Nancy Drew-esque, don’t you think?), and a Children’s Press logo on the spine, so it would look good beside my other Children’s Press books.

I was going to say it would fit perfectly beside my other Children’s Press books, but that would imply that I had space on my shelves, which I absolutely do not. Jill Investigates will only fit if I remove something else, then goodness knows where I’d put that book…

But the important point here – which completely absolves me of the fact that I bought a title I’d never heard of, by an author I’d never heard of, and which I had no space for – is that it only cost 50. FIFTY PENCE. I’d challenge any of you not to succumb to the temptation. And the money went to charity, so it would have been wrong not to buy it. Right?

As usual, with any vintage authors that are not Blyton it’s not easy to find out a lot about them. Valerie Hastings has written a handful of other books for children, including Jill at Hazelmere which is apparently the first of the two books about Jill at Hazelmere school.

This is bad news for me, because although the two books are more than likely complete on their own, I now want to get the first book so I can read them in order. And this is how a 50p purchase turns into more…

Book number two was The Holiday at Merryfields by Eileen Davis.

It was a change for Dahlia and Georgie to be going away for the whole of the summer holiday without their mother and father. Would it be very quiet on the farm near the little village of Merryfields?

Their mother thought there would be very little to do there and that they would have to amuse themselves; but she was proved wrong, and the two children found this a most outstanding holiday – and rather an unusual one too!

At this point it’ll probably be no surprise to you that I’d never heard of the book or the author.

But it had a lovely dustjacket – and printed hardcover underneath.

And it was also only 50p. See above re: wrongness of not giving money to charity.

I can find out even less about Eileen Davis than I found out about Valerie Hastings. There are possibly a few more children’s books by her, but it’s hard to be sure that they are by the same Eileen Davis.

Brodie bought a GI Joe (or Air Force Action as it was actually called) ladybird book too (for all of £1), and we got a free bookmark to top it off.

Cullen Blytons

The other two books came from Cullen, from the same shop I bought some books in last time I was there.

Looking back, last time, I bought The New Big Noddy Book No 6, and a Bom annual, plus a guide to St Andrews from the 1950s.

I’ll quote here what I wrote in the round up after that holiday:

I bought the Bom Annual (my first Bom book) for £1 which was an absolute bargain and a the 6th Big Noddy Book for £5. I put back a copy of Mr Pink Whistle’s Party as I already had a copy, even if it wasn’t the soft-cover with the lovely artwork.

Now I’ll tell you what I bought this time, five years on.

The Big Noddy Book No 3 (for just £4, take that inflation!) which I’m really glad that I didn’t already have, because I didn’t check. A nice coincidence no?

And…

Mr Pink Whistle’s Party. The soft-cover with the lovely artwork.

Now, I don’t know if it’s the exact same book that I picked up in 2021 and rejected, or if it’s just a coincidence… but that’s weird, right? I almost didn’t buy it again this time as I do indeed have a regular copy (even if it is sort of interesting as it’s a former Boots Library book). But I’d had my coeliacs diagnosis that morning (via text, no less) so I said eff it and bought the book, because if you can’t eat bread or cake then you might as well let yourself buy all the books. And it was only £3.

If you’re in Cullen (it’s a lovely place, well worth visiting) I recommend Cullen Architectural Scrap Yard/Cullen Bookshop (near the top of the high street, you can’t miss it). The scrap yard is full of weird and wonderful stuff and the bookshop is good. I’ve never had time to look at all the books – just the big double bookcase of children’s stuff, but it’s got plenty of books in it.

Also great is Cullen Collectibles – near the bottom of the high street, again you can’t miss it. It’s the one with tons of boxes and shelves of stuff outside. And even more stuff piled up inside. I’m pretty sure that’s where I bought a Trixie Belden book last time I was there.

This time I turned down a Noddy lap tray.

I also didn’t buy the Noddy figures I saw in another antique/collectibles shop (closing down sadly). I sort of wish I had, though. At least they’re small?

So, £8 for four books, and how much did you say for a whole new house big enough for more shelves… ?

Posted in Other Authors, Purchases | Tagged Eileen Davis, Mr Pink-Whistle, Mr Pink-Whistle's Party, Noddy, The Big Noddy Book No 3, Valerie Hastings | 2 Comments

Monday #692

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Fiona

Having skipped quite a few Mondays, I’m now back. For now? There’s been a lot going on lately and I start a new job next week, so still a lot going on.

So the new job (even though it’s a temporary role for now) is good news. The not so good news is that I’ve just been diagnosed with coeliacs, which severely curtails my ability to eat cake and biscuits (not to mention pasta, pizza, bread and a whole lot of stuff that might surprise you). On the plus side, though, macaroons are naturally gluten free!

Holiday book-buying

and

July round up

The Adventure Series has been re-released with new covers. I think any Blyton books being re-released is good news, as it means there is still a demand for her work from children. I may often hate the covers, but better that than them going quietly out of print like so many other titles.

I actually like these new covers, however. No, they’re not a patch on the original, but we are eighty years on and styles change. And OK, so looking closer I could definitely find things to complain about (incoming post alert…) but on the whole they’re attractive and eye-catching.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged August, Monday, The Adventure Series | 4 Comments

June 2026 round up

Posted on July 18, 2026 by Fiona

It’s the school holidays and I entirely failed to post something on Monday, but figured I’d better get my June round up done before it’s August.

What I read

A lot more than I did in May!

Quick stats:
19 books read
94 out of 150 so far
22 ahead of schedule
1 BABAL*
2 Val McDermids
5 new authors
9 library books

June’s five star reads:

Any Old Diamonds (Lily-White Boys #1) – KJ Charles
Alec – really Lord Alexander Pyne-ffoulkes – hires the Lily-White boys to steal a set of diamond jewellery from his estranged father. Only that means he has to pretend he wants to reunite his fractured family, and do so while not falling for Jerry, the Lily-White member who’s pretending to be his gentleman friend. Lots of twists and turns and double-crosses that kept me guessing to the end.

The Prince and the Player (Prince Pact #1) – Nora Phoenix
Tore is a European Prince masquerading as a regular college student, and Farron is actually a regular college student. One who has a hard time accepting the obviously rich and privileged Tore onto the football (soccer) team. So they keep going head-to-head, even though Tore’s rather baffled about why Farron seems to hate him so much. And then, because we all know there’s a fine line between love and hate… What’s not to like? (And I say that as someone with zero interest in football.)

June’s four star reads:

Kill Joy (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #0.5) – Holly Jackson
Having read the main three books in the series I then discovered this short prequel so of course I had to read it as well. Pip showcases her critical thinking skills as she and her friends take part in a murder mystery evening. This was fun – more light-hearted than the main books as nobody actually died – and I liked Pip’s answer better than the supposed real one.

How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager (Guides for Dating Vampires #1) – DN Bryn
In a world where vampires generally pay for blood poor ones, like Vincent, go hungry. His solution is to feed off sleeping humans here and there. His latest meal is Wesley, who just happens to need a vampire as bait so he can get into the lab which was responsible for the death of his mother. So he does the obvious sensible thing. He offers his blood to Vincent and plans to betray him later. Only Wesley’s actually really nice (for a vampire) and it gets harder and harder for Wes to plan to sacrifice him when he’s already falling for him. This was fun but a bit slow at times as everyone had a lot of guilty feelings they needed to think over.

Bookshops and Bonedust (Legends and Lattes #0) Travis Baldree
Set before Viv opens her coffee shop in Legends and Lattes. Viv is injured and her crew dumps her in Murk to recover. There she discovers a bookshop in need of an overhaul and a love of reading. Definitely a cosy fantasy though there was a baddie in need of dealing with too.

Blue Genes (Kate Brannigan #5) – Val McDermid
Infuriatingly the 2 in 1 collection of books 4 & 5 in the series had the books in the wrong order. So I read 5 – which had minor spoilers for 4 in it – first. As always Kate has a lot on her plate. One, investigating the death of a fertility doctor who has been practicing under another doctor’s name. Two, catching a gang of fraudsters pretending to sell people quality gravestones. Three, finding out who’s ruining gigs for a band new to the city. It’s surprising which one of these turns out to be the deadliest.

Clean Break (Kate Brannigan #4) – Val McDermid
Kate’s off on a jaunt through Europe as she tracks down some very skilled art thieves. Complicated by the fact that Richard (her non-PI boyfriend) has followed her and is trying to help. If that’s not enough, she’s also on the trail of industrial sabotage of cleaning products which has left two people dead.

Death Comes to Marlow (Marlow Murders #2) – Robert Thorogood
Judith gets a strange phone call, inviting her to a party of a man she’s never met, and who references her experience in solving murders. When he dies at the party of course Judith gets involved and brings her friends Becks and Suzie along to help. While I definitely didn’t solve this, I had some ideas which seemed to escape the detectives (both professional and amateur) which turned out to be right.

The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events #2) – Lemony Snicket
As the series name suggests things don’t get any better for the Baudelaires. They are sent off to live with herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery who they love, but who ends up dead at the fangs of the Mamba Du Mal. But also at Uncle Monty’s house is his new assistant Stephano who bears a striking resemblance to Count Olaf…

Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Finally – a Jane Austen book I actually really enjoyed. Catherine is fun and doesn’t take things too seriously. In fact, she lets her book-fuelled imagination run away with her when she’s invited to stay at the gothic Northanger Abbey.

Prince Material (Prince Pact #2) – Nora Phoenix
Another undercover European Prince (the princes are friends hence the ‘pact’ in the title between them all to have one year living as normal people) goes to college in America. Floris is escaping a bit of a scandal and had intended to keep his head down and study, but his roommate is distractingly cute. This was a very sweet friends-to-lovers story.

The Prince’s Playbook (Prince Pact #3) – Nora Phoenix
Having loved books one and two of course I went straight on to read number three, and I’m avidly waiting for book four which is out later this month. Prince number three is Nils who has decided to spend his year in America coaching college ice hockey. Specifically Adan, who has a chance of going pro. I’m not usually a fan of power imbalance romances but the age gap here was small and it was written really well.

The Pelican Brief – John Grisham
I made a new list of all the books and authors I’ve always meant to read and haven’t yet. In a nutshell law student Darby Shaw writes a brief suggesting who is responsible for the murder of two supreme court justices, and within days someone is trying to kill her. The White House, the press and the FBI are all involved and she doesn’t know who to trust. I found this frustrating at times as Grisham managed to have about twenty different character POVs (only one of them female) and consistently started sections or chapters with ‘He did this and he did that,’ without any real context or clues as to who the mysterious he was. I found it slow going to begin with, but it did get much pacier and intriguing as it went on.

Highland Getaway – Amber Eve
Rosie is looking to escape her disaster of a life, so when she gets an invite to be an influencer at a highland hotel which is just about to open, she jumps at the chance. Only, the invitation was meant for another Rosie, and she knows it. And not long after arriving everyone else does too. Very fun, though I did guess the twist.

June’s three star reads:

Generation Hex (Moonshadow Cove #3) – Molly Harper
The grand finale of the story about the ghost trapping sisters of Moonshadow Cove. The first two books hinted that oldest sister Perry would fall for James, their contact at the Red Jasper Society (who police witches). And she does. Honestly, I tuned out a bunch of times as despite the build-up to the big battle against the Seaworths it seemed to take ages for anything to happen. Even the girls ganging up with the trio from Shadow House couldn’t bump this up to four stars.

Blueberries for Sal – Robert McCloskey
This is one of those quintessential picture books for kids (if you’re reading American lists that is). Obviously, I am not the target audience but honestly, it was sort of dull. And also, silly.

The Undetectables (The Undetectables #1) – Courtenay Smith
I wanted to like this tale of three girls and their ghost friend who is permanently stuck in a cat costume. But they spent way more time whining about how they didn’t know who the murderer was and how to find out than they did actually investigating. And I worked out who it was before they did.

Version 1.0.0

June’s two star reads

Five Get Into Trouble the graphic Novel – Beja & Natael
I’ve already reviewed this so enough said.

You Can’t Scare Me (Goosebumps #15) – RL Stine
I decided to read one I hadn’t read before, but then found that I had logged this one as read. Yet it didn’t seem at all familiar – or it could have been that it was so forgettable? Kids try to scare other kid who never falls for it, then they all get scared at the end. If you’re going to make a story supernatural don’t throw it in almost as an afterthought.

June’s one star reads

Thankfully none.

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in June:

The Tiny Magic Bookshop (Tiny Magic Series #1) -August Bloom
The Rilloby Fair Mystery
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – RL Stevenson

What I watched

A few episodes of the Simpsons and Richard Osman’s House of Games
Red, White and Royal Blue (for the second time)

What I did

Brodie and I completed a new Lego jigsaw together
I finished my library model and even got the lighting all wired up and working
We had a daytime watch-along of Scotland’s first world cup match where I read my book instead of watching the game, followed by Irn Bru floats
Went for a walk and lunch in Tayport and fed the ducks and swans
Visited the botanic gardens which have been slated for closure thanks to the university’s atrocious management of their finances
Celebrated 150 years of Brodie’s school being open

How was your June?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged Doing, June, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | 3 Comments

Letters to Enid part 88: From volume 5, issue 1

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

And just like that we have moved from the 1956 run of magazines and into 1957.

According to Blyton’s own letter January was the perfect time to dig over the garden and start preparing for spring planting. Whoops, I’ve missed that boat quite considerably then! (Assuming I could have dug over the frozen soil, of course.)

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 1.
January 2nd – 15th, 1957.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Fiona Colbeck and Cheryl Wingfield, Hitchin, Herts.

(These two children sent me some lovely Christmas labels they had made, and said that they were selling some to make money for our little Children’s Home. I asked them to tell me how they made them. Here is their interesting letter in reply.)

Dear Enid Blyton,
This is how we made the labels. First of all we collected old Christmas cards that had not been scribbled on. Then we took some pinking scissors (scissors that make a pretty cut-out edge to anything) and pinked all round the edges of the cards. We did hundreds of pictures and put them into a box. Then Daddy lent us his punch (a tool that punches holes in things) and we punched holes in the cards, so that we could thread the labels with string. Daddy bought me a ball of red string, and I cut it into equal lengths, and threaded it through the holes. We both belong to the Famous Five Club, and we made ros. through selling our labels. We are sending you the money for your little Children’s Home.
Love from
Fiona and Cheryl.

(I am sending you my letter-prize, a book for each of you, because you had such a good idea, and wrote about it so well. You must have done an enormous number of those lovely gay labels.)

A letter from Roy Martin, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I was sorry when “Playways” Magazine stopped, because I had had it for two years, but now that we have had two copies of your magazine, we are going to have it always. I want to belong to your clubs, please. Will you tell me how to, and must I write in myself, or can Mummy write for me and send the money for the badges? She is helping me to write this letter, that’s why the spelling is good. I do like your stories.
Love from
Roy Martin.

(I did like your letter, Roy. Welcome to our magazine! Yes, Mummy can write in for the badges, and you can sign your name at the end of the letter.)

A letter from Anne Williams, Gravesend.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I would like to tell you about my little dog, Blackie. I lost my F.F. badge one day, and while I was upstairs looking for it, Blackie started sniffing round the floor downstairs. Five minutes later Blackie was scraping at my bedroom door with his paws, and when I opened it he came running in with the badge in his mouth! I thought of a good reward for him – I pinned the badge on his collar and made him a Famous Five Club member for a day.
Love from
Anne Williams.

(What a proud dog he must have been, Anne! You wrote your letter well.)

I’ve certainly made gift tags out of old Christmas cards, I think that’s a fairly common thing for people to do. It’s so simple yet it works really well. It’s also good for the environment and your purse!

A rare letter from a boy – though also from his mother. Imagine writing directly to an author instead of reading the instructions at the back of each magazine about joining the clubs? If Mummy can help Roy write to ask, surely she could just have helped him write to join? Seems a bit weird to me. It almost seems like a fake letter designed to allow Blyton to answer a question but she had thousands of real letters so it seems unlikely.

I don’t know the Secret Seven books well enough to know if Scamper ever found one of the Seven’s badges and returned i to them, but it does sound like something that Blyton would put into one of her stories.

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 5 | 1 Comment

Monday #686

Posted on June 22, 2026 by Fiona

I’m still very carefully checking my numberings, though I can’t guarantee how long it will be before I forget at it all goes to pot again.

We are on the cusp of a mid-week heatwave – though that has a bit of a different meaning in Scotland to other places. It’s forecast to be 25 degrees on Wednesday, which is thankfully a far cry from the 35+ predicted in other parts of the UK.

I was reading a book yesterday one of the characters was in Louisiana and mentioned the first ‘cold snap’ of the year, with temperatures in the 60s. I have no clue when it comes to Fahrenheit and always have to look it up. For the similarly challenged – in the 60s Fahrenheit is between 15.5 and 20.5 degrees Celsius. As you might say in Scotland – that’s roastin and taps aff weather!

Letters to Enid part 88

and

Five On Kirrin Island Again (90s Style) as watched by Fiona and Stef

While I don’t think the ‘returned for the first time in 60 years’ is quite accurate as there was a Famous Five Trail in the last ten years, there are new Famous Five trails in Dorset. Stef has already visited them, and hopefully she will share some photos soon.

Famous Five return for new larks in Corfe Castle and Studland

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged Corfe Castle, Dorset, June, Monday | Leave a comment

Five Get Into Trouble the Graphic Novel

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Fiona

My ratings for the graphic novels so far have been:

Five on a Treasure Island ☆☆☆☆
Five Go Adventuring Again ☆☆☆
Five Run Away Together ☆☆☆☆
Five Go to Smuggler’s Top ☆☆☆
Five Go Off in a Caravan ☆

Will Five Get Into Trouble redeem the ratings slide or is it going to be terrible? I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

A book of two halves

There are parts of this adaptation which stick fairly close to the book, with some things altered slightly to make them fit the shorter format.

We start with the Five arriving on their bikes at Green Lake, which is fine, we know we don’t have pages to spare on them planning a trip or cycling for days before the main story starts. This means we haven’t met Richard yet, but again, it’s not desperately important.

We do then go back and waste a page covering how Uncle Quentin tried to get them all to go to a science conference which is why they go off cycling – unnecessary and not that funny – and might have been better used introducing Richard.

As per the book Dick is kidnapped – though in broad daylight with all the rest of the Five nearby – and Richard is found hiding.

They make their way to Owl’s Dene, where just like the book they sneak into the grounds, canvass the joint and enter via a window in the middle of the night. So far, so good. They are caught and put in a room upstairs, just like in the book.

We get a bit of back story about why Richard is afraid of Rooky – he stole money from Mr Kent and was fired – and how Dick got taken by mistake.

And then it all goes somewhat off-piste.

The part which doesn’t resemble the book

Book Aggie is on the Five’s side – quietly and unobtrusively. Graphic novel Aggie, well you’ve got to wonder what she’s doing working at Owl’s Dene. Book Aggie is terrified of Hunchy, Mr Perton, Rooky etc and believably seems utterly trapped.

This Aggie is confident, clearly hates Hunchy and Mr Perton and has absolutely no problem in walking – or rather cycling – out when it suits her. So why has she put up with the job until now? On one hand she’s got the morals to help the Five escape, but not the morals to not work for a bunch of crooks? Is she a crook but one who draws the line at kidnapping children? Who knows.

This Aggie plots with the Five to help them escape, showing them a more complex set of alarms and sensors than the book’s electric gates. She helps them gag and tie up Hunchy after he knocks himself out while being chased by Timmy. I know it’s poetic justice or whatever, to tie up Hunchy the same way he tied up Dick, but come on. Can you really see the Five lynching someone and hanging them upside down? The time and effort alone is ridiculous. They’re not vicious or vindictive, they’re sensible. Hanging upside down can be fatal in a matter of hours.

Aggie also sets off an alarm to bring Mr Perton running so the Five can clothesline him and tie him up too.

(They’re obsessed with people flying through the air…)

In the end she cycles off with a basket of food and says she’s going to camp with the Five at Green Lake and cook them a big meal…

And all the other silly bits

I said that the first half more-or less sticks to the book, but it also wastes lots of panels on nonsense and does things very weirdly at times.

Like why does Dick have to walk upside down in the morning before he is kidnapped? OK it’s obviously so the rope loop hanging from the tree can catch him [see above] – but that then begs the question of why the trap was even set up that way.

The Five use an abandoned farmhouse across from Owl’s Dene to spy on it. And Julian’s legs convey him in a manner I’m sure it’s humanly possible down the stairs.

There’s no classic black Bentley KMF 102 (and no I didn’t have to look that up it’s engraved on my brain). Nor is there a replacement classic car. Instead there’s a meals on wheels van… why? Who’s ordering meals on wheels at Owl’s Dene? It’s only there to cause the gates to open so the Five can dash in. Maybe Hunchy is running a scam using the van to steal from unwitting pensioners but, again, who knows?

Richard’s several page explanation about how Mr Perton and Hunchy come into it make little sense, and could easily have gone unexplained. They work for Rooky, end of.

(And another bike crash! They’re obsessed with them too, it seems.)

Anne and Julian go wild over nothing. Yes, Richard asked for a different shirt. He’s about to go into the lion’s den, why wouldn’t he want to disguise himself? Him pretending not to be Richard Kent doesn’t harm the argument that Dick isn’t Richard Kent. In the book Julian encourages him to use soot to darken his hair exactly so he isn’t recognisable as himself.

For the parts that stick to the book I might have given a 3 star rating, four if I was feeling very generous. For the rest (including the part where Anne makes Richard bite on a stick for multiple pages to stop him from saying anything stupid…) It’s 1 or 2 stars at most.

It’s not that I hate changes – I just hate them when they make no sense. Skipping those we could have had one or two elements from the book like Richard escaping in the Bentley (I’d even have accepted him escaping in the Meals on Wheels van!) to redeem himself, or them finding the escaped prisoner and the diamonds in the secret room.

So in the end –

Five Get Into Trouble ☆☆

Posted in Book reviews, Other Authors | Tagged Béja, Five Get Into Trouble, Five Get Into Trouble: The Graphic Novel, Graphic novels, Nataël | 2 Comments

Letters to Enid part 87: From volume 4, issue 24.

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Those who have been paying attention to the numbering of this series – which I’ve proven on multiple occasions to be terrible at – may notice that I’ve jumped from part 85 to part 87. This is, in fact, deliberate. I am missing volume 4 issue 23, despite my best efforts to track a copy down.

I swithered more than was probably necessary – or healthy – about what to do. In the end I decided that the part 86 should belong to 4.23 regardless of when I (hopefully) manage to find a copy. So I’m skipping it for now and I’ll come back to it later. (Again, hopefully.)

If anyone reading this has a copy – I’d massively appreciate a scan of the cover and the letters page (or even a decent photo of each!)

A warning again for offensive language by today’s standards.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 24.
December 19th, 1957 – January 1st, 1958.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from The Secret Seven Club, Pembroke Dock, Wales.
(This letter was sent to me by Menevia Scone, who runs a Secret Seven Club. These children are very kind-hearted, and quite determined to help both the Sunbeams and the Centre for Spastic Children. They gave an exhibition of some really beautiful Miniature Gardens that they made, and to everyone’s amazement, made the enormous sum of £28 75., which was divided between the two causes. Menevia’s letter was so interesting that I am quoting a large part of it.)
Dear Miss Blyton,
As there are seven of us making gardens for exhibition we have formed a club, called the Secret Seven. Our headmaster spared us seven house badges – they are green, to represent the colour of the plants in our gardens. We have put S.S. on them with white paint. Now this is how we plan our exhibition: Marian, who is almost 12, is to take the money at the door, because she will be able to give the right change. Jennifer and Susan will help her. Maureen and I will sell raffle tickets – we are going to raffle one of our miniature gardens. We want to get some new members for the Sunbeam Club and the Spastic Club, so Margaret will be at one end of a table to tell people about the little blind children. We have had some posters from the Sunbeam Society, and snaps of the blind children and some enrolment forms. We are putting two empty milk-tins on the table, one for the
blind and one for the spastics, hoping people will put some money in. June is to be in charge of the spastics end of the table. The seven of us are very excited, and hope the little spastic children and blind ones will get as much pleasure as we are having trying to get it for them. We are going to sell most of our gardens if people will buy them.
Love from Menevia, June, Marion, Jennifer, Susan, Maureen and Margaret.

(A splendid letter, Menevia, and one that will encourage many other readers to get up an exhibition and plan it. You must have had great fun, and I am so glad it was such a success – even the newspapers printed pieces about it, didn’t they ! I have sent you my letter-prize-a book for your Secret Seven Club. Good luck to all of you!)

It’s a strange coincidence that Brodie and I were talking about miniature gardens at the weekend. We’d seen a kit in Aldi and of course he wanted it, but we said he didn’t need a kit, all he needed was a tray and things he could collect from the house and garden.

My sister and I used to make miniature gardens. We never sold them but we did win a prize each at at least one, maybe two competitions at the church Sunday School for them.

I think miniature garden making could be a fun project for the summer holidays this year.

The club’s gardens must have been good to have raised £28!

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | 2 Comments

Monday #685

Posted on June 15, 2026 by Fiona

We had a bank holiday today because Scotland were playing in the world cup. I did not get up at 2am to watch the match. I also barely watched it when we got together with family to watch it at 11am for the kids’ benefit (I read a book instead). I also still had to work this evening as libraries don’t do bank holidays. But I will get time off in lieu later, so there’s that!

As the schools and Ewan’s work were closed we went out for a walk and had lunch before I started work.

(I’m not unpatriotic – I wore a blue/navy and white dress on Sunday, and was reading a Scottish author! – I just couldn’t care less about football!)

Letters to Enid part 87

and

Five Get Into Trouble the graphic novel

WordPress now tells me what I posted in previous years on this date. Ten years ago today, it was The Rubadub Mystery.

The Rubadub Mystery

rubadub mystery

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged June, Monday, Scotland | Leave a comment

Reading the Secret of Killimooin to Brodie

Posted on June 14, 2026 by Fiona

We read this in January/February of 2025 so I am slowly starting to catch up!

A very anxious read

I’m not sure if this book has the most peril in it, but the peril was almost too perilous at times. (Bonus points if you get the reference.)

I think that there is a lot of peril in this book, and it’s all crammed into thirty or so pages with one disaster after another.

It started with Jack getting lost in the mist, and he was worried he’d be set upon by the robbers. Then he was worried that Jack would get into trouble for following Ranni and Pilescu out that night.

We got a big Oh no oh no! when the statue split open, and he did not want the boys to go down after Ranni and Pilescu, he was adamant that they would get caught.

Then there was the robbers at the platform where the boys had stopped for a nice sleep, though this at least had a moment of comfort for both them and the reader – That was good that they found food. It wouldn’t be a good adventure if they were hungry.

Then the escape down the river, the escape back up the river (and another nap punctuated by the arrival of the robbers), Ranni and Pilescu are caught again, and then the whole collapsing roof/flooding cave situation. He was on tenterhooks, clinging to my arm the whole time.

Things I could and couldn’t change

Maybe it was because of all the peril but the girls are really short-changed in this book.

Everything a boy could want was there – in Paul’s playroom which had an electric train sat and huge meccano set. As proven by the Secret Seven, girls can and do enjoy train sets too, so I said child instead of boy.

“It couldn’t have been, of course—because where there is smoke, there is a fire, and where there is a fire, there are men! And there are no men down in the Secret Forest!” People. Women can – and do – light fires. How do you think they do the cooking??

“Funny boy, isn’t he!” whispered Mike to Jack. “So awfully brave, and yet he cries like a girl sometimes.” Got skipped entirely

It was beyond the women’s strength to move them, of course. It was harder to change this so I just left off the of course.

The three boys move them, with the small amount of help Ranni and Pilescu can offer from inside the pit. Are we really suggesting that two or more women – women who live in a forest and presumably lug water, firewood and live in an environment with absolutely no modern conveniences – aren’t as strong as three boys?

Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about the fact that the girls are absent from about 40% of the book, apart from point out how unfair it was.

They are there until page 74 (the end of chapter 10), though the last time they are mentioned by name is on p69 and then they’re not present again until the boys “tell the girls” something on p74. They appear briefly on pages 105-108 in chapter 16 (safely at the castle and talking about the weather) and then we don’t see them again until page 131, the beginning of chapter 20, titled The End of the Adventure.

The highs and the lows

He was disappointed that Baronia is still not a real place – I think he asked that at some point in every book.

He was disappointed they were leaving the big fancy palace until I said that they couldn’t have an adventure in a place like that.

He insisted people could just climb down the other side of the mountains(s) into the Secret Forest.

He predicted the evil stone men were statues.

He, rather condescendingly told Ranni and Pilescu that the river water was deeper because of the RAIN!! (Ranni and Pilescu hardly cover themselves in glory in this book, getting captured twice and being very slow to understand heavy rain = bigger river.)

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged The Secret of Killimooin, The Secret Series | 4 Comments

Letters to Enid part 85 : From volume 4, issue 22.

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 22.
November 21st – December 4th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

I have given this page up to letters from my Sunbeams this time. Aren’t they interesting?

A letter from Sheila Brown, Glasgow, N.W.
Dear Miss Blyton,
Please find enclosed 21s. for the Sunshine Homes. I earned this money by selling firewood at 3d. a bundle. I do this every Saturday morning, and have now got regular customers. At school my teacher asked me to talk to the class about my hobby, so I told them all about your Homes for the Blind Boys and Girls, and that I sell firewood to try and help to raise money, and my teacher and class were very interested. I do hope that some of the boys and girls in my class will join the Sunbeams too.
Love from Sheila Brown.

(A fine letter, Sheila, about a fine ideal. I am sending you my Best Letter prize.)

A letter from Jill Elliott and Dilys Winocour, Scunthorpe.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I and Dilys held a show of foreign dolls, musical boxes and wood carvings, and I now send you £3 12s. 6d. which is the profit we made. We are both Sunbeams, and want you to give the money to the blind children.
Yours truly,
Jill and Dilys.

(You must have held a truly wonderful show, children, to make so much money. I really do congratulate you!)

A letter from Linda Skidmore, Dudley, Worcesteshire.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am very sorry I can only send Is. for the blind babies, but I can’t do much for them because I had an accident and was in hospital for months. I can only walk on crutches at present. Give all my love to the children, please.
Love from
Linda Skidmore.

(I am very proud of your shilling, Linda – it may be worth only twelve. pennies, but it is worth its weight in gold in kindness of heart. I hope you are much better now.)

A letter from Margaret Grimes, Shepperton, Middlesex.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I am sending you £1 in aid of the Sunbeams. I saved up a few pennies each week out of my pocket-money, and hope it will help to bring sunshine to your little blind children.
Love from
Margaret Grimes.

(It must have taken you weeks to save so much, Margaret. You are truly kind.)

The theme of these letters is not particularly surprising as the Sunbeam Society was set up for children to raise funds for Blind children.

Blyton set out how it worked in Magazine Annual #2. As below a child would have to pay a shilling (plus a stamp) to get a badge and be a member. This would obviously raise funds, and then they were encouraged to raise other money by doing all sorts of activities like the ones above and anything else children could think of!

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | Leave a comment

Monday #684

Posted on June 8, 2026 by Fiona

I have checked and double-checked – last Monday was #683 and so this week is #684.

I got a rather dubious ‘achievement’ as I was working on last Monday’s post. Congrats to me I guess?

Letters to Enid part 85

and

Reading The Secret of Killimooin to Brodie

Malory Towers the play could be coming to a stage near you (if you live in England). This show started in 2019, and has a run this year as well.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged June, Malory Towers the play, Monday | Leave a comment

Reading the Caravan Family series to Brodie part 2

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Fiona

Last time I covered the first three books. They’re short and simple books so there wasn’t as much to say as there was with the Famous Five or Adventure Series books etc.

The Seaside Family

Brodie was surprised – and a little jealous to find that their summer holidays were two months long.

This was the book where I started to make him read bits, starting from where Benjy goes into the sea to rescue his ball. Just a small paragraph, one per chapter to start with, then one from each double page later.

I think he sort of wanted the sea to come right up to the caravans, just to find out what would happen. Would they float away like the children wondered?

He laughed like anything at Daddy shouting at the seagull Hey you big fellow, that’s my toe, not a bit of bread!

I made some changes in this book – not having Mummy tell them that only Daddy could make a decision about where to go on holiday, and the fire not belonging only to Mummy (again).

I left the bit where Benjy is scornful about boys making the beds as it’s – according to him – girl’s work, because Ann treats him so scathingly in her response.

I also toned down the religious elements because there are a lot. Benjy is sad about his mother and doesn’t think that God listens to him and Ann preaches away like mad. The worst part is that they pray for Benjy’s mother to get well again and she does, miraculously, and of course this is presented as proof that the prayers worked.

The Buttercup Farm Family

I had to check we hadn’t already read this one, as I never remember the order of the series and always get confused about them spending time on the farm in the first book. I forget that they visit Buttercup Farm twice in the series, basically.

We’d already read The Sheep-Pig (and watched Babe, which Brodie liked but not as much as I [still] like it) before reading this so he knew all about sheep-dogs already, but the chickens raising ducklings was new to him and he found it very funny.

For this one, Brodie hung on every word and did not see the inevitable coming. Ann wants a lamb and is told no, but then she gets one all the same. Then Mike wants a dog but is told no, and yet he also gets one soon after (which is never mentioned in the last book, I just have to point out!).

The Queen Elizabeth Family

This last one obviously made little impression on either of us, as when trying to decide the next book to read he kept asking for the “last campervan one” and I kept trying to put him off as I think it’s fairly boring and too similar to The Pole Star Family – then I checked and WE’D ALREADY READ IT.

Surprising things were going to happen to Mike, Belinda and Ann!

He at least saw through the faux suspense there, as the title, the cover, and everything tells you that the book is about them taking a trip on the ship (and not just visiting it briefly) and announced that they’d be going on the ship properly.

He was amused by them not knowing about hamburgers and thinking hot dogs were made of dogs, because of course he’s grown up with all sorts of American foodstuffs being really common.

Some changes I made included in the short passage about the children being surprised to see so many black people – just a couple of word choice changes really. I touched on segregation and discrimination as all the black people mentioned are in low-paid service jobs.

I also changed he to they when talking about the boat passengers, because obviously a lot of them were women.

I also, yet again, toned down the religious passages as Ann (why is it always Ann who’s so pious?) preaches away to the reader about trusting in God to makes sure the ship doesn’t sink.

As a side note, I’m sure I attempted some vaguely American accents while reading this, but they were rubbish.

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged The Buttercup Farm Family, The Caravan Family, The Queen Elizabeth Family, The Seaside Family | Leave a comment

May 2026 round up

Posted on June 4, 2026 by Fiona

We are in June now which means that a) it’s raining (of course) and b) it’s time to look at what I did in May.

What I read

It would have been 10 if I hadn’t finished two on the 31st! One book was over 800 pages, (but some of the others were quite short).

Quick stats:
12 books read
76 out of 150 so far
14 ahead of schedule
0 (!!) BABALs*
0 Val McDermids
2 new authors
3 library books

May’s five star reads:

None!

May’s four star reads:

The Borrowers (Borrowers #1) – Mary Norton
I love the idea of The Borrowers, which I discovered from the 90s TV series with Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton. This is my second time reading the book, as I thought Brodie would like it as a bedtime story. He loved it and hung on every word as the underfloor world of the Borrowers is revealed and Pod, Homily and Arrietty face been seen by the human beans above the floor.

Rivers of London (Rivers of London #1) – Ben Aaronovitch
My second time reading this one too, the first in the series about Peter Grant, an ordinary officer in the Met police who discovers that magic is real and starts working at The Folly, the met’s previously one-man unit which deals with supernatural threats.

Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow #3) – Rainbow Rowell
The final Simon Snow book. Now that Simon’s not the Chosen One any more there are a number of other Chosen Ones declaring themselves. Only one of them is tied to a bunch of missing mages and so Simon and Baz start investigating. Meanwhile Penny tries to un-curse Shepherd who’s come back to England with them, and Agatha is dealing with runaway magical goats. While this book didn’t end with everyone completely happy/fixed/everything wonderful, it did end with hope for them all. (Still wish there were more books in the series, though.)

Good Girl, Bad Blood (Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2) – Holly Jackson
After solving the murder of Andie Bell and clearing Sal Singh’s name Pip’s parents hope she will return to normal life. But now Jamie Reynolds has gone missing, and his brother has come to Pip for help. As Little Kilton is a small place, her investigation takes her down paths she’s already tread in making her first series of her podcast, and against people she’s already made enemies of. This was well-plotted with multiple strands of mystery that all came together in the end.

As Good as Dead (Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2) – Holly Jackson
Pip is struggling after the violent ending of her previous investigation, and she’s convinced that if she can solve one more mystery, something black-and-white she’ll feel better. She half-looks at a few things (which I’m sad she didn’t end up investigating) but her attention is then taken up by the fact she has a stalker. Pip’s path is clear: find her stalker and unmask them. In doing so she uncovers a miscarriage of justice and discovers that there’s someone still walking around Little Kilton whose actions ultimately led to the deaths of Andie and Sal.

This is a bit different to the first two as the podcasting rather takes a back seat, and the second half is… well, I can’t really say much without giving too much away. But Pip is weary with the uselessness of the police after they’ve failed her and those she cares about too many times, and she takes things into her own hands. Overall very clever how it all tied into what happened in the first book.

Wish You Were Here (And I Wasn’t) – Colin McNaughton
A fun book of travel-themed poems as Brodie was desperate to read more like There’s an Awful Lot of Weirdos in our Neighbourhood. At least I got this one from the library!

The Mystery of the Whistling Caves (Adventure Island #1) – Helen Moss
I’ve done a review of this series before, so I’ll just add that Brodie enjoyed this and came up with a lot of theories about who the thief was. Very few of them were right!

The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) – Lemony Snicket
I’m sure I’ve read this more than once in physical form and once in audio, but Goodreads only shows one for each. I may have read it a couple of times before 2012 when I started keeping records.

Anyway, this is the first of 13 about the Baudelaire orphans whose lives become a series of unfortunate events after their parents die in a house fire. In this book they are sent to live with the dirty, nasty and scheming Count Olaf who gives them one bed to sleep in, and plans to steal their fortune.

May’s three star reads:

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
I honestly can’t even remember too much about this book as very little actually happens in it. There were parts I liked – the brother’s wife so ably scheming to persuade him that he needn’t financially support his sisters, and the part where one of the sisters takes ill. But a lot of the rest was taken up by endless lengthy conversations, and there was too much telling and not enough showing. Even what should have been dramatic – one of the sisters finding out her suitor is engaged to someone else came off as a bit flat.

A Woman of Substance – Barbara Bradford Taylor
I saw an advert for the TV series and thought it looked like something I would like, so I read the book. I wanted to really like this, but it dragged on rather a lot. Emma was not likeable and in fact I actually understand why her children behaved the way they did. She was so caught up in her revenge plan – and then with her affair – that she pretty much ignored them as well as lying to her eldest daughter. I couldn’t understand a lot of her motivations or why she kept making the same mistakes over and over.

Courage for the Country Nurse (Country Nurse #3) – Kate Eastham
I loved the first two in this series but this one was a bit disappointing. I found it repeated itself an awful lot as it desperately tried to drag out the will-they-won’t-they of Lara and Leo. Lara also annoyed me by being so forgiving and kindly towards people who had viciously hurt her in previous books.

Corpse Path Cottage – Margaret Scutt
This quickly became something that I didn’t expect. From the cover and the publish date I actually assumed it was a recently written book set in recent times. Then as I listened I realised it was set in the late 40s, and after looking up details I found out it was written in the late 40s and only recently published at the behest of the author’s relatives.

While it wasn’t a bad mystery the murder doesn’t occur until over 50% of the way through, and before that the only real intrigue is the anonymous letters which appear shortly before. Our main character is at first a suspect, then once cleared, sort of assists the police in finding the true culprit so it felt unsure of what kind of book it was trying to be.

May’s two star reads

None

May’s one star reads

Thankfully none.

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in May:

Generation Hex (Moonshadow Cove #3) – Molly Harper

What I watched

The latest series of Taskmaster
I’ve started Wire in the Blood, though it turns out that only about four episodes over the whole series are based on the books, the rest were made up. Some episodes are better than others.
A few episodes of the Simpsons.

What I did

Worked on my miniature book shop
Found 13 geocaches on a few different walks
Built my hummingbird Lego set
Museum – curtain call
Aquarium & more beachcombing
Did some more outdoor reading with Brodie
Bought a new air fryer because ours spat nuts and bolts into our food one day
Had a day out at the beach and did more beachcombing
Made some origami corner bookmarks for our craft at work
Went scarecrow hunting in the rain

What I bought

An edition of the Enid Blyton Society Journal I had missed by forgetting to subscribe on time and a copy of A Non-Stop Run.

How was your April?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged Buying, Doing, May, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | 2 Comments

	chrissie777 on Monday #696
	Pierre Menard on Monday #696
	chrissie777 on Monday #696
	salimmacmet on The Adventure Series covers th…
	Pierre Menard on Monday #696

What I read

August’s five star reads:

August’s four star reads:

August’s three star reads:

August’s two star reads

August’s one star reads

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in August:

What I watched

What I did

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 2. January 16th – 30th, 1957.

OUR LETTER PAGE

Rate this:

Share this:

The Island of Adventure

The Castle of Adventure

The Valley of Adventure

The Sea of Adventure

The Mountain of Adventure

The Ship of Adventure

The Circus of Adventure

The River of Adventure

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

What I read

July’s five star reads:

July’s four star reads:

July’s three star reads:

July’s two star reads

July’s one star reads

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in July:

What I watched

What I did

Buying

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Banff bargains

Cullen Blytons

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

What I read

June’s five star reads:

Not yet rated, as I didn’t finish them in June:

What I watched

What I did

Rate this:

Share this:

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 1. January 2nd – 15th, 1957.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

A book of two halves

The part which doesn’t resemble the book

And all the other silly bits

Rate this:

Share this:

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 24. December 19th, 1957 – January 1st, 1958.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

A very anxious read

Things I could and couldn’t change

The highs and the lows

Rate this:

Share this:

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 2.
January 16th – 30th, 1957.

OUR
LETTER PAGE

Letters page from Volume 5, issue 1.
January 2nd – 15th, 1957.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 24.
December 19th, 1957 – January 1st, 1958.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 22.
November 21st – December 4th, 1956.