Blyton by others: Game books
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Five on a Hike Together
Following on from last week’s non-Blyton quote – here’s another one about the joys of reading.
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”
Conversations with William Styron.
I’d much rather be living the lives of the Famous Five right now, than my own!
Last time Bill arrived in Gairdon to hear Philip’s startling tale of their time in the Valley of Adventure.
After talking to Bill on Tuesday evening, Anatoly had decided it was time to move his digs before he drew attention to himself. He walked to the next village a few miles away, but close enough to keep an ear out for any news of the missing man.
He put his bags down in the room he had just acquired from the stern looking Austrian woman downstairs and moved to the window. He screwed his mouth up as he eyed up the tall looking tree just outside his window and knew that he would have to get up the tree to attach the aerial for his portable radio. He would have to do it under cover of darkness so as not to draw any unwanted attention.
He swung himself away from the window, moved his bags, put the few clothes he carried with him in the chest of drawers provided and set out his wash bag on the washstand. He lay down on his bed, and took out his notebook to try and make sense of all the facts as he knew them, running around his head.
The light began to fade, and he allowed himself to wander out of the room in search of some food, beer and gossip. He listened intently to all the gossip around him as he ate in the local pub, and noticed that he was being given a wide berth. That changed and his presence was accepted when he brought the bar a round. Anatoly didn’t get any new information but now he had a foothold in the local community, which was an important part of his job.
Back in his room, Anatoly collected the aerial and cable for his radio, propped open his window and slipped back out of the house before the landlady could catch him. He put the aerial in his pocket and began to climb the tree. He went as high up as he could and settled himself against a hefty branch to install the aerial and secure it to the tree. This took him a few minutes.
Running the cable through his fingers, he began to climb down, but when he was level with his bedroom window, he threw the cable through it with a master shot. He gave himself a metaphorical pat on the back and then began to shin down the tree and back into the house. With that done he knew he could turn in for the night.
In the morning he tuned his radio, and sat back waiting for his check in from London. When the communication came Anatoly was surprised not to be talking to Bill and even more surprised to be told that one of the children had turned up in Scotland. Anatoly was totally stunned, he had thought he was hot on the trail of the children. He was told to stand by for a messages for orders on his next move.
Disheartened, he signed off and slumped on the bed. The message Anatoly received later that day buoyed him considerably, however. He was to make his way to a small airfield some thirty miles north, where he would be picked up by Bill and some other agents, and then fly on to the mysterious valley he had been hearing about.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Bill drove himself and Philip to the air strip first thing the next morning, glad that the weather had settled. It was perfect flying weather now, though they would have to hope that it stayed that way across the continent. The forecasts had seemed all right, at least.
The drive was not a long one but he used the few minutes to pick Philip’s brain again, trying to build a better mental picture of the layout of the valley and the treasure caves. He had Philip wait in the car once they got to the air strip, refusing to let him out of his sight as he ran his final checks on personnel and equipment. When he was satisfied he fetched Philip and personally escorted him to his aeroplane.
“I’m not a child,” Philip grumbled.
“No, but I’m not risking you being spirited away again,” Bill replied. “Your mother would absolutely murder me.”
Up in the air Bill let his two best pilots take the controls, freeing him up to re-run all his plans in his head. The priority was safely retrieving the children, after that they would aim to apprehend Juan, Pepi and any of their comrades. Only then could they think about liberating the treasure, and ensuring its safe delivery to Julius Muller.
“Just to remind everyone, the children’s safety is our top priority, followed by the old couple in the caves,” he said aloud. “I do not want them caught in the crossfire. We’ll get the five of them first, and if that means any of the crooks slipping past you then so be it. We can do what we can to round them up later. Is that clear?”
There were a few slightly disgruntled faces but everyone responded in the affirmative. Philip waited until the murmurs of ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘yes, boss’, had died down before he spoke up.
“Don’t forget Kiki, Bill.”
Bill pinched the bridge of his nose. “There’ll be a parrot around somewhere too,” he added to his men. “If you could avoid injury to her, that would be appreciated.”
That raised a few smirks, but they nodded all the same.
“We’re coming near to our pick-up point,” the pilot called back to Bill after they had been in the air some time.
“Take us down, then,” Bill said. “We’ll give our people until 10, then we’ll have to get on regardless of who has or hasn’t shown.”
To be continued…
At the start of the lockdown the BBC released all episodes of Malory Towers onto the iPlayer ahead of their scheduled air date on CBBC on the 6th of April. Despite being very excited I’ve only managed to watch two episodes so far. I definitely liked what I saw, so let’s see what happens next.
So far we’ve seen Darrell head off to Malory Towers, making friends with Alicia straight away and attracting Gwen to try to make friends too. She falls out with Gwen who blackmails her, and we find out that Darrell has been asked to leave her previous school and this is a new start for her.
The girls play their first tricks. First, Alicia has a box of trick sweets (which Darrell appears to be in on) and they dye Gwen’s teeth blue. Matron confiscates them and dyes her teeth blue, which gives Gwen an opening to bond with her over the nastiness of the other girls. We also get to laugh at her life modelling as a viking for the first formers and unable to open her mouth lest everyone see the blue teeth – it reminds me a bit of Mam’zelle’s ‘treek teeth’ especially as Miss Grayling talks to her and she’s mortified.
Darrell then pretends to be deaf in Mam’zelle Rougier’s class. Yes, Darrell. Not Alicia as in the book. I was surprised by this as although Darrell enjoys a trick she isn’t big on playing them herself – and given her chat with Miss Grayling in the last episode it seems unlikely she would do this. As in the book she then genuinely goes deaf and gets into trouble for playing a second trick. Mam’zelle Rouger is not as sharp as the book version but she does get the great line
Fool you once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me. I will have no shame on me.
The other main plot centres on Alicia’s ghost stories again. Mary-Lou, who we see properly for the first time in this episode, is particularly scared by these. It’s not helped by a ‘bloody’ handprint being left on the dorm room door in the night.
Of course there is no ghost and the handprint is jammy and made by Irene who is sleepwalking and sleepeating. The only solution to this problem is for matron to sleep on a camp bed in the middle of the dorm… but Matron is not a good sleepwalking minder as she sleeps through Irene getting up again, and Sally following her out.
Darrell continues to get into trouble. She forgets to do her prep for one, and then the bit I’ve been waiting for actually happens.
Gwen ducks Mary-Lou in the pool. Not like Alicia and Darrell are ducking each other and laughing but it honestly looks like she’s trying to drown her as she pushes her under and holds her repeatedly. Darrell races over and slaps Gwen hard across the face, has a row with Katherine and storms off.
She then apologises to Gwen, and the other girls have a meeting about it all. Darrell swings their opinion somewhat by apologising to Katherine, but it’s all muddied by Mary-Lou saying she and Gwen were just playing around, and Gwen saying that Darrell hasn’t apologised and is a liar.
Then, near the end, we discover why Darrell left her last school. According to Miss Potts she was actually expelled and it was for pushing a teacher down the stairs. Miss Grayling remarks that she’s not certain they know the whole story there.
We end on Darrell and Sally becoming quite friendly, talking about Mary-Lou’s fears.
I thought these were two good episodes, though I have my reservations about a few details.
As I said above it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have Darrell do Alicia’s deafness trick, especially given what we find out about her at the end of episode four. If she’s truly embracing a fresh start (guilty or not) she wouldn’t be daft enough to jeopardise it for a few laughs, surely?
Gwen continues to be brilliantly awful – using Mary-Lou to try to get out of swimming by pretending they both have heat-stroke, telling lies, sneaking and generally being very unlikeable. Unlike book Gwen the other girls don’t seem to see through her so well, and so she gets away with a lot more.
Gwen doesn’t understand the purpose of a bathing hat.
In the book she says I don’t call it an apology, which to me implies that Darrell did apologize but poorly, with bad grace or whatever. In the series she out and out says that Darrell is a liar and hasn’t apologised at all. In the book Katherine is much harder on her, and they explicitly say they believe Darrell while on TV they seem more ambivalent.
The other strange thing is Darrell and Sally. Book Sally barely says two words until they have the fight in the music room – other than to say she doesn’t have a baby sister. Here we have her boldly state that sending someone to coventry is just as bad as slapping them, following a sleep-walking Irene and getting chummy with Darrell. We even see her making a few jokes. I wonder how she will develop later on, and whether they will still have her argue with Darrell and get pushed over.
There’s more of a sense of the teachers knowing what’s going on in the series. Miss Potts keeps popping up and although she doesn’t know that Darrell has slapped Gwen she knows the first form are having a meeting, that Darrell is upset and that Gwen is being shady. We are privy to several conversations between the teachers and this is where we get various tidbits of information about the girls and what’s going on.
Darrell’s spelling issues continue. She appears to write Mallory Towers which is a sin in anyone who calls themself a Blyton fan let alone a pupil of that very school (in my eyes at least!) and she later can’t spell witches without looking it up. I’ve seen a spoiler that she has some form of dyslexia or similar and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Darrell in the books is a gifted writer, not just a story-teller, and it is odd to suddenly give her this problem. I can understand them wanting to feature such a problem, to show children watching that it’s OK to struggle with academic elements and help is out there but they could have used another character to do so. Darrell already has her temper to overcome and of course the added expulsion.
I was surprised that Gwen moaned to Jean about the non-existent mark on her face after the slap, considering Jean is played by an actress with a facial disfigurement. At first I thought it was quite cruel – both by Gwen and the writers – but then I thought it was actually very clever. Firstly it shows how self-absorbed Gwen is and secondly Jean’s sarcastic reply was wonderful and all the more meaningful.
Mary-Lou is very well acted, she is small, quiet and very much how I imagine her. She manages to be likeable despite being rather spineless at times.
Mam’zelle Rougier seems more likeable than in the books and I wonder if she is an amalgamation of the two Mam’zelles. She’s tall and slim but her more pleasant demeanour could be from Mam’zelle Dupont.
Matron continues to amuse, first with the blue teeth and then by trying to talk to Mam’zelle Rougier in rather bad French. I had been wondering how she got blue teeth towards the end of an episode but I now wonder if Matron hadn’t snuck her a trick sweet after being spoken sharply to.
I’m really glad the slap was kept in. I know it was one instead of four, and delivered slightly differently but given that some recent reprints have turned slaps into shakings one slap is far better than none.
Has anyone else watched this yet? If so, what did you think?
Next post – Malory Towers on TV – Episodes five and six
Malory Towers on TV: Episodes 3&4
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Fan fic Friday
Cunningham and Petrov: The Mystery of the Missing Aeroplane chapter 6
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
Not a Blyton quote, obviously, but something hopefully true at this difficult time. We might not be able to travel very far (or at all) right now but we can escape into Kirrin, Peterswood, Malory Towers, onto islands, into secret passages, mysterious castles, beaches and villages galore just by opening some of Blyton’s books.
I’m not even sure how to introduce this one, this has been quite the month. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ‘breaking news’ headlines in so short a time.
Thirteen books (so far) isn’t bad – I’d love to say that being in lockdown has vastly increased my reading time, but it really hasn’t.
March’s books:
As always I’ve got some on the go that I haven’t finished
I didn’t realise how many of the Jodi Taylor books I had listened to until I had to type them out. The new one comes out in two weeks, though, so I’ve got a lot more to get through. Meanwhile I’m not sure why I continue to read the Argeneau books – the series should have ended several books ago!
I normally only include this if I’ve bought something Blyton-related like a book, but this month I got some storage boxes for my Enid Blytons Magazines. Please excuse the toy-filled living room! The boxes are for A4 paper so fit the journals with a little room around the edges for lifting them out. Two boxes is enough to hold one volume of up to 26 issues.
What has your month looked like?
I had thought about doing an April fool of my own but with current events as they are (and a lack of particularly convincing ideas) I thought instead it would be fun to have a look at the best tricks, jokes and pranks from Blyton’s books.
Blyton’s schools always seem to have at least one trickster in each class. Alicia Johns at Malory Towers, and her cousin June, Janet Robins and Bobby Ellis at St Clare’s, Tom at St Rollo’s and Julian at Whyteleaf. Saying that, half the classes seem to get involved at one point or another – and even the mistresses aren’t immune to a trick now and again.
The first trick we see at Malory Towers is played by Alicia – she pretends to be deaf and the class find hilarity in repeating things more loudly for her, while she deliberately misunderstands them. She plays it on Mam’zelle Rougier, the French mistress always a target for these things as she rarely suspects a trick is being played on her.
Mamzelle: Can you not hear?
Alicia: What do I fear?
Betty: Can you not hear?
Alicia: Beer?
Unfortunately for Alicia this backfires when she genuinely becomes a bit deaf after swimming underwater, and Miss Potts believes it’s another trick and moves her to the front of the classroom.
7/10 for how funny it is, but only 2/10 for ingenuity as her brother had already played the trick and told her all about it.
The next attempt is just as funny – and a bit more complex. Alicia has some magic chalk that when rubbed on a surface is invisible, but when warmed up it turns bright pink. She rubs it over the music master’s chair and turns his derriere bright pink – the beauty of it that he has no clue it was a trick.
Darrell then goes to repeat the trick on Mam’zelle but goes a step further and writes ‘oy’ on the chair (backwards of course). This is even funnier as she goes around flashing OY on her behind – but it’s so obvious that it’s a trick that they have to stop her and clean it off before any mistresses see it.
9/10 for hilarity and a solid 10/10 for bravery in setting it up
The third form sees the girls deploying some sneeze pellets. These have been sent by one of Alicia’s other brothers, and once wet they produce a vapour that causes whoever is within four feet to sneeze like mad. They play it on Mam’zelle Dupont of course, and she ‘snizzes’ over and over, so much she falls off her chair. Miss Pots comes to investigate the noise and then she is overcome with sneezes too. Mam’zelle looks so ill that Matron is sent for and then she starts sneezing too. It’s a wonder none of the girls had rolled onto the floor with laughter.
Even Darrell catches a sneeze as she disposes of the pellet. Unluckily they get caught out on this one and have to forfeit the next half-holiday, but it sounds like it was worth it.
10/10 for being hilarious, I can just imagine the three adults sneezing away helplessly!
As often is the case a trick is played near the end of term, just when the girls’ spirits are flagging. In the fourth form the trick is played after they’ve sat their exams. This time it’s something Betty has brought in, more pellets, but these produce large bubbles when wetted. These bubbles float down and when they burst they make a loud ‘ping’.
This one’s also played on Mam’zelle, who is of course entirely baffled when something ‘pings’ right by her ear. She’s especially baffled when nobody else can hear anyof the mysterious pings.
Mamzelle: Do you not hear a ping, Sally?
Sally: You don’t mean a pong do you?
Irene: Perhaps she means a ping-pong
Miss Williams rumbles the trick, but she’s a sport and doesn’t get them into trouble as she’s found it quite funny herself.
8/10 for being funny though so much of that is from Mam’zelle’s reactions
In the fifth form the girls think they are too old to play tricks and so the tricks come from the lower form, the second form in particular. June has followed in her cousin’s footsteps and ordered tricks from catalogues. Her first is a balloon contraption which she can inflate and deflate under her clothes giving the illusion she is growing and shrinking.
Of course she plays this on Mam’zelle Dupont, who else? Mam’zelle is very alarmed to see June swelling up in front of her eyes. Unluckily the valve breaks and she’s left alarmingly swollen just as Mam’zelle races off for Matron. There’s nothing for it but to burst the balloons and try to hide the evidence.
6/10 for the funny factor, 8/10 for the unintentional humour of June’s trick backfiring on herself.
The unintended consequence of June’s balloon trick is that Mam’zelle Dupont confiscates her trick books and orders herself a set of terrifying false teeth which she uses to play her own ‘treek’ She dons these plastic fangs and walks around the grounds one afternoon, flashing them at unsuspecting girls. This is terribly funny by itself, it becomes ten times funnier when Miss Grayling spots her and wants her to talk to the parents of some prospective pupils. Mam’zelle manages to mutter a few comments, then, forgetting, she gives them a grin of terrifying proportions and has to scurry off to laugh at their faces.
It ends with her laughing the teeth out onto the grass, revealing the trick to the fifth formers who have gathered around her.
10/10 for how funny this is, and also 10/10 for the unexpectedness of the French mistress playing a trick of her own.
June’s next trick involves a very powerful magnet. She knows that any mistress would suspect a trick if she plays it, so she gives it to Susan who uses it to pull all the pins out of Mam’zelle Rougier’s neat little bun at the end of a French class. Of course her bun completely unravels and she is alarmed to think perhaps she forgot to pin her hair up that morning as there are certainly no pins there now.
They are so enamoured with their joke that they play it on Mam’zelle Rougier again – a very bold move as almost nobody dares play a trick on her once let alone twice – and this time Harriet wields the magnet. This time she deposits the pins by the classroom door for Mam’zelle to discover.
They even play this one a third time so that the staid sixth formers can have a laugh. Nora comes to their classroom while Mam’zelle Dupont is teaching and uses the magnet on her bun. She is just as alarmed as her colleague to discover her pin-free hair flapping down her back.
The second form then go one better. Felicity comes to the sixth form classroom this time and steals Mam’zelle Dupont’s hair pins. She rushes off to repin her hair, and when she returns a curious hissing noise fills the room. Alicia investigates and follows the sound to the chimney where of of the second formers has stuck a pellet which forms a hissing snake. There they have also hidden a pin cushion full of hair pins…
Mam’zelle suspects the sixth-formers have tricked her, but of course they haven’t and know nothing of snake-pellets. They are therefore amazed when Nora arrives to steal Mam’zelle’s second lot of hair pins and place a second pellet and pin cushion behind the blackboard.
10/10 for hilarity and 10/10 for sheer audacity
At The Naughtiest Girl’s School it is Julian who plays the tricks. At first he sticks to curious noises – a pot bubbling over, a hen clucking, turkeys gobbling, violins being tuned and so on to amuse the other children and disrupt lessons and meetings a little.
4/10 for hilarity but 8/10 for skill
His other tricks are less funny. He begins a campaign against Elizabeth who he feels has wronged him. First he creates an ingenious spring which he places under her books in class, it slowly unfurls and tosses all her books to the floor. Deftly he places another when she picks her books up, and then a third causing her to be sent from the room.
He then pastes some pellets above her chair so that little drips land on her throughout a lesson.
Lastly he puts sneezing powder in the pages of her textbook causing her to sneeze violently.
If these had been played in good humour on a teacher or pupil I’d score them quite highly. As they were played with malice and caused Elizabeth to get into a lot of trouble I have to give Julian a 0/10 for humour, and a grudging 7/10 for ingenuity.
There’s at least one joke per term at St Clare’s with Bobby and Janet vying for the role as class prankster.
First Janet puts firecrackers up the chimney to give Miss Kennedy a fright. Miss Kennedy is a bit of a poor soul and doesn’t cope well with the sudden explosions. Foolishly Janet tips the rest of the box in and when Miss Roberts comes back they all explode and she is furious.
This could have been quite funny but it was directed rather maliciously at Miss Kennedy, and given how upset she was and then how much trouble the girls got into I can only score this a 2/10.
Also mentioned in The Twins at St Clare’s are Janet’s trick pencils, which have varying qualities such a lead that slides back in, lead that wobbles and lead that just won’t write. These are only described in passing and unfortunately we don’t see them deployed.
6/10 if you imagine how funny they would be when given to an unsuspecting mistress.
The next book has Janet’s magic ink blot and blotting paper. The ink blot is a fake one – ordered from the same sort of catalogue that June Johns buys – and she puts it on her French prep to make Mam’zelle think she has ruined it with her fountain pen. Mam’zelle is mortified, even when June magically manages to blot it off without so much as a smudge. She then puts it on Doris’ desk, making Mam’zelle shake her pen in disbelief and causing several real inkblots to appear.
7/10 because it’s both clever and funny and Mam’zelle doesn’t suspect a thing.
Unfortunately they follow that trick with a cruel one and fill Mam’zelle’s glasses case with beetles, pretending the glasses are there and she is imagining things. She almost has a breakdown thinking she is having real problems with hallucinated beetles.
0/10 because it’s just mean
It’s Bobby’s turn next and without the aid of any joke books she hatches a plan. She sends a false note to Miss Roberts, luring her from the room. While she’s gone Bobby changes the time on the clock so that they get out of class ten minutes early and thus avoid a test.
This is more clever than funny, so 6/10
Bobby’s next trick is to use a squeaking biscuit toy to pretend there is a lost kitten in the classroom. Mam’zelle does fall for it but the whole thing makes her very angry and although they waste half a lesson cat-hunting they earn themselves an extra test too.
Quite funny as they all hunt for a nonexistent cat, but Mam’zelle’s reaction dampens it all a bit so another 6/10 for Bobby
Another trick by Bobby involves a plate connected to a rubber tube. Settling the plate at Mam’zelle’s seat at the head of the table she then presses a little bulb at the end of the tube and causes Mam’zell’s plate to tip and jiggle alarmingly. It happens over and over during the meal yet all the girls pretend not to notice anything.
Mam’zelle goes quite wild and when Miss Theobald comes over to investigate Bobby can’t help but make the plate move one more time. Luckily both teachers see the funny side of the joke!
This one’s really funny and as it’s taken in good spirit all around it gets 8/10
Janet plays the last trick as she has bought some little glass stink pellets. She lets one off in Mam’zelle’s class and it positively reeks. The poor girls have to suffer for a few minutes before it reaches Mam’zelle who feels bad she didn’t believe them at first. By the time she fetches Miss Theobald, however, the smell is gone. They play a variation on this after, pretending there is a bad smell when they haven’t actually created one. Mam’zelle fetches Miss Ellis who, excuse the pun, smells a rat.
Unfortunately for the girls Bobby has a stink pellet in her pocket and accidentally breaks it. The girls have been warned against a single protest about any smells so they have to suffer in silence. Miss Ellis can smell it too, and knowing it’s a trick leaves the girls some work to do and escapes the horrendous odour leaving them to suffer.
This is pretty funny, though I think Miss Ellis getting her own back might be even funnier. 7/10 for the original gag and 9/10 for Miss Ellis’ revenge.
There’s a couple of tricks in Mischief at St Rollo’s played by Tom Young. First he ties some cotton-reels to thread, puts them in a cupboard and then runs the thread to his desk so he can jiggle them from afar. He does this in Monsieur Crozier’s class (what is it with school kids playing tricks on the French teachers?) and causes alarm at the suggestion it may be mice. He actually then pretends to have found a mouse and chases it all over the classroom, landing himself in rather a lot of trouble.
7/10 for the original part of the trick as it’s clever but only 3/10 for the mad mouse-chase as it wa a bit over the top and blew the whole thing.
He is a master at thread tricks it would seem as later he ties threads to pegs on the blackboard and causes it to fall down not once but twice during a lesson. Unfortunately one of the other boys rats him out and he is caught with the threads in his pockets.
This is more clever than the first and is only rumbled due to spitefulness from someone else so 8/10.
I couldn’t think of many tricks outside of the school books. There are probably various ones amongst the short stories but I haven’t had the time to search them all.
Pip plays an excellent trick on the rest of the Find-Outers in The Mystery of the Invisible Thief when he puts on oversized shoes and walks through the flower-bed to make Fatty think that the invisible thief has come their way. It has the added bonus of helping them solve the mystery.
8/10 for being so clever, both purposefully and inadvertently.
Although Julian and Dick mention some tricks played by boys at their school I can only think of one trick actually played out across the 21 books and 8 short stories. In Five Go to Billycock Hill Toby dares to play a trick on George. She says she’s not afraid of spiders so he dangles a huge fake specimen over her at their camp, and manages to give her rather a fright.
Not hugely hilarious but he’s very brave to play a trick on George, 6/10
I’ve rather lost track of the days but I think it’s Monday now!
and
As you know I’ve been watching the CBBC adaptation of Malory Towers. I’ve also discovered there is a novelisation of the series, written by Narinder Dhami who has already written more books for the Wishing Chair series and a short story in the recent Malory Towers collection.
It might be worth a look if you’ve enjoyed the series. I rather like reading books based on TV series as it can often give a deeper insight into character motivations and so on.
Previously, the children go missing on an unknown aeroplane and Bill and his men mount a search. The last instalment had Bill receiving a call to say that Philip had surfaced in Gairdon…
Within half an hour two planes were ready, and had been filled with Bill’s chosen agents. It was regrettable that some of his preferred choices were already in Europe, on a wild goose chase it seemed, but he was happy enough with who he had. A few burly fellows, good for physical fights, one or two who excelled in scouting, one with a particular expertise in explosives, and the rest were good all-rounders. All of them were armed, dangerous and ready to face whatever was thrown at them.
The flight to the North-East of Scotland took an hour and a half, and they were lucky to be able to land at a private air-strip only ten miles from Gairdon, so the last part, made in a Scottish police-car seemed to take no time at all.
The landscape was rugged, the location remote. Snow topped the craggy mountains which loomed in the near distance, and Bill hoped the other children weren’t somewhere as inhospitable as that. They hadn’t been dressed for it at all.
He strode towards the police-station and was relieved to see that Philip was looking well, if rather filthy. Inside the police station Philip poured out his story…
Bill could hardly believe what he had just heard, and seen in the notebook Philip had presented to him. He had been shown to a telephone, and planned to make use of it, but first he needed a moment to digest Philip’s tremendous story.
So the children were in Austria. Not Scotland. He wouldn’t have to fire anyone after all, that was a relief. On the down side, it would be a few hours’ flight into Austria, and he’d need all sorts of clearances for it. He ran through a mental list of calls to make. He’d need to let Allie know that Philip was safe, and that he knew where the other children were too. He would need to let the two agents back at the planes know that they needed to be prepared for a long flight. He would need to speak to someone at headquarters, giving them an update. He would need to get clearance from the Austrians to enter their airspace, he didn’t want to have to waste time with evasive manoeuvres. And lastly, he realised, he could arrange to pick up a few agents if they could get themselves to a convenient point in Austria. He wanted Anatoly, for one. He deserved to be in on this, seeing as his information about Otto Engler had been spot-on. He felt sure that given another few days Petrov would have identified the children’s location.
So Bill set to work phoning everyone he needed to phone, starting with headquarters so that clearance for the flight and the requests to the Austrians could be put into motion as quickly as possible. He also asked headquarters to radio in to the agents already in Europe to get as many of them as possible to meet at a quiet airfield for a pick up to raid the valley. He’d need all the men possible, especially his best ones to search the valley. The question on his mind next was whether he should take Philip as well, and that he needed to call the boy’s mother.
Philip was absolutely adamant that he ought to go, and eventually Bill gave in. As he said to the boy, he really didn’t know what trouble he would get into if he was left behind. They would need to eat first, however, and Philip was in no way presentable enough to enter the local hotel, he would need at least two baths and a change of clothes for that, so they ate at the station.
In that time the wind picked up outside and a call came to inform them that there was a severe warning for gale-force winds, delaying their plans to take off for the time being. Bill used the time to show Philip their valley on a map, and was glad to have been available to take an update on Otto Engler, which he passed on to Philip too. He spared a thought for Anatoly also, chasing down Engler for no reason now.
The weather took a turn for the worse, and the next call was with the news that their flight would certainly not be able to take off until the next day.
“I’ve still to call your mother,” he said to Philip. “I’ll let you speak to her, of course, as she’ll be desperate to hear your voice. Just try not to tell her that you’re coming with me again? I’m not sure she would take that well…”
He placed the call to Allie with Philip waiting nearby. “Hallo, Allie,” he said warmly, glad he was finally able to give her some good news.
“Bill? This really had better be good news,” said Allie’s usually friendly voice. She was still very annoyed with him, Bill knew. He hoped that his news that Philip was with him, would lighten her attitude towards him somewhat, along with the information that the knew where the others were and that he was going to bring them back to her as soon as he could possibly manage. He wondered if he could arrange for her to be brought to the airfield when they knew they were flying back with all the children so she could meet them off the plane. He wasn’t entirely sure he could pull that one off, but as he was likely to get dragged over the coals for the fact that he children had been on the airfield in the first place, he didn’t see how one more person was going to completely ruin the trouble he was already in.
“It is,” he promised smoothly. “I have Philip safe and well right beside me, Allie. And I know where the others are, too. I’ve got planes ready to collect them, as soon as we can get flight clearance.” No point in mentioning they were grounded due to the weather.
“You have Philip? Can I speak to him?” Allie asked, all of a fluster. “And why aren’t the others with him?”
“I’ll put him on in just a minute,” Bill promised as Philip strained to hear what his mother was saying. “He managed sneak himself on a flight back here, but it was too risky for them all to do the same.”
“Oh my goodness!” Allie said, sounding a little overwhelmed. “Well at least let me talk to Philip now, Bill! Where are you anyway? Did he find his way back to London?”
“No, we’re in Scotland, actually,” he replied, motioning Philip to the telephone. “Mind you don’t say anything to worry her,” he whispered.
Philip nodded and took the receiver. “Hello mother!” he trilled. “Hope you haven’t been worrying too much, we’re all fine, though it was a bit of a shock when we realised we were on the wrong plane! We landed in an abandoned valley, and I managed to find a new pet, Dinah of course wasn’t happy about old Lizzy, but then she shouldn’t be so squeamish!”
Bill smothered a laugh; it was just like Philip to immediately start talking about one of his animals. He wondered if Allie would get any sense out of him at all. “She’s a lizard…” he heard as he wandered a short distance down the corridor to give Philip at least the illusion of privacy. The call didn’t last long, however, as Philip came to find him less than five minutes later to report that he had been cut off.
“Must be the weather,” Bill remarked as the wind positively howled around the station, making at least one loose shutter bang violently.
“We won’t be able to take off in this weather, sir,” remarked one of the men with Bill. “Should we sort out some sleeping arrangements?”
“Yes. Check with the hotel, see if they’ve rooms enough for us lot,” Bill said. “Davis and Murray will just have to bed down on the planes unless someone at the airstrip offers them something better.”
“It’s a shame we couldn’t stay in the police station, Bill! I’d love to try and sleep in a cell! After a week on makeshift beds, any sort of bed would do me. I’m also rather tired,” he admitted a bit bashfully.
Bill laughed. “Oh I’m sure that could be arranged. Actually, I’d feel rather reassured if I knew you were locked in a cell here, overnight. At least I’d know you’d still be here in the morning!”
It was just as well that Philip was so keen for a night in the cells. The hotel was a small one, and even with two men to a bed and several on sofas, there would only have been room for Philip if he slept in the bath.
Philip climbed sleepily into the cell bunk when he’d had some supper and had a wash at the small wash stand. He would have to sleep in the clothes he had arrived in as he had nothing else, but as soon as his head touched the pillow and the blanket was pulled over him, he was sound asleep.
Bill pulled the door of the cell shut, smiled wryly to himself and then had one last pipe before turning in himself, in the cell next to Philip’s.
To be continued…
I’ve heard positive things from anyone who’s managed to watch it before me, so I have my fingers crossed that this will be a positive review (a rare thing here, sometimes it seems!). I could also do with some cheering up seeing as we’ve just entered a state of ‘lockdown’, so escaping to Malory Towers is just what I need.
I’ll start with an overview of what I thought for those who haven’t seen it yet, and then I’ll talk in more detail about some of the plots so avoid the rest if you don’t want any spoilers.
Overall I thought the first two episodes were very good. I was pleasantly surprised, in fact.
As we already knew, it is set in the 1940s and the war is briefly referenced. This was absolutely the right choice – it’s always the right choice to me, which is why I think the 90s Famous Five is superior to the flared 70s version.
The building posing as Malory Towers looks very much like the illustrations in the book, and the outdoor pool looked magnificent. The indoor sets looked good as well, as did the costumes, and the language used is a good mix of old-fashioned quaint sayings as well as clear language that modern child viewers will understand.
So far it has stayed fairly close to the book; the main plots being Darrell’s friendship with Alicia and her disagreements with Gwen. Miss Grayling’s speech featured and although it was not word for word from the text, and in fact is rather shorter it quoted a few important phrases and was well-delivered.
Exams aren’t our only measure of success. A Malory Towers’ success is someone good hearted and kind, loyal and trustworthy, good sound women the world can lean on.Women unafraid to forge a new future. You will all gain tremendously from your time with us. See that you give a lot back.
Matron features several times and is suitable strict and a figure to be feared at times yet kind-hearted at others. She takes an instant dislike to Darrell and I think she will be on her case a lot.
The girls themselves are a more diverse bunch than Blyton wrote, and so far all the acting has been good.
From left to right (not including the girl with pigtails talking to the teacher) we have Darrell, Alicia, Sally, Gwen and Mary-Lou.
Episode one sees Darrell heading to Malory Towers for a ‘fresh start’ – this detail will be relevant later. She instantly makes friends with Alicia while Gwen sets off on the wrong foot by being a tell-tale and being difficult.
Alicia apparently loves a ghost story and tells them about about the ghost of Malory Towers, Gwen is completely sucked in but Darrell is not a believer. The girls have a midnight feast, but Gwen is not invited which causes a rift between her and Darrell, though Darrell doesn’t know that.
Gwen reads a letter Darrell has started writing home and is upset that she has named Alicia as the friend she has made. She confronts Darrell by the pool, they fight and she falls in. She uses this to blackmail Darrell – she will tell Miss Grayling that she was pushed into the pool and get Darrell expelled unless Darrell does her French prep.
Darrell does this initially but then tells Miss Grayling the truth to get it off her chest. We then discover that Darrell is the girl who’s rumoured to have been asked to leave St Hilda’s school.
Alicia steps up her ghost tales and leaves a spooky message on the mirror for Gwen. Darrell and Gwen’s gym shoes go missing right before lacrosse try-outs so that neither of them can take part, though Darrell is offered the role as a substitute. Sally Hope makes the team, and she tells Darrell emphatically that she doesn’t have a baby sister.
During an exam Darrell’s pen leaks and blots and in trying to write a few more lines she knocks her ink all over the page. She then gets to do the exam over, which Gwen makes a big deal of and calls her a cheat. Gwen then begins a campaign to find out why Darrell had to leave her last school.
This culminates in her going down to the village late in the afternoon (alone, against the rules) to telephone her cousin who went to St Hilda’s.
Darrell, despite her problems with Gwen, insists on going to fetch her and the rest of their dorm have to distract Matron so she doesn’t realise they are missing. Darrell finds Gwen who tricks her into admitting she was in fact asked to leave St Hilda’s, but we don’t find out why.
I jotted down lots of little things as I watched so here are some of them.
Darrell’s character is a little different from the book. She is rushing, late for the train at the start, she is shown as being clumsy and a bit careless even and she is not good at spelling. I suppose this gives her room to grow, however. I’m not sure at all about the story of her being asked to leave her last school. It’s such a departure from the story we know, but it will presumably give a plot line that will run through most of the first series as we wait to find out what happened.
Alicia is also a bit different. Alicia in the book is a joker, but she is also very very sharp-tongued and unkind at times. We don’t hear her ‘smooth voice’ or sharp tongue, really. Just all the spooky ghost stuff. She’s also got a Canadian accent which takes some getting used to.
The pool incident is a trifle disappointing as it really looks like an accident that Gwen fell in. They are both tugging on an end of Darrell’s letter and she just falls in. Darrell does not push her in a rage, but she instantly apologies in absolute horror. I suspect book Darrell might have pushed her in anger – even if she didn’t mean her to land in the pool – and would have needed a little time to cool off before apologising. She also would have been more dignified in her apology rather than over the top.
Also, Gwen swims out of the pool without any real fuss – not the water-hating Gwen we all know!
The midnight feast was a nice touch but the girls make a hell of a noise ‘sneaking’ out for it.
I do think that Matron is pretty great but she entirely over-reacts to a mouse in the dorm (I’m sure children would have thought that bit hilarious, but I found it over the top) and although clever and funny it seems unbelievable that she wouldn’t notice two girls missing from the dorm especially when she’s said several times that she’s marked Darrell as a trouble-maker and will be keeping an eye on her.
Miss Potts is very good, there is one scene in particular where she shines. She praises Darrell for a good essay and when Gwen asks how hers was, she clearly struggles to be tactful. Her facial expressions were wonderful.
I like Miss Grayling though she seemed a fair bit younger than I would have imagined. She was still very poised, kind but firm, and I liked the little hint we got that she had lost someone in the war.
Gwen and her mother saying goodbye was another scene that was probably over the top – it almost seemed like they were acting at being so upset but I actually enjoyed it and thought it quite funny.
Gwen is probably one of the best things about this adaptation, though Darrell, Matron, Miss Potts and Miss Grayling were all good.
There are some nice details such as Pamela featuring as head of games, and Emily sewing a tear in Darrell’s dress which tells me that the people making this really, really read the books and are trying to recreate as much of the world of Malory Towers as they can.
I expect we will see a bit more of Sally soon, to deepen that mystery, and as I said above I suspect they will draw out the mystery of Darrell’s last school for a while along with a campaign from Gwen against her. I’m not sure about the pool slapping, that may already have been replaced with the ‘push’, but we might get some more lacrosse and I’d like to see a bit more of Irene as so far she’s been very much in the background.
It’s a lovely change for me to heartily recommend an adaptation of Blyton’s books, but I really do. If you have access to the BBC iPlayer you should definitely watch this.
I’m excited to watch the new Malory Towers adaptation which is coming to the BBC iPlayer today. It might make self-isolation that little bit more bearable. If it wasn’t for Brodie I would be devouring books – many by Blyton of course – but it’s hard to read over the cries of Mum, Mum, MUM, MUM MUUUUUUUUM.
and
The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.
Something a little more inspiring than my usual choices. This bit of advice comes from Mrs Brown, Jimmy’s mother. I’m not sure many of us feel like laughing at the current obstacles we are facing, but hopefully we can make the best of things and move on to better things in the future.
A few weeks ago I reviewed the first Naughtiest Girl continuation book by Anne Digby. I didn’t think it was very good, but seeing as I borrowed all six and I can’t return them due to coronavirus self-isolation, I thought I might as well read some more. Maybe they get better as they go on?
It is half-term at Whyteleafe and those who aren’t going home are getting to camp in the school grounds. We start right in the middle of this being set up and find out that Joan is a ‘tent monitor’ in charge of three other girls. These girls turn out to be Elizabeth (of course) the stuck-up Arabella and a junior called Teeny.
Joan is nothing like the sensible girl of the books. She is in the second form (how this qualifies her to look after Teeny who everyone expects to be coddled, though it’s not clear just how young she is, I don’t know) but she has becomes a weak, anxious and silly girl.
First she makes a terribly big deal about going to buy batteries and makes herself and Elizabeth late for kitchen duty. She receives a ticking-off from Miss Ranger about this and instead of taking it on the chin she just about falls apart.
It is obvious from about the second chapter that Joan is afraid of the dark. First, the panic over having batteries for her torch. Then insisting they sleep with the tent flap open even though it is cold. It takes Elizabeth until the last chapters to find out, however, and only because Joan tells her to her face.
Their solution is for Joan to sleep in a culvert in the dried up stream every night – even though a big deal has been made by everyone about the importance of the tent monitor looking after the younger girls. She doesn’t do this, though, as Arabella catches them out of the tent and after a failed attempt at fake sleepwalking they are all caught.
As I said above we don’t know how young Teeny is. She a trembly, frightened child, however. There are hints that she might be being bullied, and I thought perhaps she has some complicated back story. But no.
She wants to join a club amongst the juniors but is too afraid to complete any of the dares they set as a condition of joining.
Almost nothing else happens.
There is a little arguing between Arabella and Joan/Elizabeth over the torch, the tent being open, a mirror and so on. There are two Meetings where these grievances are aired, and Joan temporarily loses her position as tent monitor, but within pages has it back when Arabella commits the enormous sin of letting Teeny out of her sight.
There are a couple of meals, a nature walk that is described in about fifteen words. Oh and the ‘dramatic’ rescue of Teeny at the end which takes all of two pages.
This is a different, newer, edition than the first one and so it is illustrated by Kate Hindley as was the paperback I compared to the original text recently.
The children continue to wear strange uniforms on their strange angular bodies.
I had particular issues with two illustrations, though.
Now I can’t draw to save myself but that’s supposed to be a circular bell tent with a central pole. Why, then, does the line where the tent meets the grass run in a rather straight line?
And that’s supposed to be a culvert at the end of a dried up stream, not a railway tunnel. Some culverts can be quite big but this one is described in the text as a tiny tunnel and a little tunnel into which only one girl could squeeze at a time. It’s supposed to take a tiny stream under a road – if that’s the case here then the road is about six inches deep, and has nothing to stop cars going right over the edge.
Honestly, I don’t know. This was disappointing on almost every level.
Elizabeth was impetuous on occasion but never got into any real trouble, and was not as whole-hearted or determined as she normally is. Joan was ridiculous.
The reveal of the dare club was weak and a lame reason for Teeny’s behaviour. Their identity is shown by them turning up the collars of their shirts in a very 90s way.
A huge deal is made all the way through about Teeny needing looked after, and it really seems like a massive over-reaction. Yes she’s a shy little girl but she’s not a baby.
It’s not consistent with the original books and it isn’t even consistent with the previous one. In the original books the monitors sit around a table in front of William and Rita at meetings. In The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret they sit six on each side. In this book they always sit behind the head boy and girl. It’s a silly little detail and Blyton wasn’t always known for attention to detail (just think of the James/Alf problem) but she was churning out a huge output over years and years.
Not a huge amount happens in the story and there is precious little in the way of the ‘filler events’ that give Blyton’s books their character. It’s almost as if these have been dumbed down for even younger readers than the first three books were for.
I do not recommend this book!
Next review: The Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day
Previous letters pages can be found here.
A letter from Judith Allen, 273 Saddlebow Road, King’s Lynn.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I get sixpence a week at school for washing up cups and saucers for my teacher. Fort en weeks I have been saving these sixpences, and now I send 5s. to help your Sunbeam Society.
Love From
Judith Allen.
(You’re a kind child, Judith, and I do thank you for all your hard work.)
A letter from Anite O-Connor, 87 Oldham Road, Ashton-under-Lyme
Dear Enid Blyton,
I would like to tell you a strange thing. Every time I am reading one of your books, I go completely deaf to anything that may be said while I am reading it. Don’t you think that is strange?
Yours sincerely,
Anite O’Connor.
(Dear me, yes, Anite! I wonder how many other children go deaf when their heads are in a book? I know quite a few!)
A letter from Carol Peare, 36 Frankfort Park, Co. Dublin.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I have an interesting hobby, breeding bantam hens and cocks. My champion game cock has won seven first prizes in Belfast. His name is King William (Billy for short). He is a very cheeky cock. One day he was very funny, he got up on top of the hen-house and started to crow. But the wind came alone and blew him off. Billy was very annoyed about this, and funnily enough I was laughing, and Billy chased me all round the garden because he thought I was laughing at him. He is now the happy father of five bantam chicks.
Love from
Carol Peare
(What an interesting letter, Carol – and what an unusual hobby you have. I like the sound of your Billy.)
Letters to Enid part 21and
The dragon ought to be left to sleep as it is. If you stir it, there’s no telling what might happen.
Morgan Jones’ warning to the Five in the completely alternative reality as found in The Shuddering Mountain Game, based on Five Get Into a Fix.
So far the children have gone missing and Bill and Anatoly have been trying to work out where they are. Now Anatoly’s in Europe, looking for clues, and Bill’s in London waiting for news.
Anatoly sighed and sat down at his portable radio transmitter in the secure location in the Austrian town he had been assigned to, and waited for the precise moment he was supposed to radio in, to send his signal through.
In London, Bill was waiting by his powerful transmitter set. He had so far received six of the eight transmissions that he was waiting for. He had been out himself, doing some quiet investigating, but had returned at the allocated time to await his agents checking in. He badly wanted to be properly out there, looking, but he knew it was no good. He could only be in one place at a time, and with so little to go on he could easily be on the wrong side of the continent at a crucial moment. And so he had grudgingly accepted his own advice and stayed in London, ready to fly out at a moment’s notice.
So far all six messages had been negative. No sightings of the plane, of their two suspects, the four children, or anything at all untoward. He hoped that the last two, which were to come from Petrov and Yates respectively would be more illuminating.
He sat forward as a crackle intimated that a connection was being made. Glancing at the clock he noted that it was 7.05pm exactly; Petrov’s assigned time for radioing in.
“Rogers calling Smugs, Rogers calling Smugs,” Anatoly repeated down the radio as his watch read 7.05.
Bill picked up his headset and receiver. “Smugs receiving. Go ahead, Rogers.”
Anatoly cleared his throat.
“I may have found a lead for us, though I need to do a bit more leg work on it tomorrow.”
Bill sat forward and reached for a pen, “Report, Rogers!” he snapped, irritated by the delay even though it was mere seconds.
“I have had a quiet word with the local constabulary. They tell me that they have had a report of a local man going missing. One Otto Engler. He has a bad heart, so it is possible that he has collapsed somewhere and not been found… but…” he paused, trying to order his thoughts so he would make sense. He wasn’t sure if he was passing on useful information or idle gossip. He would need to let Bill decide. “The locals say that Engler once lived some distance from here, but his village was attacked by the Nazis and most of the people were killed. There is some talk of hidden treasure, but that might just be folklore. Unfortunately I have not been able to persuade anyone to give me the name of the village or even its general location. They seem to be quite superstitious about it.”
Bill took quick notes as Anatoly spoke and his brow furrowed the story.”It’s an interesting story, Rogers, we can’t prove anything, but it’s worth following up the best you can, not to mention trying to find the old man. He may be a lead,” Bill admitted, feeling a little like they were clutching at straws. “Do your best, do you need to be moved yet or can you last another day where you are?”
“I am quite secure,” Anatoly replied, pleased to think that he might have something useful after all. He was enjoying this opportunity to show off all his acquired skills. It was just a pity that nobody was there to see him flawlessly (in his opinion) camouflaging himself with his false identity. “If I move on I will send a message. The usual code?”
“Yes, do that,” Bill agreed. “And remember Rogers, be careful and don’t draw attention to yourself. We shouldn’t be operating that side of the iron curtain. You need to make sure that you don’t come to the attention of the KGB.”
“Yes sir,” Anatoly replied respectfully. For just a moment he felt a pang of loneliness and perhaps even homesickness but pulled himself together. “Rogers over and out.”
“Smugs over and out,” he agreed, hoping that Anatoly was honestly all right out there. He did know that he wouldn’t have sent Anatoly if he wasn’t ready for the mission. Having known the boy’s father, Bill knew that Grigori would have been upset with Bill helping Anatoly become an agent, but it was the best way he knew to look after him. Besides, if he had even half of his fathers’ genius he would be an absolute credit to his adoptive country.
He sat back and waited for his eighth and final report, and when that came in with no useful information he poured himself a stiff drink and lit his pipe. After a short period of brooding he picked up the telephone and dialled Allie Mannering’s number.
“There’s no new yet, I’m afraid,” he said hastily after identifying himself. He didn’t want to give her false hope. “But you know what they say, no news is good news. I was just calling to check in, and see how you’re doing.”
“How do you think,” Allie retorted. “I’m going out of my mind, Bill. It’s been two whole days and nothing! They could be anywhere. Anything could have happened to them. I know that they’re used to getting into scrapes but this is something else entirely.”
“Would you like…” he cleared his throat. “I could come over, keep you company for a bit.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” she replied. “If I see your face I might box its ears. I’m absolutely furious with you, Bill. This is all your fault!” He could hear that she was almost crying now.
Bill grimaced. “I’m sorry Allie, I honestly thought they’d gotten on my plane, you know I did and I’m doing everything in my power to get them back. I really hope you know that.”
“I do.” There was a long pause, so long that Bill almost thought that the connection had been lost. “Bring them home, please, Bill? I know they can be irritating and ridiculous beyond belief but I’m not sure that I could live without even a single one of them.”
“I understand Allie, and I will bring them home,” he promised. “I won’t let you down.”
There was an intake of breath as if Allie had wanted to say something but then the phone was put down and he heard nothing but the dial tone.
Bill sighed, replaced the receiver down and sat back with his pipe between his teeth. He read over all the notes he had made, especially those regarding Anatoly’s information, and consulted a few of the European maps that he had brought along with him. Well, it was worth a shot, he decided and placed a couple of calls to a few of the service archivists. Their responses held varying levels of disgruntledness, but he knew that each would be hard at work through the night tracking down tales of burnt-out Austrian valleys.
Around eleven he got up, stretched and lay down on the small camp bed in his office, wondering if he would get any sleep tonight. He needn’t have worried too much as with the stresses of the day he was sleep within the hour, his pipe on the floor. He dreamt that he was running after a plane with the faces of Jack, Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann peering worriedly out of the windows. Then he was blasted with alarms going off as the plane got too far away but he couldn’t find a way to turn them off.
It took longer than he would have liked to have admitted to wake up enough to realise that the sound was not in fact an alarm, but the shrilling of one of the telephones in his office. His pipe rolled awkwardly across the wooden floor as he staggered up and hit it with his foot. He ignored it, however, and answered the telephone with a curt ‘Cunningham’, seeing it was an internal call from the light on the base.
“Sir, sorry to disturb you, but we’ve had a call from one of our Scottish offices,” said a hurried voice. “They seem to have come across the lad Philip, sir!”
Bill sat up very straight. “Just Philip?” he demanded. “Is he all right?”
“Apparently he’s fine, sir. But is is just him, sir”
The agent continued, “The boy didn’t want to tell the local policeman anything because he wanted to wait for you to be there, sir.”
“Right. Where is he?” Bill asked. The reply came as Gairdon, which was then specified as being in the North-East of Scotland.
Scotland, bloody Scotland! Bill raged to himself. Here he was with agents all over Europe and the children were still on the same island that he was. How could they have gotten it so wrong? Anyone who had informed him that the plane couldn’t have landed on British soil would lose their jobs. Heads would roll.
That could wait, however. First he needed to get up to Gairdon with his men.
To be continued…
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).
I’ve shared these illustrations before and probably mentioned that Betty and Fred (Santa Claus Gets Shock: Happy Story Book) resemble Anne and George. This obviously doesn’t fit with the canon as they didn’t know each other as young as they appear here. But then again if they’re rescuing Santa anything’s possible.
A young Jimmy aka Dick Kirrin finds a basket full of kittens in A Basket of Surprises in the Merry Story Book.
Looks like neither Julian or George came out well from this one, and Dick seems a bit worried about it all. According to the story (Hallo, Rabbit: The Gay Story Book) the boys are Timothy (at the back) and Bob and Peter.
This is from The New Little Milkman, in The Bright Story Book. What we apparently have is Freddie and his dog Tinker. But really, Eileen Soper has predicted the future and drawn George with Timmy as played by Toddy in the 70s TV series (see below).
and
Amelia Jane slept for an hour- and then she began having horrid dreams about falling into a river and getting cold and wet. She woke up with a jump – and oh, my goodness, whatever had happened? She was clasping a few wet clothes tightly to her – and she was soaked through and dropping wet. The snow-doll had disappeared.
I think we can guess what happened to the snow-doll in Amelia-Jane and the Snow-Doll from Amelia Jane Again!
Not an original Blyton location, but this week we will have St Andrew’s Castle, first built in the 1200s. It’s now a ruin, but it boasts the most complete example of a mine and counter-mine in all of Europe, and best of all, you can go down and explore it. With the sea on two sides it’s a very Bytonian setting, and I’ve just used it as the location of my new fanfic story, which I need to come up with a title for.
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.
A letter from Lionel Scott, 88 Mather Avenue, Liverpool, 18
Dear Enid Blyton,
My Daddy is a plastic surgeon and lots of his work is putting new skin on badly burnt children. He has 15 boys and girls in hospital just now. I wish you would tell everybody NOT to touch fire-guards, NOT to play with matches, or go near the fire in their night-clothes.
Love from
Lionel Scott
(The best way I can tell them, Lionel, is by printing your fine letter. Thank you very much!)
A letter from Jillian Farrington, 31 Downs Road, Enfield, Middlesex.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I enclose £1 for the Sunbeam Society. My mother found it blowing along the street, and took it to the police station. No one claimed it so she gave it to me to send to you.
Yours sincerely,
Jillian Farrington
(What a lovely surprise, Jillian – and how kind you and your mother are!)
A letter from Jean Morris, 55 Monkmoor Avenue, Shrewsbury, Salop.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I have a rabbit called Patrick. Together we have earned sixpence, which I enclose for your Sunbeam Society. I helped to get it by running errands for Mummy, and my rabbit helped me by eating the dandelions in the garden for Daddy. With best wishes from Jean Morris (Busy Bee) and a twitch of his whiskers from Patrick the rabbit.
(Thank you, Jean and Patrick, for running errands and eating dandelions. I did like reading your letter!)
A rare letter from a boy this week.
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.
Eleven books this month, making 22 for the year so far. That’s 6 ahead of schedule if I want to read 100.
February’s books:
As always I’ve got some on the go that I haven’t finished
The Pat Hutchins books and the Philippa Pearce one are books we had on tape as children and my sister bought them so we could relive them. It was funny to read them on paper for the first time and I definitely heard various parts in my head as I read.
I’m also on a bit of a feminist reading kick after reading Invisible Women last month, but I’m not sure what to read next in that vein. Maybe The Politics of Breastfeeding.
My re-reads this month are the Jodi Taylor books. I’ve read them twice and am now listening to the audiobooks which are very well narrated by Zara Ramm.
What has your month looked like?
A little later in the day than planned, but it’s still Monday at least.
and
The Magic Faraway Tree is getting a new installment next month, written by Jeanne Willis. It is called The Magic Faraway Tree: Silky’s Story. I didn’t recognise the name at first but Jean Willis is the author of the Doctor Xargle books which I absolutely love, and The Diary of the Naughtiest Girl which looks positively awful.
Anyway. The Amazon description reads:
The perfect introduction to the wonderful world of the Faraway Tree. Discover the magic! Explore the Enchanted Wood with Joe, Beth and Frannie and meet their very special friends, Silky the fairy, Moonface and Saucepan Man. When a runaway elephant visits the tree, there’s a lot of mess for the friends to sort out . . .
Which doesn’t exactly match the title. It is aimed at 3-6 year olds so younger than the main Faraway Tree books. I will reserve judgement until I’ve managed to have a look inside.
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 actually read them, having renewed them at least twice each.
Well, that’s intriguing. I assume it refers to John Terry the boy who runs the garden at Whyteleafe (not the England football player), and I wonder what his secret is.
Interestingly the back cover also states that Anne Digby takes this favourite character forward in four new adventures. They must have done well enough then if they added a further two.
I’ve read the main three books several times so I’m familiar with the storylines and characters, but I’ve had to grab my copy of Enid Blyton’s Omnibus to skim the story Here’s the Naughtiest Girl. I’ve only read that once, I think, and it’s counted as book #4 in the Naughtiest Girl series if you look at the Anne Digby entries.
I honestly can’t work out if this is supposed to be set in the 40s/50s or the present day. The weekly money is £2 as in the updated originals. Although money is rarely mentioned, the amount that are seem reasonable such as £5 for a bunch of flowers. There’s nothing glaringly modern like mobile phones or computers, but there are garages for the teachers’ cars. I suspect one or two of Blyton’s teachers may have had a car but not many of them, not enough to warrant a row of garages. But then the milk is stored in jugs in the pantry under muslin squares which is definitely a 40s/50s thing.
The language is an odd mix. There is some good use of classic language ‘ought to’ and so on but as usual it doesn’t capture Blyton’s writing. Again there’s no glaringly modern slang but the language isn’t entirely fitting with the 1940s or 50s either.
She has done a really good stint, and I am dead worried are a couple of phrases that do stand out.
There are a few inconsistencies when you compare details to the original three/four books.
In the first book Elizabeth goes to Rita’s study and remarks how nice it is, and Rita says that William’s is just as nice. In this book they share a study.
A whole passage is given to describing the platform in the hall, which was just built in the Easter holidays. Yet the platform is mentioned in the first book! It also describes how the monitors sit, six on either side of William and Rita. But before it was always William and Rita at a big table and the monitors around a small table – which would facilitate them discussing things much better than a long line. The junior class is also mentioned as sitting cross-legged on the floor. I assume these are the ‘babies’ which wear socks as mentioned in the first book though I don’t remember them ever being at meetings before.
I also wondered about Most of Elizabeth’s efforts to grow things so far had come to grief, usually because she had forgotten to look after them properly. It has been a while since I read books two and three so this might be accurate, I just don’t remember her being that bad. I remember her almost burning down the shed lighting a bonfire, and perhaps being a little slap-dash on occasion, but not failing to grow much through not taking care of her plants.
A significant portion of this book is focussed on slugs. As the secret belongs to John and he spends all his time gardening, I expected something to do with plants but not this.
First he gives Elizabeth a blow-by-blow account of how to drown slugs in milk. They then examine all the dead ones in the bowls. Later Elizabeth goes to examine and poke the slugs in the rubbish heap which she declares are dead all right, they’re as dead as doornails.
When caught she jokes It’s my secret hobby, I like playing with dead slugs. This isn’t a Blytonian joke at all, in fact it verges on sarcasm which she almost never used.
Also used is I’ve crossed my heart and sworn to die.
The dead slugs are mentioned a further half dozen times after someone puts them in a tin to play a trick.
It’s all very not-Blyton.
So the actual story! The secret is actually only half the story and it is probably the poorer half, though it ties in with the second storyline.
John’s secret [spoiler alert!] is that he’s entering a competition in the village show and therefore has to grow his lettuces all alone to qualify.
He does let Elizabeth in on the secret, and she dithers about as to whether she should risk helping or not when John ends up in the san for a week. She doesn’t help in the end, and John recovers in time to do what he needs to.
The secondary story is about Julian’s cousin Patrick who appeared in Here’s the Naughtiest Girl. He has won a place in the second tennis team but someone is trying to sabotage him. He thinks it is Elizabeth as they do have a bit of a rivalry, but Elizabeth and Julian work together to find out who it really is.
Elizabeth gets a bit of a hard time as Arabella and her little friends spread rumours about Elizabeth being guilty of the sabotage, not helped by some of Elizabeth’s actions in trying to help John.
Unfortunately this book is mostly bad. It’s probably worse than the Malory Towers continuations, as being so short there is little material beyond the two weak storylines. It also comes across as being written for a younger audience than the original books were.
The good points are that there are the two separate stories which on occasion tie together cleverly. Elizabeth is reasonably well written and mostly behaves as I would expect her to, likewise with Julian. Arabella is turned a bit of a one-dimensional ‘baddie’ however. There is one time that Elizabeth does something very dishonest, she steals a jug of milk from the kitchens then doesn’t own up to having done so. Her logic is that she’s only trying to help John and she can’t admit that without telling his secret. Elizabeth has done some pretty bad things at Whyteleafe, but never theft. She also never lies. She always stands up and admits her wrongdoing. Like in the first books she admits to spending the money from her uncle, but says she cannot say why as it would break a confidence.
I didn’t like that John didn’t find an opportunity to warn Elizabeth that bad weather could lead to slugs. She did rush away as she had promised Patrick she would watch his match, but John should have understood. He could have laid the milk traps himself or found Elizabeth in the evening to warn her instead of letting all her lettuces get ruined.
It seems quite contrived that John must not have help, and that he also refuses to tell anyone what he is doing so that is a surprise. If he was more sensible about it all then he wouldn’t have had any problems. The people involved would have understood him asking someone to take over for a few days while he was unwell. It fits with Blyton’s characters being pathologically honest that he wouldn’t do anything he considered cheating, however.
Also very contrived is the sudden introduction of Mam’zelle’s need to eat oat biscuits constantly to stave off her dyspepsia. I thought it an odd thing at the time then rolled my eyes when I read the part about a trick being played with snacks in a tin being replaced with slugs.
The resolution to the secondary story-line is exceptionally rushed. The wrong-doer is identified, sees the error of his ways, his father also realises instantly that he is at fault and promises to make everything better all in about two pages.
Lastly, I find it a bit hard to believe that John [spoiler alert!] would still win despite entering his poorest specimens. I know we need a happy ending but yeesh.
I had thought this might have been an OK book from the first couple of chapters. Then John revealed his utterly lame secret. I hoped that the more interesting subplot, the mystery of the tennis saboteur would save the book, and at first it was genuinely interesting. Unfortunately it is not done half as well as the similar stories from First Term at Malory Towers or The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor.
The book also suffers from having no ‘padding’. The main stories aren’t very strong and lack in interest but there is very little background either. No tricks played on teachers, no excursions. The tennis matches are not described beyond who played and who won. My hardback of the first Naughtiest Girl book has 184 large pages, this book has 152 much smaller ones with a larger font and larger line spacings, so far far less words.
I have done a rough word count in fact. I estimate that The Naughtiest Girl in the School is around 55,000 words. The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret is only around 28,500.
I would class this as no style and no substance. I do not recommend. I just hope the rest aren’t so bad as I have five more in my pile!
Next review: The Naughtiest Girl Helps a Friend
Fiona
pippastef
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