Previous letters pages can be found here.

NB – a warning again for the use of wording that is considered derogatory and offensive in the UK (and potentially elsewhere) today. As I am transcribing these letters exactly as written by the child authors I will therefore be using it, though I wouldn’t be using it in any other circumstances.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 7.
April 25th – May 8th, 1956

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Diane Scruton, Beverley High Road, Hull.
Miss Blyton,
My hobby is helping with our toy theatre. Daddy made it, and we call it the Rose and Crescent. It is painted green, and has little red and green foot-lights. A little while ago we put on Cinderella. Daddy wrote the words, and I painted some of the scenery; it was great fun. We sold programmes at a penny for the Spastic Children, but everyone gave more. With this letter I send £1 3s. od. which we earned. We hope to give more shows later, Yours sincerely,
Diane Scruton.

(I am always pleased to hear about any hobby, Diane-and yours is a most interesting one! It was very kind of you to send so much money. Thank you! I have awarded you my prize for the most interesting letter this week.)

A letter from Kay Hillmer, Luptonville, Waverley, North Island, New Zealand.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I want to tell you about our dog Fella. He is a big, golden Labrador. One day Fella was lying outside with his head on Dad’s boots.
Suddenly it began to rain, and Fella picked up the boots in his mouth, and put them on the porch out of the rain. Another time Dad was down the gully and when he came back he found he had left his shirt behind, so he sent Fella back to get it. Fella went right down the gully and brought the shirt back to Dad. We all love him very much. He is nearly three now.
Love and best wishes from
Kay Hillmer.

(What a very clever dog, Kay! I did enjoy reading about him-and seeing his photograph! I am sure all my readers will like your letter too.)

Dear Enid Blyton,
I was one of the lucky winners of the F.F. competition in the magazine. I wish to thank you for the prize that I received and also for setting the competitions. It is such fun puzzling them out and sending them in – even if you don’t win a prize!
With best wishes from
Terence Swift.

(Thank you, Terence-you sent a very nice thank you letter – and I agree with you-competitions are fun, even if you don’t win !)

Reading Diane’s letter my brain immediately produced an image of something like the puppet theatre from the Sound of Music, and I thought how extravagant it sounded. But then I thought it could have been more TV-sized and using dolls as puppets. Then again if it was home-made maybe it was huge.

Lots of children like to tell Blyton all about their (rather ordinary) pets, but Fella sounds extremely useful I have to admit.

No address given for Terence – though it doesn’t look like there was space to include it this week as the letters page is so full. I had forgotten that prizes were also sent out for solving puzzles and entering competitions – it seems like a lot of prizes were sent out so the magazine must have been taking in a lot of money through sales and advertising space.