Author Archives: Fiona

The Five as you have never seen them before, part 2

Recently I posted some illustrations by Eileen Soper that look like members of the Famous Five but are actually from short stories. Here are some more, this time from the Hodder Story Books (Happy, Merry and so on). Anne and … Continue reading

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Monday #362

The Five as you’ve never seen them before, part 2 and Introducing Fanfic Friday (because who doesn’t love alliteration!) Cunningham and Petrov, the Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane Amelia Jane slept for an hour- and then she began having horrid … Continue reading

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Letters to Enid 20: From volume 2 issue 8

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, as I admit I’d rather forgotten about them! Previous letters pages can be found here. Letters page from Volume 2, issue 8. April 14th-27th 1954 OUR LETTER PAGE  A letter … Continue reading

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February 2020 Round Up

So that’s January and February done – oh for spring! There have been too many storms, too much rain, wind and freezing temperatures for most of us I think. I can’t wait for milder weather. What I have read Eleven … Continue reading

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Monday #361

A little later in the day than planned, but it’s still Monday at least. February round up and Letters to Enid 19 The Magic Faraway Tree is getting a new installment next month, written by Jeanne Willis. It is called … Continue reading

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The Naughtiest Girl continued: The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret

As I covered in my post on Blyton’s prequels, sequels and continuations, there are six additional Naughtiest Girl books written by Anne Digby. I’ve borrowed all of them (in two different editions) from my library and now it’s time to … Continue reading

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Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane chapter 3

So far we have posted two chapters of our new fanfiction which takes a look at what happened to Bill, and Anatoly, once the children board the wrong plane. In chapter one we saw the scene at the aerodrome, and … Continue reading

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Monday #360

Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane chapter 3 and The Naughtiest Girl Continued: The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret A mystified garage mechanic had been called after Enid had made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to start the engine. … Continue reading

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The Five as you have never seen them before

Eileen Soper’s Five are the real Five to me. I grew up seeing her illustrations in lots of my Famous Five books and although I also had some Betty Maxey books too, I always picture Julian, Dick, Anne, George and … Continue reading

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Blyton by others: A guide to unnecessary retellings of Blyton’s work

I recently wrote a guide to continuations of Blyton’s series, whether they be prequels, sequels or gap-fillers. While looking for all the possible things to feature I ruled out several books by other authors as they didn’t “continue” a story … Continue reading

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Monday #359

A guide to unnecessary retellings of Blyton’s works and The Famous Five as you’ve never seen them before The wind howled round and shook the tree violently. Something fell from the tree and hit the raging man full on the … Continue reading

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The Naughtiest Girl in the School: How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? Part 6

There are only four chapters left so this should be the final part! Part one looked at chapters 1-4, part 2 chapters 5-8 here, part 3 chapters 9-12, part 4 chapters 13-16 and part 5 was chapters 17-20. I am … Continue reading

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Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane chapter 2

Two weeks ago we posted the first chapter of our new fanfiction which takes a look at what happened to Bill, and Anatoly, once the children boarded the wrong aeroplane. Chapter 2 Anatoly thought better than to answer the comment … Continue reading

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Monday #358

It’s Valentine’s day on Friday! Romance didn’t often feature in Enid Blyton’s books (just look at Bill’s ‘proposal’ to Allie, below), but we’ve written a few romantic stories featuring some of her characters once they’ve grown up. They are: First … Continue reading

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Macaroons

Somehow when I think of macaroons I still picture the little round French macaroons or macarons. I’ve actually made the kind of macaroons that the Find-Outers devoured by the dozen, with Stef when she visited a few years ago. When … Continue reading

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January 2020 round up

It’s the first round up of 2020. I’m always glad when January is over as it can be quite a depressing month once the Christmas decorations come down and everyone’s back at work. It has been particularly cold this year … Continue reading

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Monday #357

January round up and Macaroons It was a waterfall – but what a big one! It fell from a great height, almost sheerly down the mountainside, and cascaded far below them, fine spray rising high in the air. It wetted … Continue reading

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The Naughtiest Girl in the School: How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? Part 5

Part one looked at chapters 1-4, part 2 chapters 5-8 here, part 3 chapters 9-12 and part 4 was chapters 13-16. I am comparing the 1944 5th reprint by George Newnes (which should be more or less identical to the … Continue reading

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Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane

Here we have a brand-new fan fiction story for you. We all know the book The Valley of Adventure. We’ve read about what happened to the children once they boarded the wrong plane, and their adventures in the valley. But Bill … Continue reading

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Monday #356

Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane (a new fanfic story!) and The Naughtiest Girl updated part 5 Jack undid a rope from round his waist. He nearly always had one there. Jack is always prepared (and perhaps … Continue reading

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