Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 3, issue 10.
May 11th – 24th, 1955.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Nicola Gawn, Bembridge.
Dear Miss Blyton,
My friend and I have a greenhouse in which chickens were kept. Now that my Mummy and Daddy have moved them into a shed, my friend and I put all the plants we own into the greenhouse. Daddy has given me a lot of cuttings from his prize carnations, and we have ferns and cactus, as well as the seeds we bought with our pocket money. We have two boxes of seeds planted and growing, and soon we shall plant four more boxes. The money we get from the flowers we sell will be halved. Half will go to buy new plants, and half we shall send you for the little Blind Children.
Lots of love from,
Nicola Gawn.

(You sent me such an interesting letter Nicola, that I felt I must quote some of it. What a busy gardener you are! Well done.)

A letter from Penelope Gibson, London, S.W.8.
Dear Enid Blyton,
In one of your books called “My Enid Blyton Book” there is a story called “The Beautiful Pattern.” It is about snow crystals and the lovely patterns they make. One day it snowed on my way to school, and I looked at my dark blue coat and there on it were several beautiful six-sided crystals, all different. They were lovely patterns and I could not stop looking at them. Much love from,
Penelope.

(So you saw the lovely six-sided crystal patterns, Penelope! And all different too, as they always are. You were lucky!)

A letter from Mary…….., Purslow Hall, Shopshire.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I have six hens of my own and they lay me about five eggs a day. So I sell the eggs, and I am now sending you 5s. for your little children in the Home.
With lots of love from,
Mary.

(Dear me, even the hens help us, Mary! Thank you for a dear little letter. You didn’t put your surname, but it doesn’t matter, I expect you will know this letter is yours !)

Nicola surely has a green thumb – I wish we’d seen her whole letter though. Obviously the limited space means letters have to be short but I wonder how many are cut down without it being mentioned?

Both Nicola and Mary’s letters were fundraising ones – both mentioning chickens, oddly enough. I wonder where Nicola’s chickens went after the greenhouse (perhaps onto their dinner plates…)

I’m intrigued by Penelope referring to snow crystals rather than snow flakes in her letter – apparently The word “snowflake” is a more general meteorological term, used to describe several different types of winter precipitation, anything from individual snow crystals to agglomerations of many crystals that collide and stick together, falling to earth as flimsy puffballs. So now I know!