Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 3, issue 13.
June 22nd – July 5th, 1955.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Madeleine Edward, Bieldside, Aberdeenshire.
Dear Enid Blyton,
In the summer we play a game of the Faraway Tree, we all choose a name like Silky or Moonface, and play their part. The person who is Dame Washalot has a bucket which we pull up and down. First, we ask Mummy for a few dusters, and we put them in the bucket full of water and pull it up the tree to a branch. Then Dame Washalot washes them and hangs them on a line. Then she pours the water down the tree! We can’t have a slippery-slip for Moonface, so we have a rope to swing on. I am a member of all your clubs, and am very proud of my badges.
Love from,
Madeleine Edward.

(I had only space to print half your interesting letter, Madeleine. I was most amused to hear how you played a game of The Faraway Tree, and even had a Dame Washalot!)

A letter from Joyce Evans, Llandovery, Carmarthen.
Dear Enid Blyton,
One day I was passing one of our friend’s houses which has a drive. At the end of this drive there is a tree in which there is a letter-box to put Colonel Blandy’s daily paper and letters. Now, as I passed this letter-box I saw a little bird coming out of the mouth, but as it was not my box, I did not look in. The very next day this gentleman wrote and told my father, who is a postman, that a little bird had built its nest in the letter-box, so would he please not put the daily paper or the letters in the box, but place them on top. The nest is lined with moss and white hairs from the horses nearby. I thought you would like to hear about the little bird, so I told you.
Yours truly,
Joyce Evans.

(A well written and interesting letter, Joyce, which I think all our readers will enjoy. Thank you for sending it.)

A letter from Richard Johnson, Bitterne, Southampton.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I found a four-leaved clover and gave it to Mummy, and that evening Daddy brought home a puppy. So wasn’t that lucky?
Love from,
Richard (aged 51⁄2)

(Very lucky, Richard. I wonder what you called the puppy?)

I love Madeleine’s letter and really wish there had been room for it all. It reminds me of when I used to play Famous Five with a bunkbed for a tower and a washing basket for a boat (but nobody got wet).

Joyce’s letter is interesting and shows how times have changed – could you imagine trying to make a request like that to Royal Mail today??

I use a website to extract the text from the scanned letters pages and it normally does very well – I only have to correct the odd mistake where the page has been marked or torn. This time however Richard’s age was given as 51 and I thought it rather odd until I checked the image.