Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 3, issue 3.
February 2nd – 15th, 1955.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Margaret Lloyd, Barry.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I am writing to tell you of an idea which my mother and I thought of. We have recently put up a bird-table, and the birds love it. The good idea is this – we have ham quite often and so we string up all the ham-fat for the birds. But, as this is a very messy job we decided to put the bits of fat into a piece of net, and tie the top with a piece of string, and hang it up like that. The birds love to peck at the fat through the mesh of the net.
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Lloyd.

(This is such a good idea that I felt I must print your letter, Margaret, so that other readers can do the same as you.)

A letter from Patricia Fowler, Barnet, Herts.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I am sending you 3s. for the little Blind Children. I have saved it myself, some from my pocket-money and some from money Mummy has given me for washing up for her. I am six years old.
Love from
Patricia Fowler.

(Thank you, Patricia – you wrote your letter beautifully. You must be a great help to your mother!)

A letter from Mary Allen, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Dear Enid Blyton,
This letter is to wish you a happy New Year. I am sending you a photo of our dog. He is called Toby, and he is exactly the same as Timmy in the “Famous Five” books. Once when I called him Timmy instead of Toby, he came! He is as gentle as anything and the only thing he is afraid of is when he hears a bang of a cap-gun (which my brothers have). When he hears the bang he goes upstairs very quietly and creeps under Mummy’s bed and stays there.
With best love from
Mary Clare Allen.

(Toby does indeed look like Timmy, Mary. I shall have to borrow him if I write a play about the “Famous Five.” I hope he can act!)

There’s a bit cut out of this page again – but luckily I think it’s just the illustration we have lost. A letter as short as Patricia’s would just fit in that space, but the amount of blank space below the response to Margaret suggests not.

It sounds like Margaret and her mother have invented what are essentially fat balls for birds – most seem to come unwrapped but you can buy them in little net bags to hang too. Impressive enough to knock a money-raising letter into second place.

How I wish they had included Mary’s picture of Toby. I wonder what kind of dog he was? Perhaps Blyton was just being nice in her reply, when she said Toby does look like Timmy. But imagine if he did – I’d love to see a real-life dog that matches Blyton’s mental picture of Timmy.