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… ?

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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.

 

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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

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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.

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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

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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 ☆☆

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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!

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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

 

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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.)

 

 

 

 

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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!

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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.

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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.

 

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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

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Monday #683

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Fiona

I realised a few days ago that I’d misnumbered the Monday posts because after #789 I’d done #780, #781 and so on. So I renumbered them. Then I happened to scroll back and realise I had made the same mistake ten posts before, going from an earlier #789 to #780. It’s like I don’t actually know how numbers work, sometimes?

Anyway, I corrected those, and recorrected the ones I’d already corrected, and today’s post jumped from #783 to #793 to #803.

But you’ll notice that this isn’t Monday #803. That’s because I scrolled back further and found I also went from #639 to #670… and then from #678 to #770 (I was skipping #679 so it should have been #680).

I think I’ve got it right now? But who knows. This is why I blog about words and not numbers.

May round up

and

Reading the Caravan Family to Brodie part 2

My laptop homescreen has been one of Brodie’s Famous Five picture (below) for a couple of years now. He saw it the other week and said he was going to draw me a new one.

So off he went and wouldn’t let me look – even though he was using my good pens, and then he came to show me his new drawing.

That’s an underground cavern, armed with a missile launcher. (You can see the ‘misil’ on the lorry at the right.) The missile is going to be filled with the green acid from the tank and launched out the hole in the roof.

That’s Julian abseiling down – aka ‘the one with the rope always around his waist’, and one of the Five peering in at the top. It was supposed to be Timmy but it ended up looking more like a person.

I said I didn’t remember that storyline from any of the books, and was told that he’d made up a new story for them, of course! Five Find the Missile Underground. 

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Reading the Caravan Family series to Brodie

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Fiona

As always I’m way behind on these posts, so I thought I’d combine some of the Family books into one post in an attempt to catch up. They are all quite short books, to be fair!

We read them in order, of course, starting with The Caravan Family in November/December of 2024.

Then we took a break while we read other things – finishing Enid Blyton’s Christmas Tales and continuing Charlie and the Christmas Factory as it was the right time of year, then we returned to the Secret Series for Mountain and Killimooin, but finished Five Have a Puzzling Time before we did Moon Castle.

Then we read The Saucy Jane Family, The Pole Star Family and The Seaside Family back to back from March 2025 to April 2025.

Having then taken a break to read The Secret Seven, we finished off with The Buttercup Farm Family and The Queen Elizabeth Family between May and June 2025.

The Caravan Family

First up – Brodie keeps calling the book (and the series) the Campervan Family (or ‘that series where they have a campervan’). I really don’t know why but I can’t get him to remember that it’s caravan.

While they were searching for a home Brodie pointed out that they’d find a caravan, because the title of the book was The Caravan Family. Then when they found the two old caravans he said ‘there’s the caravans they’re going to live in.’

He figured out it was the cows ‘attacking’ the caravan at night – as we had already read Five Go Off in a Caravan where the same thing happens.

He loved everyone hunting for the lost Ann and discovering that she was asleep in one of the caravans the whole time, and he also announced he wanted to take a holiday in a caravan, and could we put one behind the car.

I made a few little changes while reading – they say gay about fifty times regarding the caravans and their accessories, and so this was mostly bright or colourful instead. Daddy also makes a lot of decisions – including buying the caravans – all by himself which became Mummy and Daddy. Likewise while Mummy did all the cooking I didn’t feel the need for it to be Mummy’s fire or Mummy’s kettle, so I said their instead.

As these are Lutterworth Press books – Lutterworth published good ‘moral’ stories – there are quite a few references to prayers and god granting things. Too much to just omit but I tried to tone it down a bit. There’s just something about the capital H in he/him for god that rubs me up the wrong way.

The Saucy Jane Family

Brodie immediately abandoned his fervent wish for a caravan holiday and wanted to know if we could take a holiday on a boat instead. He was less thrilled by the idea of being tied up as he couldn’t swim when we read this (he can just about swim now, though).

 

He was horrified by Ann falling in, and very anxious until she was safe, and that it would happen again. “She’ll have to learn to swim!”

He has seen locks in real life (Neptune’s Staircase) and in videos but we looked them up again to help him understand how they work, and we talked about tunnels where the people on board push the boat through with their arms or legs.

As an aside – the version I skimmed to refresh my memory this week mentioned them being glad to be going back to their caravans for winter, with its games and books and television. Of course this was wireless in the original. Just where did the editors think that they were plugging their TV in, in their wooden, horse-drawn caravans?

The Pole Star Family

In what is becoming a pattern, Brodie decided he’d much rather take a cruise than go off in a caravan or houseboat once we started reading this book.

We had a chat about whooping cough as the children come down with it – we had already done this when reading Five Get Into a Fix, but he had forgotten.

He was slightly worried about the sea getting in the portholes as the cabins are below water level, and said he would definitely roll out of bed when the children wonder about that. (He had a habit of falling out of bed one night on every holiday we’ve taken but thankfully he seems to have grown out of it now!)

He was worried for the boys swimming under the ship – and said it was very dangerous.

I had to do some editing – or in some cases skipping bits entirely – when they visit French Morocco as they make such a big deal about it being dirty and smelly and how gross the locals are – ‘why don’t they do better’ and all that.

All in all he really enjoyed the first three books, always asking for the next one.

 

 

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Letters to Enid part 84: From volume 4, issue 21.

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

[Warning for language considered offensive today.]

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 23.
November 7th – 20th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Barbara Greenfield and Mary Wadman, Langley, Bucks.
Dear Enid Blyton,
My uncle is a shepherd. One day when he was brushing his sheep for a show, my cousin Mary asked him for some wool and he gave us some. We took this wool to Mary’s home and thoroughly washed and combed it. Then we bought some pink satin and blue lace. We made this up into a pram-set stuffed with wool. This we sold, and we are very glad to send you ten shillings for your Spastic Centre. We are now joining your Magazine Club and will try to help the spastic children by raising money in different ways for them.
Yours sincerely,
Barbara Greenfield and Mary Wadman.

(I always like to hear of unusual ideas, children-and yours was a very good one. You must have made a fine pram-set! I am sending a letter prize for each of you.)

A letter from Michelle Franckeiss, Watchet, Somerset.
Dear Enid Blyton,
We have just read your letter about the Love-Apple League. Shall I tell you about what we
did? We have a little School right out in the country surrounded by flowers. We picked a lot of flowers to fill a box. Then we sent it to a poor school in Birmingham – and the children at that school sent us a book for being so kind! I love listening to my teacher reading your magazine.
Love from,
Michelle Franckeiss.

(That was a lovely idea, Michelle. Give my love to your friends and tell them how pleased I am to hear your news.)

A letter from Elaine Marshall, Cole-Orton, Leics.
Dear Miss Blyton,
When I was on my holidays at Bournemouth a tame jackdaw flew into the house and my auntie was frightened when it flew on to my shoulder. When it noticed that my auntie had ear-rings on, it went and flew on her shoulder and took one of her ear-rings off and hid it somewhere. It flew out of the house again and the next day the ear-ring was found in a cup!
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Marshall (Busy Bee).

(How like a jackdaw, Elaine – they do so love bright things! You told your story well.)

I swear I must have a jackdaw around my house because the number of single earrings I have is ludicrous. I’ve never noticed one nicking one from directly from my ear, however.

I have to admit I have no idea what the love-apple league is, as although I have obviously looked at the previous magazines I generally only flick through to the letters page so that I stay on track. I will have to look back and see if I can find the letter Michelle mentions. I assume it’s some sort of group to encourage people to do good turns or acts of kindness for others.

And of course a fund-raising letter in first place. For some reason I was thinking of a doll’s pram set when I first read it, but I think it was a regular set.

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Monday #682

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Fiona

After me complaining endlessly about the cold miserable weather today was the hottest May day ever. I really should be more careful what I wish for! At least this far north it was only in the low twenties and was tolerable thanks to the breeze. As it was a bank holiday we spent the afternoon at the beach – though we are not as hardy as George is and we did not bathe, just paddled.

Letters to Enid part 84

and

Reading the Caravan Family series to Brodie

More Magic Faraway Tree film news this week – it’s now available to rent or buy. The pricing is clearly designed to make you want to buy it – as it’s £19.99 to buy, or £15.99 to rent it. (It cost us £14.98 for two of us to see it in the cinema – though I suppose if you were going to watch it as a larger group it’s not bad value. Still better buying it if you think you’d watch it again.) It’ll probably come down in price the longer it’s out, and I imagine it’ll come to streaming later this year as well.

Watch it on Amazon, Sky, Apple TV or Rakuten TV.

 

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Famous Five 90s Style – Our live reactions to Five Go Off in a Caravan

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Fiona

Having read the rather dreadful graphic novel adaptation of Five Go off in a Caravan recently this acted like a bit of a palate cleanser despite the deviations from the book.

[The Five walk – or in Julian’s case hobble – down a country lane to find their caravan has someone inside it, tossing things around. Dick warns whoever is in there that there are four of them to deal with.]

Stef [quoting Julian]: “Five as a matter of fact!”

Stef: At least we know the crutches come in handy.

Fiona: It’s more book accurate A Caravan. 

[It turns out to be Gertie the Goat in the caravan. Nobby turns up to turf her out and asks Julian how he broke his leg before he shows them the way to Merran Farm where his circus is camping.]

Fiona: Espionage??

Stef: Espionage?? Julian fell out of a tree.

Fiona: Try ‘playing football’, Marco

Fiona: (Is that right?)

Stef: Yes. It is. [Marco broke his leg playing football between filming series 1 and series 2.]

Stef: WHY IS BOBBY DRIVING THEIR CARAVAN?

Fiona: Because the actors weren’t trained/trusted?

Stef: Probably.

Fiona: They didn’t trust Marco not to break anything else.

Stef: Lol or Paul to try.

Fiona: Cringe @ ‘We’ll all be very polite, I promise’.

Stef: How can you promise everyone’s going to be polite when George hates anyone who hates Timmy?

Stef: Toffee nosed kids… It’s a circus!

Stef: Who visits the circus? Kids.

Stef: George’s turn for the garish pull over.

[Lou and Tiger Dan creep up on the kid’s caravan in the night.]

Fiona: Very bad night filming.

Stef: Dark filter probably.

Fiona: They’re crammed in [to the caravan beds] like sardines.

Fiona: Why do they wake Anne are they going to set her on the prowlers?

Stef: Lol she is a tiger.

Stef [quoting Tiger Dan]: “Young cockerel.”

Stef [quoting George as the men leave]: “Thanks to Timmy”? Julian did his best.

[The next morning the Five are on their way again, and Dan and Lou are glad. At their next stop the girls fetch water and Dick is fussing around the horse while Julian looks at a map on the stoop. ]

Fiona: How is Julian getting up onto that stoop in a cast?

Stef [referring to Dick here]: They’re pulling him up by his pullover!

Stef: Mostly not getting down I suspect. I wonder if people had to keep lifting Marco up and down.

Fiona: Maybe he had to film all his inside/on caravan scenes in one go.

Fiona: ‘You’re not coming down til it’s all done!!’

Stef: “One take or else!” “But I need the loo!”

Fiona: See he’s still up there.

Fiona: Chamber pot under one of the beds I bet.

Stef: Jemima obvs had enough training to do that little bit of driving.

[Dick and Anne go off to see the landowner about camping rights and food while George sees to the horse. Along the way Dick and Anne are stopped by Lou and Dan and invited back to camp by the circus.]

Stef: Ju Just sitting there with his arms crossed.

Stef: Couldn’t he be peeling spuds or something.

Fiona: I think I recognise the less spivvy of the two.

Fiona: Not sure where from. [I finally looked him up and it turns out he’s in an episode of Jonathan Creek.]

Stef: Lou or Dan?

Fiona: Dan.

Stef: I think he’s an established actor. [He is – 98 credits.]

[Back at camp they are having a picnic and discussing the strange behaviour of Lou and Dan. Then Dick jumps up and says ‘let’s go for a swim’.]

Fiona: They’ve let Julian down.

Stef: Lol. “Frreeeeddddoooommmmm”

Stef [quoting Julian]: “A swim!?”

Fiona: So sympathetic Dick. NOT.

Fiona: How is there a cave entrance under that caravan in the short grass. [Obviously I’d forgotten how this episode goes.]

Stef: No idea.

Stef: Maybe they weren’t allowed to dig a hole?

Stef: I still think that Jemima and Paul had a bit of a thing!

[Dick Jumps in, swims with the girls for a few seconds then they all rush to the shallows to splash Julian & Nobby. Meanwhile Lou and Dan snoop around the caravan.]

Fiona: ‘Quick get out the water it’s freeeeeezing!’

Stef: Dan is very much more like a proper villain.

[Nobby shows the children around the circus camp and then they go wash an elephant.]

Stef: Yes, there’s the goat you knew was in the circus…

Fiona: lol

Fiona: At least they have an actual elephant.

Stef: That’s the same caravan as in Wonderful Time.

Stef: Julian directing via crutch.

[They return to camp to show Nobby the caravan and Growler eats some meat that Lou left earlier.]

Stef: That’s not a happy Timmy.

Fiona: They’ve skimped on Nobby having two dogs.

Stef: IT’S A CARAVAN, NOBBY HAS PROBABLY SEEN ONE BEFORE!

Fiona: That was fast.

Stef: “Play dead.”

Fiona: Eww don’t touch it, Dick!

Stef: How do you know it’s poison?

Fiona [Putting words in Dick’s mouth]: ‘Here let me fondle the probably poisoned meat for ages.’

Stef: Could have been a seizure.

Fiona: TBF the same goes for the book.

Stef: True

[The Five have a council of war at the circus camp.]

Stef: Paul has a good line in cross faces.

Stef [quoting Julian again]: “I’ve got a plan.”

Stef: A cunning plan?

Fiona: Dick smirking and giving it away.

[Lou and Dan, thinking the children are away into town on the bus go to their camp site. Secretly Julian is watching them from the caravan.]

Fiona: Neither Lou or Dan are as scary as in the book.

Stef: No.

Stef: They are proper scary in the book.

Stef: Love the tuk tuk.

Fiona: Because you made them move from the circus!

Stef: Yes like they won’t notice the door opening!

Fiona: I was just wondering how Ju was going to get on the roof but of course he’s not.

Fiona: Because the cave is just ‘hidden’ in the trees.

Fiona: (You’d think I’ve never watched the show before.)

Stef: Nope tbh, even without the cast, not sure they’d have let him on the roof.

[Nobby emerges from near the secret cave and Julian emerges from the caravan. They go to explore and the others turn up soon after.]

Stef: Hop hop hop.

Fiona: Damn cut away before Julian climbed down.

[Julian: I hid in the caravan to find out what they are up to.]

Stef [quoting Nobby and then Julian]: “What are they up to?” “I don’t know.”

Fiona [starting off quoting Dick and then making up the rest]: ‘Come on what are we waiting for: I’m able bodied! I can go down! Let me be the hero!’

Stef [quoting Julian]: “No, not without me”. DON’T PLAY FOOTBALL THEN!

[Julian admits defeat and says he’ll be lookout while the others go underground.]

Fiona: Dick’s so excited to be promoted to leading brother.

Stef: He does like the role.

Stef: Keep a look out!

Fiona: Batter anyone who comes along with a crutch.

Stef: How would he even warn them.

Fiona: Those are the same caves as in Smuggler’s top.

Fiona: With the obvious very round hole.

Stef: And Kirrin Island again, and Demon’s Rocks.

Fiona: Is that Paul being excited to have a bigger role or him acting Dick being excited to have a bigger role? Or both?

Stef: Both?

[Julian is the worst look out in the history of look outs as he lets Lou climb past him while he’s saying “Dick? George?” and then lets himself be ambushed.]

Fiona: Come on Ju what sort of look out are you?

Stef: Overacting from Marco there.

Fiona: No clobbering whatsoever.

Stef: Lol, indeed.

Fiona: I’m worrying about his broken leg, though, with all that thrashing.

Stef: Nope, didn’t sit with his back to the rock to stop people sneaking up on him.

[The others are caught underground.]

Fiona: No goat with you to sneak a message out.

Stef: Lol just Timmy.

Fiona: It ain’t funny being a clown LOL.

Fiona: Actually laughed out loud at that.

Stef: “Ain’t funny being a clown”.

Stef: I snorted.

Stef: Nobby with a bump on the head.

Stef: Should have done that in the first place.

[Dick escapes and unties Julian, but Lou and Dan are after him.]

Fiona: Cut off before Dick brains them.

Stef: So smug the pair of them.

[The police arrest the pair of them and Anne asks if there’s a reward.]

Fiona: Jeez he must have hit them hard.

Stef: Lol

Stef: Didn’t think Anne was materialistic.

Stef: Suddenly Growler is better!

Fiona: Got to have a happy ending.

Stef: Mines just tried to put me on to Adventuring Again.

Fiona: It’s making me watch ‘I survived 100 days’ in some Minecraft world.

Stef: Oh Brodie…

Stef: At least mine’s a FF.

Fiona: What is next?

Fiona: Oh expert.

Stef: Kirrin Island Again

Stef: Fi, we’re doing them by the order of the books, you know damn well that KIA comes after Caravan 😂

Fiona: Oh.

Fiona: Haha yes sorry.

Fiona: For some reason I was thinking we were doing it in series order which I don’t know.

Stef: Well we’re not.

Fiona: I do know the order of at least the first six books off the top of my head.

Fiona: I forgot OK.

Fiona: My brain holds very little info these days.

Stef: Also because I don’t know the exact filming and airing order of the eps off the top of my head – not that I’m sure I ever knew it.

Fiona: [Yes I know I acknowledged that Julian’s broken leg came out of nowhere and that should have clued me in…]

Fiona: Really? there’s something about the 90s FF what you DON’T know?

 

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Letters to Enid part 83: From volume 4, issue 20

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

[Warning for some offensive terminology again.]

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 20.
October 24th – November 6th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Rosslyn Shaw, Congo Belge.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I belong to a Famous Five Club. A little while ago we counted the money we had collected, and found we had 36 francs. That is about 4s. 6d. in British money. The Club decided to send it to some little children just like those in your Home, but black, not white. The lady who keeps this Home sends us news about it. She has 56 little babies. When I send the money I shall tell her about your Home, too. We are all enjoying your magazine.
Yours sincerely,
Rosslyn Shaw.

(It isn’t often I have a letter from Congo Belge, Rosslyn, and I am very pleased to hear that my F.F. members there are doing for small black children what F.F. members here do for little white ones. Please give all the members my warm thanks. I am very pleased to send you my Letter Prize.)

A letter from Patricia Freeman, Clonskea, Dublin.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I would like to tell you how I grow my own tomato plants. First I plant about five of the pips out of a ripe tomato in an ordinary garden pot filled with soil, and leave them to grow. In a few weeks’ time tiny green plants will appear. The stalks will be red. I leave them growing in the pot for a while, then I transplant them into my garden.
With love from your Busy Bee,
Patricia Freeman.

(Thank you, Patricia, for a good little garden hint. I expect that quite a lot of my readers will try to grow tomatoes your way!)

A letter from Roberta Fisher, Harwich.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am a member of your Magazine Club, and I was pleased when we had something to work for, as well as your other clubs. When I had my ninth birthday, I asked children to my party – but as I am a very lucky little girl and have lots of toys and books, I asked the children who came to my birthday tea if they would bring a few pennies for the little spastic children, instead of a present for me. So eight of them brought the 12s. 6d. I am now sending you.
Love from
Roberta Fisher.

(This is truly a kind thing to do, Roberta, and it is lovely to hear from someone so unselfish. Thank you very much.)

 

I knew Congo Belge was another way of saying Belgian Congo but I still looked it up and spent a while reading about Congo as a Belgian colony. I wonder if Rosslyn was still there in 1960 when Congo Belge gained rapid independence and became the Republic of the Congo and 800,000 Belgians were evacuated.

Patricia makes growing tomato plants sound very easy but I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have the same success if I tried it. We did have a little tomato plant once, and it grew from a little sprout to be about 20cm tall. It smelled like tomatoes but it didn’t produce a single flower let alone a tomato!

Roberts – our second fund-raising letter writer this week – had admirable self awareness to recognise she had enough, and to then not ask for gifts!

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Monday #681

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Fiona

To badly misquote June Bride from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – April showers will come so they say, and they did, and they haven’t stopped even though it’s May. I hope the next line – You’re about to forget the whole thing, all at once, one day it’s spring comes true.  I’m fed up of wearing jumpers and boots all the time! And not being able to put washing out or go to the park after school. It’s not that it’s raining all the time, but it’s just very unpredictable and chilly.

Letters to Enid part 83

and

Five Go Off in a Caravan as watched by Fiona and Stef

(I know this was supposed to go up last week but I kept procrastinating over sitting down to remove all the date/time stamps and reformatting it all so I could then correct all the typos and make it make at least some sort of sense.)

There could be up to two sequels to the Magic Faraway Tree film coming in the next few years.

In the UK the film has made around $20 million and in Australia another $7.2 million, and it’s yet to be released in the US. (Apparently it even out performed Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers and Paddington 1 and 2 in Australia)

According to this article from Deadline the producers believe the natural next step is to develop the other books into films to capitalise on the success of the first, and to get more out of all the money they spent on props and sets.

I wouldn’t hold my breath given how long they spent promising us the first film (though they said in the article they also spent 20 years trying just to get the rights!) but I’d imagine they’d want to move quickly before the child actors get too old.

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