March 2026 round up

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Fiona

That’s us in April already. No April fools today – this is a genuine round up of what I got up to in March. It’s far too dull to be made up!

What I read

Not quite so much as I barely read anything while I had the cold.

Quick stats:
14 books read
46 out of 150 so far
10 ahead of schedule
1 (!) BABAL* (One about journalism, and one which happens to have a library in it but is about a university overall.)
2 Val McDermids
1 new author
3 library books

March’s 5 star reads:

None!

March’s 4 star reads:

Crack Down (Kate Brannigan #3) – Val McDermid
Kate’s roped her partner Richard in to help her investigate some dodgy dealings at local car sale lots. Then a load of cocaine is found in the car they just bought, and Richard gets arrested for it. Lots of seemingly unconnected things happen but in the end they are all brought together really cleverly.

Union Jack (Lindsay Gordon #4) – Val McDermid
(Also known as Conferences Can be Murder) Lindsay is back in the UK and it isn’t long before there’s a murder. Somehow it all ties in with the death of a friend of hers at another journalists’ union conference a decade ago. A union conference may be boring but the mystery is anything but.

Tough Guy (Game Changers #3) – Rachel Reid
I’m expanding my almost non-existent ice hockey knowledge with each of these books. This time I learned about ‘enforcers’ who are basically there just to be intimidating and keep their better players safe. Ryan Price is an enforcer, but he also has massive anxiety issues. He bumps into Fabian, whose family he stayed with when they were teens, and the same chemistry flares up between them. I really felt for Ryan – who has this big physical presence and reputation as a hard guy, but is really struggling inside.

Role Model (Game Changers #5) – Rachel Reid
Although each of these books is a stand-alone story they’re all set in the same world so we already know Troy Barrett as a pretty awful guy, and best friend of even worse guy Dallas Kent. Except things aren’t always what they seem. Troy has been traded to another team after calling Dallas a rapist on the ice. He’s now hated by a lot of players and fans for not supporting his team mate. The pairing here is Tory and Harris who is the team’s social media manager. I think the trope would be grumpy/sunshine, which I enjoy. Plus there’s a lot of Ilya from book 2 as he’s on Troy’s new team.

The Long Game (Game Changers #6) – Rachel Reid
I feel like I should upgrade Heated Rivalry to 5 stars, because I didn’t enjoy this one as much – even though it’s my favourite pairing of Shane and Ilya. Yet it was better than a three star book. Shane and Ilya are still secretly dating even though there are a few out players now. I wanted this to be a 5 star book, but it lacks the passion of their first story and reading what keeping it all secret does to Ilya was hard going. I also felt annoyed at Shane for his lack of awareness and empathy. It did have a happy ending at least.

One Fine Fae (Mystic Bayou #6) – Molly Harper
This one’s a novella though oddly isn’t considered book 5.5. Midwife Charlotte comes to Mystic Bayou to deliver Jillian’s dragon/phoenix shifter baby (in egg form, no less), and is only slightly distracted by cursed League assistant Leonard. Luckily she’s fae and it’s a fae curse, so she can do something about it for him. I liked this pairing, though the novella format meant we didn’t get to explore it in the same depth as others in the series.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic #1) – Sophie Kinsella
(Also known as The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic) I’ve read this a few times and thought why not revisit as it was included in my Audible plus catalogue. Its still amusing though honestly I do find Becky wildly annoying as she keeps spending ridiculous amounts of money on absolute rubbish all while wailing how she’s horrendously in debt. I now appreciate the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) digs at banks/money lenders etc for their part in Becky’s problems more so than I did when I first read it.

A Deadly Deceit (Bookshop Mysteries #4) – SA Reeves
For Gemma and Mavis this starts out as a simple amateur detective job. Find evidence to prove whether Penelope’s husband – a prominent local publisher – is having an affair or not. But then the husband turns up dead and there’s more than one mistress to suspect. A good mystery with lots of twists and turns but the ‘cosy’ elements are a bit saccharine and annoying at times. The ending also relies on the ‘keep them talking until help arrives’ trope which feels repetitive now.

March’s three star reads:

Murder at St Margaret (Oxford Key Mysteries #1) – Lynn Morrison
Natalie Payne takes a job at the University of Oxford as Head of Ceremonies. This is all within her area of expertise. But her plans for an autumn gala are thrown into disarray as a college chef is murdered. If that wasn’t bad enough, when Natalie unlocks her office desk she discovers that Oxford is full of magic. The cat she has inherited from the previous Head of Ceremonies is actually a talking wyvern. The portraits come to life. Ghosts of previous staff roam the halls. Definitely a fun book with an interesting mystery – but even for a cosy book it feels a bit shallow.

Burglary at Barnard (Oxford Keys Mysteries #2) – Lynn Morrison
Natalie has another event to plan and there’s another dead body in the way, and a secret chamber full of artifacts. The Oxford magic lore is expanded further and Natalie’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with one of the professors gets a bit warmer.

Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues (Mystic Bayou #3) – Molly Harper
Another novella which means it lacks depth. I liked Ingrid – 500 year old nymph, recently turned ice-cream seller and known for being the milkmaid in a bunch of dairy adverts. Rob, data scientist… well, I barely remember anything about him, apart from Ingrid’s suspicion of him as she doesn’t like scientists. Not a convincing pairing for me.

Shifters in the Night (Mystic Bayou #7) – Molly Harper
I liked half this story a lot. Lia works for a construction company which is in Mystic Bayou to build houses for all the magique flocking to the town. Lia is doing her best but is being sabotaged by, weirdly, her own boss. She falls for Jon Carmody – who I don’t mind, but has he’s Will’s brother, this means he’s also a selkie so there’s nothing new there. I also think I sort of wrote Jon off as the older, less attractive, not very interesting brother when he was a side-character in Will’s book. So I found it difficult to mentally shift him (pun intended) into the hunky main character role.

Common Goal (Game Changers #4) – Rachel Reid
This one I rated lower as the main trope is age-gap romance and I’m not the biggest fan of that. Eric – nice as he is – is 40ish (so my age) and is approaching the end of his hockey career. Kyle is 25, and he is a graduate student, but all the student references make him seem younger. There’s also a heavy reliance on the failed communication trope. Eric thinks Kyle is too young and just looking for fun. Kyle thinks Eric is just looking for an intro to the gay scene. A lot of time is wasted by them not talking about things, but if they’d talked the book would probably be only half as long.

Road Trip With a Vampire (My Vampires #3) – Jenna Levine
I wanted to love this as I really liked the first two books. It fell a bit flat, though, as I’m not sure I was convinced by the pairing. Zelda’s a witch who’s sworn off vampires and magic as she tends to get carried away and sometimes people get hurt. Then Peter – amnesiac vampire – shows up. Sounds exactly the sort of thing I would love. For some reason Zelda decides to take a road trip with him, looking for anything that might unlock his memories and they fall for each other though not through any convincing means that I could see.

March’s two star reads

None as even though I have complained a lot about my three star reads they all had some parts that were enjoyable.

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

Alchemised – SenLinYu
The Rockingdown Mystery
Arson at the Ashmolean – (Oxford Keys Mysteries #2) – Lynn Morrison
Dear Miss Lake (Emmy Lake #4) – AJ Pearce

What I watched

I’ve barely had the TV on recently.

We’ve watched a few episodes of The Simpsons as a family (but not enough for Brodie to understand why I said Hi, Dr Nick after he burst into the room shouting Hi everybody. He’ll get there.)
I watched a few episodes of All Creatures Great and Small but haven’t finished the series yet.

What I did

We did our first geocaching walk of the year and found four caches. One of them had a wee ‘haggis’ inside so Brodie swapped it for a little plastic dinosaur.
As Brodie has been playing Two Point Hospital on the Playstation I bought Theme Hospital for my laptop. I’ve played it loads of times but not for ages. I also bought the original Sims with all the expansion packs, so I’ll be very busy building once I’ve finished managing hospitals.
I took Brodie on my recent favourite short walk and we both brought our books.
After ten years of working in a library I finally thought to use a book stand to prop up my Kindle at lunch time. In my defence the first year I don’t think I had any lunch breaks as I worked shorter shifts, then I had nearly a year of maternity leave. So really, it only took me eight years.
We celebrated mother’s day and my dad’s birthday with a pizza lunch at my parents’ house. Brodie got me this cute little trunk that opens up to reveal a miniature world inside.
I built the other spray of my Lego flowers and also the typewriter, which is super cute and even has moving parts.

How was your March?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

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

Monday #784

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Fiona

Last week got derailed as I came down with the cold. I can now breathe through my nose again (mostly). I haven’t gone to see the Magic Faraway Tree film yet, mostly because of my cold, but also because Brodie had already agreed to go and see Project Hail Mary with his dad.

March round up

and

Five Run Away Together 90s style as watched by Fiona and Stef

Here’s what Stef thought of Five Run Away Together from the 90s series when she reviewed it a while ago.

Famous Five 90s Style: Five Run Away Together

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday | Leave a comment

River Island x Enid Blyton

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Fiona

While both island and river are words you might associate with Enid Blyton I never thought I’d be writing about a collaboration between the high street store River Island and Enid Blyton.

Stef sent me a link a week ago and I honestly thought it was fake, and was double-checking that it wasn’t April first. It’s real though! My first response to Stef was that I need them all, but there are definitely some I’d like more than others. Truthfully, I never use any of these styles of bag anymore – I use a backpack if I’ve got a lot of stuff or anything heavy and a small cross body bag if I’ve just got a few things. I’m also very rarely in a situation where a clutch would be needed. But they’re so lovely I want them anyway.

All but one are currently sold out, but fingers crossed they restock as they have obviously been really popular. It’s pretty amazing to see Blyton going viral and selling out in a high street store.

Here they are in order of my least to most wanted.

6

In last place is the Five Have a Mystery to Solve tote. It’s one of my less favourite books to start with. I often appreciate what you might call tactful or classy options when it comes to fandom items and I can see how this might appeal to people as it’s a bit more grown-up. I don’t think it has the same visual appeal as some of the others, and I know it’d be filthy within about five minutes of me using it.

Five Have a Mystery to Solve tote £44

5

Up next is the other classy option (what does that say about me?) the Magic Faraway Tree shopper. Although the navy wouldn’t show dirty marks, I didn’t read the Faraway Tree books until I was an adult, so this doesn’t give me the same nostalgic kick the others do. The whimsical stitching is very fitting for the book, and I prefer that to the cutesy bows.

Magic Faraway Tree shopper £46

4

It gets harder from here to put them in order but next is the Five Go Off to Camp shopper. it wins points for the Eileen Soper cover image – and I even like the moorland flowers bursting out around the edges, but it loses points for the impractical colour. (Obviously if you don’t put your bag on the ground at the park all the time and/or always seems to spill things/pick up mysterious smudges from nowhere, you’d be all right.)

Five Go Off to Camp shopper £46

3

Also in the not so practical colour of white is the Five Go Off in a Caravan clutch. However I think clutches are generally there to look nice and not be all that practical as they a) barely hold anything and b) are often heavily embellished. This is the only one with text on it and I really like how bookish that makes it feel.

Five Go Off in a Caravan clutch £39

2

Blue is more practical but wouldn’t be my top choice for a bag – but this is so quintessentially Blyton. The blue is actually the perfect colour for the Five On a Treasure Island tote as it’s the colour of the sky on the book cover.

I happen to have bought this for Stef’s birthday (she knows so it’s OK for me to post this!) and she was generous enough to say I could unwrap it and take some pictures before I post it to her. I’ll do a proper review of it shortly.

Five On a Treasure Island tote £44

1

And of course in the top spot is the Five Go to Smuggler’s Top clutch. My most favourite of all Blyton’s books and they’ve even used the second edition dust jacket image which is the one I had as a child. Poor Anne is hidden amongst the flowers but I think they are a nice touch that elevate it beyond simply printing the cover on a rectangular bag.

Stef has ordered this for my birthday already, even though it isn’t for another nine months. Just as well seeing how fast they sold out! I’d have been gutted if I missed out.

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top clutch £39

I think there have been mixed reactions to the bags – at least in the groups I’m in. Some folk loved them, others didn’t like the addition of the flowers etc. Other thought they were far too expensive.

Having seen one up close I’d say they were good quality and the images/text are all embroidered on not just printed so the price is justified.

I would say that there’s not a lot of variety, and I’m surprised that the Magic Faraway Tree doesn’t feature more prominently given that the film comes out in a few days. I suppose they thought the Famous Five was guaranteed to sell, though. I’m already dreaming of a second collection with some Tresilian Adventure Series bags…

What do you think? Did you manage to snag one or are you hoping the come back in stock?

Posted in Purchases, Vintage Style | Tagged River Island, The Famous Five, The Magic Faraway Tree | 1 Comment

Monday #783

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Fiona

Both kinds of spring have arrived and we even had a pleasant few days. I’ve managed to wear trainers a couple of times and even go out without a coat. But now it’s colder again and I’m glad I didn’t put away my winter clothes just yet.

River Island x Enid Blyton

and

90s Famous Five as watched by Stef & Fiona

Is Snubby my lost-long brother? – Brodie

As you can probably guess we are reading the Barney mysteries right now, having started with The Rockingdown Mystery. We are finding a lot of similarities between Snubby and Brodie (always messy, always talking for starters) and now he’s convinced they’re related. I’m just waiting for us to reach Rat-a-Tat and Snubby with the bear rug because Brodie just got a brown faux fur rug for his bedroom because he’s been begging for one for ages. (It was a fiver in Aldi, for context.) I can just see him draping it (small though it is) over himself and pretending to be a bear.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday, Snubby, The Barney Mysteries | Leave a comment

A closer look at the second Magic Faraway Tree film trailer

Posted on March 21, 2026 by Fiona

In December we got the first trailer for the new film which you can watch below:

And I wrote rather a lot explaining it, though it was under 3 minutes. Then a couple of weeks ago another one came out.

Hopefully I won’t write as much this time.

New plots revealed

The first trailer showed us the family moving to their new house and touched on the reasons for their move. It also gave us some brief hints at what is to come after the children discover the Magic Faraway Tree and the lands which arrive at the top.

This trailer naturally has to cover some of the same ground and therefore contains a few of the same clips, but the rest is new.

It elaborates on the idea that the parents are trying to get their children away from screens and technology. The dad says their childhood is slipping away.

So he appeals to the mum (who appears to have some sort of corporate job) that they “need this” and he shows her a folder with “dream binder” on the first page.

It makes me wonder if the “we’re poor now” from the first trailer isn’t true at all. And it makes me wonder what Dad knows about the Faraway Tree already. The painting in the binder looks like two people sitting at the base of a tree.

There’s also more of Jennifer Saunders as their grandma. She says “I will get them back to the city if it’s the last thing I do,” and I’m sure by that time none of the children will want to leave.

We also see Michael Palin and Lenny Henry as two of the heads of… well I’m not really sure what it is. Five wise heads on one body?

It is reminiscent of a previous Michael Palin character – the Three Headed Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Only Palin is on the other side. And there’s two extra heads.

It is Palin’s head who gives us one of the movie’s plot points – “You wish to travel across the lands to locate a spell to save your house from your evil grandma?”

Dame Washalot warns the children not to get left on a land if it is leaving the top of the tree so I’m sure that’s going to be relevant too.

Other glimpses

We see a little more of the Land of Goodies (where the punch has quite a kick to it).

And inside the giant cake in the Land of Birthdays.

Plus a look at this unnamed Land. The Land of Prisons? The Land of Forts?

Brodie and I are planning on going to see it soon. I don’t know how much of a review I will manage because I’ll have forgotten half of the details by the time I get home. Still, hopefully I’ll be able to write about my impressions at least and do a fuller review once it’s on a streaming platform.

Posted in Blyton on Screen | Tagged Faraway Tree Movie, Faraway Tree Series, The Magic Faraway Tree Film | 2 Comments

Five Go Adventuring Again 90s style

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Fiona

As we watched Five on a Treasure Island together in-person and did a live-reaction blog we decided to try watching in our separate homes and chatting via Facebook Messenger. NB I do not recommend using Facebook Messenger for any chats you want to then use, because it is horrendous to copy & paste from, and exporting chats is also awful and leaves you with a ton of extra stuff to remove around each message.

Aside from that, it at least saved me from having to try to type everything we both said. Instead I just have to remove the extra stuff and correct our awful typing. Well, it’s mostly my awful typing as I was using my laptop and I suspect Stef used her phone with autocorrect on. I will also have to try to provide some sort of context because 90% of our comments make no sense otherwise. You could always watch along while reading – it’s on YouTube. I’ll try to add some timestamps to help.

Fiona: Not winter then is it.

Stef: Nope

Fiona: Snow costs too much I know.

Stef: All the winter ones are not in winter.

[From 0:28 Quentin reads a letter from his brother saying the children’s school reports are terrible. Julian is unsurprised and declares he wants to be a painter. A tutor will have to be found.]

Fiona: Not his PHYSICS.

Stef: And maths!

Fiona: YES YOU DO.

Fiona: Want to be a physicist.

[Context: we have Julian studying physics as an adult in our fanfic so I am outraged at this blatant plot hole.]

Stef: And the painting never gets mentioned again.

Fiona: No just a convenient plot point.

Stef: It’s just like cooking.

Fiona [addressing Quentin who, for obvious reasons, cannot hear her]: Put the advert in yourself lazy bones.
Stef: Of course Fanny has to do the donkey work.

Stef: I swear it was a joint decision in the book

[From 1:46 Mr Roland arrives at Kirrin Station]

Fiona: I’d forgotten entirely that’s what he looked like

Stef: And German?

Fiona: Obviously bad then.

Stef: Timmy is the first to know a bad guy.

Stef: What’s with the harpsichord music?!

Fiona: Pastural England? I dunno.

Fiona: Pastoral?

Stef: Both

[From 04:15 They visit the Saunders’ house and Timmy knocks open a secret panel, the boys barge in first. They find the old map.]

Stef: Mrs Saunders isn’t old enough.

Stef: She’s a lot more ruddy faced than I would imagine.

Stef: Seriously Julian! Manners!

Stef: Bossy boys.

Fiona: It’s Timmy’s discovery!

Fiona: Gosh anne is manically thrilled.

[From 06:02 Back at Kirrin Cottage they examine the map]

Stef: It doesn’t look that old or faint.

Fiona: Timmy’s smart enough to know chocolate isn’t good for him.

Stef: Like julian’s art Dick’s language skill is never mentioned again.

[From 07:05 Julian is asleep and muttering via occulta – or possibly that pullovers are stylish.]

Stef: Dreeaaaaammmm sequence

Fiona [very late with this argument]: They would have been learning latin at school though. Cause dead languages are endlessly useful.

[From 07:35 they join Mr Roland for his first lesson. Timmy is under the table. Then they have lunch]
Stef: He’s not exactly a hands on tutor is he?

Fiona: It’s a massive table. There’s loads of room for Timmy to not be right on top of his legs.

Stef: And they all get the giggles.

Fiona: I swear he wasn’t that jolly in the book.

Stef: No. He wasn’t.

Stef: Anne wouldn’t be allowed to take [Quentin] tea!

Stef: Manic Anne again.

[From 9:25 They show Mr Roland the map]

Fiona: Straight to showing him the whole thing… suppose we’ve only got 24 minutes.

Fiona: Is that Joan/na?

Stef: Yes it is

[From 10:05 Someone is creeping about at night. George and Timmy go to investigate.]

Stef: Bad filter on the camera site might time.

Fiona: Yep.

Fiona: Bad tug-of-war game dressed up as a fight.

Stef: Timmy was exactly right to do that. He is a guard dog after all and the study is full of secrets.

Fiona: Just like Quentin’s hair?

Fiona: I don’t know where Mr Roland keeps his [secrets] in that case.

Stef: Yes you can have Roland upset. He’s horrible.

[From 12:00. Dick stares out of the farm window. Anne bakes with Mrs Sanders. The artists arrive.]

Stef: Pondering!

Fiona: Looking at the catering van more like.

Stef: Having met Paul that is very very likely.

Stef: There’s Anne helping with the baking.

Fiona: Wow. That’s some artist look.

Stef: Oh good Julian with the artists.

Stef: They are creepy.

Fiona: And clearly know nothing about art.

Stef: Not convincing at all.

Fiona: While Julian is a walking art dictionary.

[From 13:40 they are back at Kirrin Cottage, telling George about their lack of success. George tells them she saw the artists with Mr Roland. Mr Roland bursts in to say he’s sorry they didn’t find anything, but he enjoyed meeting the artists and then shuts the door again.]

Stef [Focussing on the really important stuff as always]: She’s wearing shoes on the bed!

Stef: That’s random from Roland

[From 14:10 Timmy is out in his kennel in the rain. George rescues him and takes him into the study where they fall asleep. Quentin finds them in the morning and discovers pages missing from his workbook, and an old towel on the floor.]

Stef: Poor Timmy.

Stef: They could make a pullover out of that carpet.

Fiona: Hahaha.

Stef: Why not take the whole book?!

Stef: Never understood that bit.

Fiona: My note is gone and I have a dirty rag instead oh no.

Fiona: Towel. Sorry.

[From 15:35 Quentin takes the towel to challenge the children about his missing pages.]

Stef: Roland is not surprised.

Stef: And they were not well removed.

Fiona [Going completely off topic] Why are Quentin’s glasses so narrow?

Fiona: They barely fit his face.

From 16:15 Quentin has George in his study to berate her]

Fiona: Look at that super obvious 8 panels.

Fiona: At least in the book the whole room is panelled.

Stef: Yup.

Fiona: It makes me wonder are they there in all the other books. [I meant episodes].

Stef: Jeez you would think that the newest the person in the house was the most suspicious.

Fiona [Still stuck on set design]: Did they plan them in when they filmed FOATI or whatever they filmed first?

Stef: Hmm. Would have to go back to and check. [Spoiler, we did not go back and check.]

Fiona: Not sure we see the room from that angle in the first eps.

Fiona: Mostly just his desk and the cubbyholes.

Stef: No that’s true.

Stef: I wouldn’t mind being sent into my room.

Fiona: Being sent to your room is fine as long as you’ve got stuff there to do.

[From 18:10 The children sneak into the study and immediately manage to open the secret way. Julian tells Anne she should stay at the Kirrin Cottage end of the passage.]

Fiona: Why is it always so easy?

Stef: Because….

Fiona: Surely Fanny would have found that polishing it years ago.

Stef: Dick first for a change

Stef: Maybe she knows about it already cause her family owned the two places.

Stef: Why is Timmy inside?

Fiona: There’s Anne’s fave underground exploration cream cardi.

Fiona: Always practical.

Stef:
Oh yes! Anne’s going to hold off any bad guys.

Fiona: She’s a tiger you know.

Stef: Only 20 books in.

Fiona: Theyre in some hospital basement.

Fiona: This is not a secret passage

Stef: No. It’s a secret corridor?

Fiona: Not even that secre4t seeing as someone painted it.

[From 20:15 They reach Kirrin Farm, hear the “artists” talking and then make a right ruckus retrieving the papers, while Timmy barks madly below. Then they are chased back by the artists.]

Stef: Suddenly they’re German.

Fiona: Well they were trying to hide it.

Fiona: It’s nearly as big as Narnia back there.

Stef: Tou’re all in the room ffs you all need to take care.

Stef: DICK!

Fiona: Thats it Timmy, draw attention to yourself.

Fiona: Hahaha that run!

Stef: Hahaha!

Stef: Good old Timmy.

Stef: Why is Anne filthy?!

Stef: She’s just been stood there.

Fiona: It’s cream knitwear it attracts dirt.

Fiona: They all look like they’ve been up a chimney.

Fiona: God Julian could you show emotion instead of just shouting?

Stef: I think that’s his only emotion under pressure

[From 22:25 they make it back to Kirrin Cottage and meet Fanny and Quentin who have been pondering the big hole in the study floor.]

Stef: Aunt Fanny is less than surprised about the tunnel.

Fiona: I mean after their first adventure I think it would be hard to surprise her

Fiona: OMG [Quentin’s] admitting he was wrong

[Quentin says he will have to reform]
Stef: Yes reform!

[End of episode]

Fiona: Ok Youtube tried to make me watch a Minecraft video next.

Fiona: What kind of algorithm is this?

Stef: Mine tried to take me to Hike

Fiona: Closer at least.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged 90s Famous Five TV Series, Five Go Adventuring Again, Paul Child | Leave a comment

Monday #782

Posted on March 17, 2026 by Fiona

We are mid-way through March and I don’t think it’s going to be the sort of March which resembles an early (and sometimes only) summer. I’m down to one pair of boots as two (!) pairs sprung a leak this year and I am desperately waiting for trainer weather to come as we all know the shops stopped stocking boots months ago and are all full of sandals already.

90s Famous Five as watched by Stef & Fiona

and

The new trailer for The Magic Faraway Tree film

Not so much post of the week as a load of posts. As the new Faraway Tree movie comes out at the end of the month here are all the reviews and other posts about the series that have appeared on the blog over the years.

Faraway Tree Series posts

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday | 1 Comment

Putting Enid Blyton on the Map

Posted on March 6, 2026 by Fiona

Last week I was on Google Maps looking for Blyton Close (I was wanting to know how far it was from Shipton for this letters page) but I forgot it was just Blyton close and I typed Enid Blyton Close.

I ended up in America. In Waldorf, Maryland to be precise. Where there’s a street called Enid Blyton Place….

Enid in her rightful place

Enid Blyton Place is a modern cul-de-sac located in a sprawling sub-division of similar streets. I think it must have been recently built when the satellite images were taken of the area as it’s very barren looking.

I’m thoroughly impressed that she has been honoured in this way – especially as she never made it as big in the USA as she did in other parts of the world.

What I think is even more amazing is that Enid Blyton Place is entered via George Orwell Place, which in turn is connected to Charles Dickens Drive. Streetview isn’t available for the street itself, but you can see the two signposts at the corner and get a view up the street from Charles Dickens Drive.

These street names have obviously been chosen to honour authors of note, and Blyton is on the map alongside a range of literary greats, who she is rarely considered equal to.

In the area is:

Dorothy Sayers Place
Shakespeare Circle
Evelyn Waugh Court
Emily Dickinson Place
Ian Fleming Lane
JK Rowling Court
Charlotte Bronte Lane
Conan Doyle Place
Lewis Carroll Drive
Mary Shelley Place
Jane Austen Lane
John Keats Place
Tolkien Avenue
Beatrix Potter Place
Wordsworth Place

and more.

Definitely a collection of literary greats!

Living (on) the Enid Blyton Way

I noticed that there were other Enid Blyton results on the list so I had to explore them, of course.

The next one was Enid Blyton Weg in Winsen, Germany. Weg translates to street, road or way. The street was still under construction in 2016 when the Google Maps car went by but looks like a nice little cul-de-sac from the air.

Like in Maryland Blyton’s name is used for a street in a neighbourhood of literary streets, though I only recognised three of the other four.

Erich Kastner Weg (Emil and the Detectives)
Astrid Lindgren Strasse (Pippi Longstocking)
Michael End Weg (The Never Ending Story)
Otfried Preußler (The Robber Hotzenplotz)

Then I found another Enid Blyton Weg, also in Germany, but in Eving this time.

Nearby streets included

Erich Kastner Ring
Selma Lagerlof Strasse (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils)
Theodore Storm Strasse (Poet and writer of literary realism)
Heinrich Heine Strasse (Poet, writer and literary critic)
Luise Rinser Weg (Novelist)
Nelly Sachs Strasse (Poet and playwright)
Astrid Lindgren Strasse Weg
Michael End Strasse
Johanna Spyri Weg (Heidi)
Theodor Fontane Strasse (Novelist and poet)
Bettina von Arnim Weg (Writer and composer)

So again Blyton is being honoured alongside a variety of famous authors and those dear to children’s hearts.

Enid Blyton is the street where you live

Enid Blyton Strasse is also Germany, this time in Hennef. At first I wondered if this was ‘our’ Blyton as I couldn’t see any obviously names streets around it. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, I thought. (Then of course my brain decided this needed a Friends quote and said Joincidence. Or I suppose in this case an Enidincidence?)

However, a few streets, or strasses away are

Selma Lagerlöf Strasse
Nils Holgersson Strasse (a Lagerlöf character)
Carlo Collodi Strasse (Pinocchio).
Astrid Lindgren Strasse
Lise Meitner Strasse (Physicist)
Henrich Von Morungen (12th century poet/musician)

The area is a bit different, as although the first German neighbourhood we looked at only had five streets they all connected. These ones are spread out with non-literary streets in between. Still a worthy group to be part of, and as with several other areas Blyton is the only British author.

Enid Blyton house

Also on the list is Enid Blyton House which initially I assumed was an office building, home to the Enid Blyton company. It’s not, though. It’s a block of flats in Aylesbury, next door to Anne Boleyn House. Unfortunately the other blocks are accessed via footpaths and not roads so I can’t see their names via street view.

I found this look at the inside of one of the Enid Blyton House flats – and sadly it’s quite poky.

Enid Blyton Corner

Annoyingly Google maps only shows the top five results for a search, so short of searching specific areas or guessing full street names it’s luck whether new ones show up. I did find this in Droitwich, though.

I’m not sure why it’s called a corner as it’s a T shaped cul-de-sac, but never mind. Around it are

Charlotte Bronte Drive
Charles Dickens Close
William Shakespeare Place
Geoffrey Chaucer Walk

Unfortunately both the houses near the entrance to the Corner are blurred on Google so I can’t get a look at the street sign.

Enid Blyton Ring

And we are back in Germany again, Salzgitter this time, – who knew Germany had named so many streets after Enid Blyton? (Well, you might if you live in Germany!)

This is more of an A-shaped street than a ring.

Nearby are a couple of common street names and some we’ve not seen before, at least not in the vicinity of Blyton.

Michael Ende Ring
Astrid Lindgren Weg
Gebruder Grimm Web (The Brothers Grimm)

It looks like this area was under construction when the satellite image was taken and the street view car hasn’t been there yet.

Blyton Close to home

And of course let’s not forget the place I was looking for before I fell down the Google Maps rabbit hole. Mind you, when I searched for Blyton Close five came up, which I was not expecting. In Birmingham, Wickford, Newark and Lincoln as well as Beaconsfield. It’s hard to know if the others are named after Enid Blyton as there’s a place called Blyton in Gainsborough and other people also had it as a last name!

The Blyton Close I meant is built on site of Green Hedges in Beacondsfield, Enid’s home from 1938 until she moved into a nursing home before her death in 1968.

I don’t need to get a Google Map street view for this, as I’ve actually been there myself.

Blyton Close signpost

Blyton Close – No mystery down here!

There are possibly more Enid Blyton streets out there given the limitations of the Google Maps search function. If you know of any – maybe you’re even lucky enough to live on one? Please let me know!

Posted in Locations | Tagged Beaconsfield, Beatrix Potter, Erich Kastner, Green Hedges, Jane Austen, Shakespeare | 2 Comments

February 2026 round up

Posted on March 3, 2026 by Fiona

Despite being a short month February always seems to drag. When will it be Spring?? (I wrote that a couple of weeks ago – but just as February ended the sun finally came out along with the crocuses and snowdrops, so I feel a bit more hopeful now.)

What I read

One good thing about lousy weather is staying home to read.

Quick stats:
18 books read
33 out of 150 so far
10 ahead of schedule
7 BABALs* (Though the book shop barely features in one of them)
1 Val McDermid
4 new authors
7 library books

February’s 5 star reads:

A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire (Glimmer Falls #3) Sarah Hawley
Eleonore has been trapped in a crystal for most of her adult life, only brought out when her witch captor needs an assassin. And then Ben buys the cheap plastic crystal while browsing eBay in a drunken haze. Another fun trip to Glimmer Falls, a magical town full of witches, werewolves, pixies and more.

Broken Ground (Karen Pirie #5) – Val McDermid
The cold cases team expands from two to three, but their new member is Karen’s boss’s lap dog and can’t be trusted. The three are working on solving an old assault case in 1980s Glasgow but then Karen gets involved in another case where a body has been found buried in the Scottish highlands, alongside two motor bikes. The thing is, the motorbikes have been down there since the end of the second world war, but the body only since the 90s… I finished this in less than a day as I couldn’t put it down.

February’s 4 star reads:

Hurrah for the Circus (Mr Galliano’s Circus #2)
More circus goings on including Jimmy making friends with tigers and Lucky being stolen.

Secret Seven Adventure (Secret Seven #2)
A mystery which involves a stolen necklace, strange circular marks in the ground and a pair of red and blue socks.

The Crooked Tome (Curse Breaker Witches #1) – Claire Robyns
I read all three books in this series really quickly. Maddie has to take over her aunt’s bookshop in Stratford-upon-Avon, and she’s not that thrilled about it. It’s not just having to give up her job and move, it’s the fact that the shop has opinions and isn’t afraid to share them, and she won’t only be selling books but breaking curses for a swathe of England. Besides that she has to work with Detective Ross Hamilton who doesn’t believe in magic despite working for a special magic taskforce, and his alternate theories are really quite funny.

The Avon Mirror Curse (Curse Breaker Witches #2) – Claire Robyns
Maddie has another curse to break as the river seems to be attracting magical victims. Detective Ross Hamilton is on hand to make sure she doesn’t drown herself in the process, but he still refuses to believe it’s magic.

The Widow Kiss (Curse Breaker Witches #3) – Claire Robyns
Beatrice Finch’s wealthy husband has died. This is the third time this has happened to her. Ross is wondering if it’s just bad luck or if something untoward is going on, so he asks Maddie to have a look. At first she doesn’t find anything but then she sees Beatrice tending to a very unusual and definitely magical orchid. Or a rare and toxic orchid if you’re Ross.

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) – Rachel Reid
I picked this because I planned to watch the TV series, having seen fans of Red White and Royal Blue would like it. Just shy of ten hours, I listened to this in two days. Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have always been hockey rivals. The fans, the media, even their nearest and dearest go wild when they play against each other. The only thing is, they don’t actually hate each other, and haven’t for a long time as they are secretly in a relationship.

Slippery Creatures (Will Darling Adventures #1) – KJ Charles
A golden-age pulp-fiction style spy novel. Will has been struggling since the end of the war, and is glad inherits a bookshop from an uncle. It’s a disorganised mess, but trying to sort it out has to come second to the sudden visitors who come in demanding a mysterious letter that Will knows nothing about. Will isn’t inclined to help either side, but he does accept the help of Kim Secretan, that is, until he finds out who Kim really is. Very twisty and turny and nothing is clear right until the end.

The Sugared Game (Will Darling Adventures #2) – KJ Charles
Will has sworn he wants nothing to do with Kim Secretan after Kim walked out of his life, but then Kim suddenly turns up again and asks for his help. Will decides to trust him but starts to wonder if he’s being double crossed again. Another story full of secrets, lies, half-truths and relief as the dénouement finally takes place and it all begins to make sense.

A Legacy of Lies (Bookshop Mysteries #3) – SA Reeves
Bookshop owner Claire is invited to a will reading of a man she didn’t know and is given a clue to start her off in solving a mystery. The man swore he would never tell anyone this secret, but he figured that giving someone a few clues wasn’t the same as telling it. Claire soon discovers a mystery involving an old case of a headless body dumped in the woods, a police detective’s suicide and a whole lot more twists and turns.

Selkies are a Girl’s Best Friend (Mystic Bayou #4) – Molly Harper
Another snarky, funny and action-packed story from Molly Harper. Mystic Bayou is a town full of magique, people with magical powers and abilities including shape shifting. There’s a rift in the woods which seems to be accelerating the development of magique abilities, and possibly turning dangerous. Sonja works for the League – an agency monitoring the rift – while selkie Will has returned to the Bayou to work as a doctor. They have to work together with other league staff to try to resolve the situation while falling for each other.

Always Be My Banshee (Mystic Bayou #5) – Molly Harper
This time both Cordelia (a touch psychic) and Brendan (a banshee) are new to Mystic Bayou, having been called in to assess the artifact found within the rift by Sonja and Will. Cordelia normally can’t touch anyone without being bombarded with visions, but Brendan is technically dead, and so she’s safe around him. Well, apart from the fact that he’s flirting with her and she hasn’t dated in a long time.

February’s three star reads:

Emma – Jane Austen
My first classic of the year, this took me a long time to get through (about three weeks) but for the 15 hour audiobook. It required more concentration than a ‘regular’ book so I tended to listen in smaller chunks. Emma is not very likeable – but I think that’s rather the point – as she goes about assuming she knows best and meddling in the romantic lives of her friends and neighbours and generally getting it wildly wrong.

Five and the Smuggler’s Code (New Famous Five #2) – Chris Smith
I have reviewed this here and here, but in short, Maddie, Fran and Tom end up at Castaway Hill with Anne to try to rescue George, and end up chasing stolen treasure down in the catacombs.

Well Done, Secret Seven (Secret Seven #3)
A slow start where the Seven build a treehouse before meeting a boy with a strange tale about red pillows and Emma Lane. They do figure out what these mean but hand it all over to the police to deal with.

Game Changer (Game Changers #1) – Rachel Reid
I’m not all that sure I would have read book 2 if I’d happened to read this first, and hadn’t known about the TV series. The plot isn’t as interesting – Kip works in a smoothie shop and Scott is a hockey star. There are no out hockey stars so they have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, but it takes a toll on them both. Also Kip had the weirdest accent, it was supposed to be from the Bronx but I thought it sounded more German while a lot of other people guessed a variety of countries… I sped this up to get through it in three days.

five and the smugglers code new famous five

February’s two star reads

The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove – Kim Nash
Another one that on paper I should have loved but didn’t. I like an enemies-to-lovers plot but Dennis is just plain rude and tries to claim they got off on the wrong foot a few too many times. Meanwhile, Nancy has opened a bookshop without a single clue about how to run a business. I actually agree with her about being kind to the planet and not pushing a hard sell on customers, but she’s insufferable about it.

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

The Official Reading Companion & History Briefings for the Chronicles of St Marys – Hazel Cushion
A Deadly Deceit (Bookshop Mysteries #4) – SA Reeves
Road Trip With a Vampire (My Vampires #3) – Jenna Levine

What I watched

We finally finished Only Murders in the Building, and have watched some more of The Simpsons.
I’ve continued with Byker Grove and Call the Midwife but also watched all of Heated Rivalry and started on the latest series of All Creatures Great and Small.
My sister and I finished Girl Bands Forever.
We watched The Desolation of Smaug one weekend when it was raining (again) and Brodie loved it.

What I did

For a lot of the time we were hunkering at home hiding from the rain, but a couple of times the sun came out and I went out for a walk, stopping off on the hill nearby to enjoy the view. We also made it to the beach for a walk and I collected a few bits of glass and pottery and a glass medicine bottle. I don’t think it’s very old but it’s in one piece, and it make a nice little case for some of my mini Lego flowers.
Made some soup with Brodie’s help
Took Brodie to the park on the inservice day and we read our books together.
Built one set of Lego flowers (the dandelion) and half of another flower set. Brodie built me a vase to put them.
We started playing the original Broken Sword (a remastered version) and it’s worrying how much I remember considering I first played it at least twenty years ago (but I did play it three, maybe four times?).

What I bought

I have finally added one more magazine to my collection, meaning that I only need three to complete it. I got Volume 4 issue 24 when the seller finally dropped the price. He was selling 3 for £15 which is decent enough, but I only needed one and he had been listing the same 3 at that price for about a year without selling them. They went down to £10 and I thought I’d better grab them before someone else did.

How was your February?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged Buying, Doing, February, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | 1 Comment

Monday #781

Posted on March 2, 2026 by Fiona

February is over and we are into March. We are wondering if we can cast aside the puffer jackets now and wear just raincoats. Best not to, though, it could start snowing next week after all.

February round up

and

Putting Enid Blyton on the map

There’s a new trailer out for The Magic Faraway Tree film. Some of the clips are the same but there are plenty of new glimpses of the world they have created.

You can watch it on here:

And I’ll probably do a post on it like I did for the last trailer but I’d better hurry up as it comes out at the end of the month!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday, The Magic Faraway Tree Film | 2 Comments

The New Famous Five: Five and the Smugglers Code part 2

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Fiona

In my previous post I talked about the characters – and I was glad to see some comments agreeing with me about Anne – and the general story.

Retcons all round

For those of you unfamiliar with the term retcon is short for retroactive continuity, which basically means a new installment/episode of a book, tv or film series introducing material which contradicts earlier information given.

Sometimes these are plausible(ish) like Moriarty coming back from the dead after the Reichenbach Fall (or Dirty Den returning after being shot and falling into the canal, if 1980’s soap references are more your thing).

Other times they are much less possible and open to nitpicking like Dr Grant mentioning Ian Malcolm’s funeral at the end of Jurassic Park, yet him being alive in the next book.

Anyway, there are various things in this book that come off as a bit unbelievable or sometimes plain wrong if you’ve read the original books.

First up there’s a hidey hole in the hallway of Kirrin Cottage (yes, I said cottage, not farm.) George apparently just keeps on finding new ones. I picture the cottage like the room Gerald Whinfrey stays in in Whinfrey’s Last Case from Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns. There he finds 23 different secret passages which reveal themselves one after another and he has a hard time deciding which one to escape via (also yes, I have referenced that episode in another Famous Five context – Peril in the Night Train.)

Do we really believe that the Five never found any of these when they were younger? The way it’s written implies that George is still finding them to this day.

The whole catacombs map thing is also exaggerated (and I’m not sure it makes sense when you think about it).

First Anne thinks that Clay couldn’t be using the catacombs as they’re dangerous and there’s no known map. Then she remembers that

There used to be one! It’s been lost for countless years, but George must have worked out a clue about where it was hidden.

So it is known, then?

Then we get the flashback portion of the book, set just after the events of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top.

‘Didn’t you say something about a map of the catacombs, Sooty, the very first time we climbed down into the passages from the trapdoor in Marybelle’s bedroom?’ asked George.

‘Yes, there’s supposed to be a secret map hidden somewhere’, [Sooty] replied. ‘That’s what the old stories say. But it was lost long ago.’

I couldn’t even remember them discussing a map of the catacombs before, but it is there – one single throwaway remark.

‘Well, I told you this hill was full of tunnels,’ said Sooty. ‘This pit is down in the hill and these tunnels lead into the catacombs. There are miles and miles of them. No one explores them now, because so many people have been lost in them and never heard of again. There used to be an old map of them, but it’s lost.’

From this point on everyone behaves as if this one map is an established fact.

I’ll save the rest of the not-making-sense for my main nitpicks later.

Inside Smuggler’s Top scenes are set in a tower which does not resemble the only tower mentioned in the original book – where Block was smuggling from. I was going to be generous and say that the house could have more than one tower. But I actually checked the book.

‘That must be Smuggler’s Top, right at the summit,’ said Julian, pointing. ‘It’s like an old building of centuries ago—probably is! Look at the tower it has. What a wonderful view you’d get from it.’

and

The house’s one tower stood sturdily at the east side of the house, with windows all round. It was not a square tower, but a rounded one, and ended in a point.

rather prove my point.

Then we have what’s more of a nitpick than a retcon where George refers to the bedroom with the window seat/secret passage as ‘that bedroom my father stayed in all those years ago‘ and later ‘my father’s room‘. Surely she means Sooty’s bedroom, which Uncle Quentin happened to stay in for a brief period that one time?

Anyway, this room is directly below the tower room that George and Anne were locked in. There’s never any suggestion in the book that the tower is directly above Sooty’s room or that Sooty’s room is in the tower. It doesn’t expressly say it’s not, but given that Sooty’s room is down a long corridor, and the tower has a landing and then a spiral staircase… it seems unlikely at best.

The nitpicks

Now there are certainly nitpicks in the original books. And there are specifically nitpicks that this book tries to avoid and makes almost worse.

In Five Go to Smuggler’s Top they put Timmy into a big laundry basket as obviously he can’t climb down a rope ladder. Yet there are other scenes (which I can’t remember off the top of my head) where Timmy magically appears at the bottom of a ladder without explanation.

This book tries to make sure that doesn’t happen. So Fran puts Gilbert inside her jacket for the first long ladder – but let’s remember that Fran’s a child and Gilbert is a border collie, not a chihuahua. She later abseils down a rocky cliff with him tucked under her arm.

Later George climbs down a slippery ladder with a torch in her teeth, but she and Gilbert land at the bottom with no mention of her actually having picked him up.

On a related note we are also supposed to believe that George, alone, can carry a burly guard up a ladder.

The map/catacombs/train/port thing makes very little sense. To be fair it makes about as much sense as the original spook train in Five Go Off to Camp. To modernise the book we have a proper port with goods presumably being checked as they enter it. To avoid this Clay has built a train track from a warehouse at the port all the way into the catacombs of Smuggler’s Top. And nobody at the port notices them loading their boat (a yacht, not even a cargo ship…) with way more goods than came in the gate? Or the extra people who keep appearing out of the warehouse? Also; wow what an expense that must have been.

To return to the map, well, why are they after it exactly? To stop Clay who they suspect is using the catacombs – but they already say he must have added new tunnels thus changing the layout. Yet the original Five navigate the catacombs several times without the map – including that time in the flashback where they seem to walk straight to the hidden clue to the map without any wrong turns at all.

Which leads me to why did whoever own the map decide to paint over it and hang it in Smuggler’s Top, then leave a clue in a journal in the catacombs?

Minor niggles include:

Smuggler’s Top having had lots of high tech security features added but the locks being easy to pick. (There was an element of a trap being laid, so I can let no alarms blaring slide.)
The children and Anne having a lengthy conversation right in front of Clay while he presumably waits politely for them to finish, and more conversation during what’s supposed to be a fight scene
Belle is said to be acting weird without any sign of her acting weird
The secret passage in the Mermaid Inn is accessed by turning a coat hook the right way up. Surely that’s far too obvious and would lead to accidental access?
In the heat of the adventure Anne meekly goes back to the inn to call the police. There’s no suggestion of finding a phone at Smuggler’s Top, using a mobile or trying a neighbour, but I suppose they wanted her out of the way so that George and the kids could be the heroes again?
Clay takes Gilbert as a prisoner, as in puts him in a crate and loads him onto the train to take to the port. Why? Sure, lock him up to keep him from being a nuisance (obviously they can’t kill him, it’s a children’s book) but it makes no sense to try to smuggle him out with all the valuable goods.
The number of times the crown with the big diamond is mentioned. The crown which is always just loose. Not in a box or anything to protect it, just sitting on a pedestal underground and then being carried about in the open.

The illustrations (aside from using a style I’m not keen on) also have a couple of issues. One shows the stolen loot as if it was gold coins and gems spilling all over the floor. While I wouldn’t put this past the folk who keep a crown loose, it doesn’t match the description in the text.

Towards the end there’s an illustration of them having a picnic and Dick has his walking stick next to him, only it’s so short it would never reach the ground if it was in his hand.

Do I have anything good to say about this?

I think Brodie would have enjoyed it, as he has all the discerned taste of an 8 year old and is the target audience.

There’s a nice call back where Alf is looking after George’s dog like he used to look after Timmy.

It was good to reunite three of the five, characterisations aside, and to see Marybelle again. It was almost good to see Smuggler’s Top though the security systems and the modern lift spoiled it, as did much of the plot.

Posted in Book reviews, Other Authors | Tagged Chris Smith, Five and the Smuggler's Code, Five Go to Smuggler's Top, The New Famous Five | Leave a comment

Letters to Enid part 81: From volume 4, issue 18

Posted on February 25, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 18.
September 26th – October 9th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Susan Herrin, Shiplake, Oxon.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am very pleased to say that I have saved every magazine from the very first issue. Not long ago, I and my friend Susan and my father, constructed a kite. We bought a six-foot cane, and cut it into two lengths, one 2 feet long and the other 3 feet. One foot away from the end of the longer cane we fixed the shorter one as a crossbar. We bound them together with some strong string. Then we cut slits at each end of the canes, and went round and round the canes with the string, fixing it in the notches. We went round four times, and then knotted the ends together. Then my father cut a piece a little larger than the kite out of his old parachute (the piece was the same shape as the kite). Then I stuck it on to the kite, the extra pieces folded over like a hem. We made a very long tail and fixed it on. We got some kite string and tied it on, and then we went to Christmas Common and the kite flew beautifully.
Good luck to you from
Susan Herrin.

(I have printed your excellent letter, which wins my prize, because I think other children may like to make a kite like yours, Susan!)

A letter from Morag Park, Kirkcaldy.
Dear Enid Blyton,
In our garden there lives a black- bird that we nicknamed Blackie. He sits on Mummy’s knee and chirps a song to her. He has two babies, who can just fly. When they were hatched Blackie brought them to show Mummy. One day we threw some cherries on the grass, and Blackie picked two up and stuffed them into his babies’ mouths, and nearly choked them! Love from
Morag Park.

(You are lucky to have a tame blackbird, Morag. I wonder if anyone else has.)

A letter from Mary Browne, Aviemore.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I had a garden tea some time ago at my grandmother’s house. Along with four friends I worked as a waitress, and my granny and mother baked all the cakes and scones for the teas. I send you £2 Is. od. for your Children’s Home for children who are not so lucky as I am.
Love from
Mary Browne.

(You must have had great fun Mary-and I think you are very kind.)

I had not heard of Oxon before but looked it up to discover it’s short for Oxfordshire. It turns out I’ve been near to Shiplake before as it’s only five miles (by road, less as the crow flies) from Loddon Hall where the Enid Blyton Society Days used to be held. It’s also only about fifteen miles from where Blyton lived at Old Thatch, though she had left there fifteen years before this letter was written, and about 20 miles from Green Hedges where she would have been living in 1956.

The other two letters come from nearer to me than Blyton. Kirkcaldy is in Fife and Aviemore is in the Cairngorms and I’ve been to both many times.

But enough geography lessons as I’ve just wasted a good twenty minutes looking at random places on Google maps!

I really wanted a Mary Poppins let’s go fly a kite quote in there, but this is ten years too early for the film with Julie Andrews. I’ve read the first PL Travers book and don’t recall there being kite flying in it, but apparently in the second book has Michael pulling Mary Poppins down from the clouds with a kite.

Mary’s is the first fund-raising in a wee while – since August 1956 in fact.

Although different to the tame bird letter in our previous letters page I thought this a good place to share info on what to do if you find a young or injured wild bird in your garden or out and about. A commenter on the previous post was right in saying that it’s often not the best idea to swoop in and ‘rescue’ it. Advice is different depending on the age of the bird (nestling vs fledgling) and also depends on where the bird is and if it is in danger.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/if-you-find-an-injured-bird

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

Monday #780

Posted on February 23, 2026 by Fiona

I’ve had to take my sunglasses out with me for a few times recently. The crocuses and snowdrops are out. Spring may be just around the corner! (Or we may plunge back into deep winter. I’m not ruling anything out at this point.)

Letters to Enid part 81

and

The New Famous Five: The Smuggler’s Code part 2

All things Spring as the title suggests!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Monday, Spring | Leave a comment

The New Famous Five: Five and the Smuggler’s Code

Posted on February 22, 2026 by Fiona

Just like last time I borrowed this from the library and procrastinated through two renewals before I actually got around to reading it.

Like last time, I have mixed feelings now I have read it.

First thoughts

I’m used to the cover art style now – though they still remind me of Stare Dad. This one has no shiny gold bits though.

There is a map again. I will quote exactly what I typed when I saw that map.

OMG IS THIS THE ACTUAL SMUGGLER’S TOP WITH THE MARSH DRAINED???

As Smuggler’s Top and Castaway Hill are both marked I think you’d have to assume so. I think my all caps comment show how excited I was about that. I may have mentioned before that Five Go To Smuggler’s Top is my favourite Enid Blyton book, and I’ve always wished that the Five would have gone back there for another adventure. I’ve always wondered if Quentin and Lenoir would manage to drain the marshes and what the area would be like.

I was, however, after that initial high, wary of whether the book would capture what I loved about the original.

I had to wait to find out as the book starts back at Kirrin where Maddie, Fran and Tom find Kirrin Cottage empty and George missing. Has she been whisked off to the catacombs of Castaway Hill or has she just gone out and forgotten to lock up, like the forgetful scientist she apparently is now?

George, Anne and Dick (sorry Ju)

The previous book introduced us to adult – very much older adult – George who is now a scientist like her father. At the end of that book we also saw Anne who is now a famous detective.

We meet Anne again here as she turns up at Kirrin. George, we discover via flashback, has been taken by Clay – her mysterious enemy from the first book.

Anne is then the main adult as she takes the children to Castaway Hill where Clay now owns Smuggler’s Top.

At this point I was seeing a pattern emerging but I didn’t follow it through far enough. I was thinking that we’d had a main book with George, and now we seemed to be getting one with Anne. I assumed the next two would each feature Julian and Dick. And then maybe a full reunion? I forgot about Anne being introduced near the end of the first book (in the very final chapters after the adventure is over.)

I was therefore a little surprised when Dick showed up amidst the drama of the final part of the adventure.

I wasn’t entirely sold on this adult George before, and I remain unsold now. She is at least fairly consistent between the two books. She is also still gung-ho about leaping into adventures without looking which is accurate.

Anne I’m also not sure of. While I know that people change as they grow up and don’t have to stick to what they liked as children I find it hard to take Anne – famous detective and martial arts expert – that seriously as the same person who loved nothing more than playing house. She was brave but she was never leading the way when it came to adventuring or snooping.

Likewise, Dick turning up with his own boat and wearing a captain’s hat just seems off. He has a walking stick, a big beard and a bag leg, which make him seem a lot older than the year he has on Anne. He did love George’s rowing boat but him as a stereotypical sea captain? Nope.

The story

Like the first book there is a section which is about the original Famous Five, though this seemed a lot shorter and less fleshed out.

After the events of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top the Five stayed at the house while Quentin and Lenoir discussed their marsh-draining scheme. They decide to have another explore of the catacombs and – with incredible ease, aided only by a ball of string, walk directly to a large cave where they find a smuggler’s lair, and a secret journal. The journal says that:

The key, the map, the Smuggler’s code
Lies behind the tempest

The Five assume this means the painting of a ship at Smuggler’s Top but are unable to figure it out.

Ugh – the Five were never foiled once! I actually found this pretty annoying.

Anyway, with George believed to be being held at Smuggler’s Top, Anne and the kids arrive in Castaway and stay with Marybelle who now owns an inn. They’d like to find the map as well as George. They break into the house and are caught, but the children escape with the painting.

Anne gets put in with George, to which I wrote:

Lock Anne up with George? That’s a terrible idea. They may only be 2/5ths of the Five but…

I was right and they escape.

The story then turns more towards Indiana Jones or James Bond with a mad journey down an underground railway, a collapsing pyramid of barrels, a fight on a forklift which is careering (as much as a forklift can career, I suppose) towards the edge of the dock, and a yacht/speedboat chase.

Phew! Obviously, it all ends well and the New Famous Five (as they just KEEP referring to themself as) solve both the mystery of the tempest and prevent Clay escaping.

I have been checking my review of the first book to refresh my memory and I’m glad to see I split that into two parts. That means I can do the same here!

Posted in Book reviews, Other Authors | Tagged Chris Smith, Five and the Smuggler's Code, The New Famous Five | 4 Comments

Letters to Enid part 80: From volume 4, issue 17

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 17.
September 12th – 25th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Alison Aston, Beaconsfield, Bucks.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am writing to tell you about my pet owl, called Oswald. About a month ago I was in the wood at the bottom of my garden and I heard a kind of clicking noise, and suddenly out came a tiny owlet, very fluffy, not more than two weeks old. I picked him up and took him home because he was starving and might be caught by a cat. Daddy was most surprised to see Oswald, and I thought I ought to take him back for his mother to find – but I didn’t think she could carry him back to the nest. But neither Daddy nor Mummy had the heart to send him back, for already he had snuggled up in my arms and was asleep. Mummy and I got a box ready for him. We put leaves at the bottom, then some newspaper to keep any draught out, then more leaves and a blanket on top. We put Oswald into it, and he was soon snuggled up asleep, though he wouldn’t eat a thing. For three days he went without food – and then suddenly one night Mummy called us out of bed – and there was Oswald in the kitchen, sitting on the table looking very proud of himself – and eating rabbit by the pound! After two months Oswald began to grow feathers, and at first I was upset to see him shake off his lovely down. A month later he was flying so we set him free. He flew into the wood – but when he felt hungry he came back again, especially as we always whistled when food was ready! Sometimes he flies indoors and on to my bed at nights. Often he flies down on our heads when we go into the garden – he watches for us from a tree. I send you a photo of Oswald. Lots of love from your Club member.
Alison Aston (age 10).

(This is the first time I have given up the whole of our Letter-Page to one letter – but it is such a remarkable one, and so very interesting and well-written, that I knew all my readers would enjoy it. The photograph of Oswald is lovely – the dearest little owl you ever saw! Thank you, Alison – you have given me much pleasure – and I am sure the readers will agree with me that you deserve our prize!)

I was going to point out that this is the first time I have seen a letters page dedicated to just one letter, but Blyton beat me to it!

It is a very interesting letter, and I agree that it was worthy of the letter prize. I’m glad this one wasn’t abridged to squeeze in other letters.

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Birds, Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | 1 Comment

Monday #789

Posted on February 16, 2026 by Fiona

We’ve had some actual sunshine in the past few days. I even had my sunglasses on today. It’s still cold but there’s actual daylight and I even hung my washing outside for a while at the weekend. It’s the little things, you know?

Letters to Enid part 80

and

Five and the Smuggler’s Code

There has been a new poster released for The Magic Faraway Tree film and a release date – March 27th!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Monday, The Magic Faraway Tree Film | 1 Comment

Reading The Secret Mountain to Brodie

Posted on February 15, 2026 by Fiona

We read this between December 24 and January 25, so a bit more than a year ago now!

Fast edits

I think I had to do the most updating on the fly of all the books we’ve read so far. Thankfully we read this before I started getting Brodie to read paragraphs himself.

Some of the things I changed were

Eaten by savages / savage tribes
The natives
The black man / the black boy (at least not over and over again)
Ignorant
Mafumu’s hero worship of Jack
The girls treatment compared with the boys

While I’m sure many people used some of these words at the time, I don’t think there’s anything to gain by reading them in a story like this, not where they are treated as normal and acceptable.

I’ve written about my problems with using natives before, here, and again used phrases like the locals or local people.

While it’s accurate that Mafumu and his uncle are black, using the word almost every single time they are mentioned feels uncomfortable and unnecessary so it was easy to just say the boy or the man. I sometimes used Mafumu in place of the black boy if my brain was quick enough to make the substitution.

Jack’s behaviour in trying to protect Mafumu was admirable and I think anyone would be grateful in that situation but the level of hero worship also felt uncomfortable what with talk of slaves and wonderful white boy – a king of boys. Here I just tried to tone down the hero worship a little.

I think there were only two times that the girls were treated much differently to the boys which makes a nice change

One was the girls being carried across the stepping stones in the river while the boys were allowed to cross by themselves. I said the girls were helped across instead. Still not quite equal, but an improvement!

The second was near the end I said somebody should be on guard instead of just the Captain, Jack or Mike. That then included the girls as well as Mafumu and Mrs Arnold, as surely anyone could take a turn at staying awake and watching for the mountain folk approaching the temple?

Voice work

Reading in my head I can pronounce things however I want. Saying them out loud with an audience (even just an audience of one) I suddenly start to wonder if I’ve got it right.

How do you pronounce Pilescu? Does it begin with Pil as in Pill? Or Pile? Do you pronounce the eh sound in the middle? Is the end have a q/cue sound or is it coo?

Personally I say Pill-ess-cue and as it’s a made up name I suppose I can’t be wrong?

Pilescu and Ranni (at least that’s easy to say!) as Baronians still have their vaguely German-sounding accents. I didn’t really attempt any sort of accent for Mafumu or his Uncle, their broken English gave them a distinct enough voice already.

Brodie’s questions and comments

An aeroplane? Now they can go and look for their parents! Is that what this book is going to be about? Them going to rescue their parents?
Yes! They’re going to go!
Whaat? How could he go look for himself? (In response to I don’t want to wake up in the morning and find that we have disappeared too. I should just hate to go and look for myself!)
Crocodiles! (I think he was slightly disappointed that they don’t meet one even though there’s an illustration of one.)

So they’re going to have to go to the Secret Mountain and find the secret way in – that’s going to be the adventure! Or maybe they can land their plane on the top like they did in that other book! (I think I actually disagreed with him on that and said only helicopters can land on mountain tops… I had obviously forgotten the ending!)

Lots of laughing at Mafumu’s funny way of using the words he had learned
Open sesame! (He said this quite a few times after that when opening things but has since forgotten about it. I had to try to explain who Ali Baba and the 40 thieves were and how they were relevant, but were not going to be in the book themselves.)
I know. The mountain people live in a cave! (He described the cave which was the fern cave from The Valley of Adventure.)
He was worried the big rock would fall on Ranni if he pushed it the wrong way.

Jack and Mafumu are going to have to rescue them!!
How does the lift work??
It’s the aeroplane they’re coming to the rescue
He was sad to leave Mafumu behind – but not as sad as he was about the puffins in The Sea of Adventure.

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged The Secret Mountain, The Secret Series | 2 Comments

January 2026 round up

Posted on February 12, 2026 by Fiona

January has finally ended! It always feels like such a long month. However February is really just January part 2, and more of the same.

What I read

I set my reading goal to 150 books again and I made a good start in January with 15 books read.

Quick stats:
1 BABAL*
4 Val McDermids
4 new authors
4 library books

I’m changing things up here, so bear with me.

January’s 5 star reads:

Out of Bounds (Karen Pirie #4) – Val McDermid
Another gripping cold case for Karen Pirie and Jason “The Mint” Murray to investigate, all while riling her boss by solving cases that they aren’t supposed to have anything to do with. Couldn’t put this down and read it in 24 hours.

A Brush With the Past 1900-1950 – Shirley Hughes
A really beautiful book packed with gorgeous period illustrations. Probably aimed at children but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping – Sagu Mandana
This was funny, touching and witty. I’d already read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and this has the same hallmarks of found family, magical shenanigans and some romance.

January’s 4 star reads:

Trick of the Dark – Val McDermid
This is a stand-alone following a suspended psychologist as they are asked to investigate whether or not a mutual acquaintance is actually a serial killer. Very clever and kept me guessing. I actually wish that there were more books about Charlie Flint.

Final Edition (Lindsey Gordon #3) – Val McDermid
Another story about journalist Lindsey Gordon as she returns to Scotland and has to investigate a murder where she knows – if not likes – most of the suspects, and has to reveal a really rather unexpected culprit. Another one I read in about 24 hours.

Winter: The Story of a Season – Val McDermid
A wander through winter and what it means for Val McDermid. Perfect for reading while cosied up at home at this time of year.

The Cornish Castle Murder (Nosey Parker #8) – Fiona Leitch
Another fun book about Jodie Parker sticking her nose into a murder. Well, it happens at the hotel she’s about to get married at, so it’s hardly surprising. Audiobook was read by the brilliant Zara Ramm who I just love listening to.

80s Ghosts – V.S. Lawrence
I found this by an advert on Facebook and it reminded me of Stranger Things, though in actual fact is not very like Stranger Things at all. Instead it is about three people who are trying to make a living with a ghost hunting YouTube channel. So far none of the haunted houses have been haunted, and then they are invited to a school where dozens of students died in a fire during a dance. Spooky, surprising and very touching at times.

A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse Short Stories) – Charlaine Harris
I’ve been listening to the series at night when I fall asleep and felt like reading this collection again as it explains some events which are referenced in the main books.

All the Little Liars (Aurora Teagarden #9) – Charlaine Harris
This is my third time reading this (and I only had the vaguest recollection of the who and why dunnits). Lawrenceton – a small southern town – has had another murder. Aurora investigates but is more focussed on the fact that her teenage brother Phillip and his friends have gone missing. She’s sure they’re not responsible for the murder, but if not, where the heck are they?

Sleep Like a Baby (Aurora Teagarden #10) – Charlaine Harris
My third reading of this one too, and surprise surprise Aurora stumbles upon another corpse. This time it’s in her own backyard, though actually this isn’t the first time that’s happened either! She’s got the flu and a new baby to look after, her husband is away on a book tour so it’s a real challenge for her.

Creepy Crafts – Ashley Voortman
I love Ashley’s videos where she creates haunted houses/haunted teapots/haunted violins etc etc. This is a guide to making a variety of creepy objects and is full of her trademark snark and humour. (And her obsession with circle windows.)

January’s three star reads:

Accidental Magic (Myrtlewood Mysteries #1) – Iris Beaglehole
I wanted to like this more as it’s right up my street. Woman inherits house, discovers she’s a witch, there’s a whole big mystery surrounding her grandmother’s death. Unfortunately there’s some sort of spell (I think) making our main character forgetful so it was very frustrating as she bumbles about idiotically. The narrator was also dreadful and every character sounded like they smoked a hundred a day, even the teenage daughter. May try book two by ebook to see if that helps.

The Home Front Nurses – Rachel Brimble
Another one I thought I’d like more as it’s one of my favourite genres. I think this one had too much ‘tell’ and inner thoughts and not enough ‘show’. There was a huge focus on how these three girls were such amazing friends but it happened in an instant and was mostly talk. The setting was also quite far removed from the war, making it all talk and little action again. I may try book two to see if the series improves.

January’s two star reads

The Bookshop on the Beach – J C Williams
Again, something I should have loved – a bookshop by the beach. Except it was run by an idiot who couldn’t see that the very obviously bad person was sabotaging her. The writing was also annoying – every sentence went on forever and constantly repeated itself. Paraphrasing here but things like – “Why is he acting that way,” she thought, wondering why he was acting that way. What’s worse is that every character spoke this way as well as the narrator!

January’s one star reads:

None, thankfully!

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

The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove – Kim Nash
Hurrah for the Circus
Emma – Jane Austen
The Official Reading Companion & History Briefings for the Chronicles of St Marys – Hazel Cushion

What I watched

We finished Only Connect, and have continued with The Simpsons a few nights a week as Brodie loves it (even though he doesn’t get 90% of the jokes!) We’ve also watched a little more of Only Murders in the Building but haven’t finished it yet.
I’ve watched a bit more of Byker Grove, and have reached 2002. I don’t think I was watching it as frequently by this point but I still vaguely recognise new characters as they appear so I must have seen bits of it. I’ve also watched some of H20 Just Add Water. I’ve never seen this before but was intrigued after seeing some parodies of it online. In a nutshell three Aussie girls turn into mermaids and grow tails any time they get wet. It’s weirdly compelling! My other solo watch has been Call the Midwife which seems to be wrapping up the 197os Poplar story, given that the real-life order moved out of Poplar and midwifery at that time mostly due to the massive increase in hospital births.
My sister and I watched the first two episodes of Girl Bands Forever which pretty much told the same story as Boy Bands Forever – record companies signing up teenagers and then working them until they had breakdowns.
We watched The Hobbit with Brodie, which he loved, but also said You should have shown me this before Lord of the Rings!

What I did

It feels as if it has rained constantly since the New Year so we haven’t been out much at all.

Celebrated new year and introduced Telestrations to other family members. Much hilarity ensued. The photos below were part of one round which started as an ambulance which was guessed as a tank… which became the person trapped in an ice skate which was guessed as a boat.
Another of the jigsaws I got for Christmas – Lego Ice Cream this time.
Had lunch out for my mother in law’s birthday and lunch in for my mum’s.
Some colouring in with the new pens I treated myself to.

How was your January?

*Books About Bookshops and Libraries

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

Monday #788

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Fiona

A couple of weeks ago I was silently congratulating myself for not catching Brodie’s cough. He had been coughing for a week or more and I was certain we were past the danger phase.

I was wrong. I caught the cough and somehow also a bit of a temperature and a lot of feeling quite ill, which he hadn’t even had. It was bound to happen sooner or later, it felt especially likely seeing as he had somehow avoided any bugs in December.

I have finally stopped coughing now, so normal(ish) service can resume.

January round up

and

Reading The Secret Mountain to Brodie

Lego set of the week

This isn’t one of my usual Monday headings as you can tell by the lack of banner. But I forgot to share something I got at Christmas! It was a Jack Trent camera. Ok, it was this set which can be built into a retro camera, a camcorder or a little retro TV. I went for the camera, of course.

It comes with six stickers for the (colour) negatives. Unusually for me I did not follow the instructions exactly and put the three animal ones on one roll of film so that it can sit beside the camera and look like photos Jack might have taken. If he went to the zoo or on safari.

And of course where you find Jack and his camera you will also find Kiki.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Jack Trent, Lego, Monday | 1 Comment

2025 Birthday and Christmas Present round up

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Fiona

Every year without fail I am the lucky recipient of some Blyton-themed stuff when it comes to my birthday and Christmas.

Here’s what it looked like this year.

Famous Five Jigsaw

This is a 1975 Whitman 224 piece puzzle of Five Fall Into Adventure. There were three others made – Five On a Treasure Island, Five Go to Smuggler’s Top and Five Go to Demon’s Rocks.

Sadly mine came with only 214 pieces, one of which was for a different jigsaw – but that’s always the risk you take with older kids’ puzzles, toys and games!

Famous Five Graphic Novels

I’ve already got the first four graphic novels by Beja and Natiel, so these are the recently released next two in the series.

Famous Five Adventures

Apparently there are 20 of these! The first ones are actually Blyton-written and are the short stories collected in Five Have a Puzzling Time and Other Stories, but then the rest are new short stories by other authors.

I’ve never read any of these before but I couldn’t resist asking for one set in a library.

Child Whispers

Not the rare (aka expensive) 1922 version, but still one that has all the poems in and which I was intrigued enough by to ask for.

Amongst other things I was also lucky enough to get a couple of books about Shirley Hughes:

And a Lego 3-in-1 set which can be a typewriter, a keytar or a flower pot. Naturally I’m going to build it as the typewriter and although I know that Blyton’s typewriter wasn’t pink, it’ll remind me of her anyway.

Let me know in the comments if you got any Blytonian presents last year!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged Birthday Presents, Child Whispers, Christmas Presents, Graphic novels, Jigsaws | Leave a comment

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What I read

March’s 5 star reads:

March’s 4 star reads:

March’s three star reads:

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

What I watched

What I did

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6

5

4

3

2

1

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New plots revealed

Other glimpses

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Enid in her rightful place

Living (on) the Enid Blyton Way

Enid Blyton is the street where you live

Enid Blyton house

Enid Blyton Corner

Enid Blyton Ring

Blyton Close to home

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What I read

February’s 5 star reads:

February’s 4 star reads:

February’s three star reads:

February’s two star reads

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

What I watched

What I did

What I bought

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Retcons all round

The nitpicks

Do I have anything good to say about this?

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 18. September 26th – October 9th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

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First thoughts

George, Anne and Dick (sorry Ju)

The story

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 17. September 12th – 25th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

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Fast edits

Voice work

Brodie’s questions and comments

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 18.
September 26th – October 9th, 1956.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 17.
September 12th – 25th, 1956.