Malory Towers on TV series four – Episodes one and two

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Fiona

I am really quite behind on the show as series four began airing in May 2023. I did watch the two-part Christmas special already, though, so I can move straight from series three to four.

I have had other people say that the series takes a dip at this point as it focuses more heavily on the first formers who are not as strong at acting. I’m willing to keep an open mind going in as the main cast probably took time to find their feet too, and I do like the younger form parts of the books.

The Rivers Sisters

From not including any episodes synopses I am now having two – CBBC has a sentence under each episode but when you load an episode there’s a slightly longer description too.

Darrell’s sister Felicity and a new gang of First Formers arrive for their first day!

–

Darrell is excited to welcome her younger sister to Malory Towers, but when Felicity befriends Alicia’s mischievous cousin, Darrell’s infamous temper threatens to erupt.

That all sounds familiar from the fourth book – but I’m sure they will work in lots of new things too.

The characters

It’s a new year so we have some new (and old) faces.

Darrell, Sally, Irene, Jean, Bill, Mary-Lou and Gwen are all present but Ellen is not – it’s said that she passed her school cert the previous year so has presumably moved up to the fifth form and will never be seen again despite being at the same school. I don’t recall her actually doing that last series but I may just have missed it amongst everything else that was going on.

Alicia is back with no fanfare whatsoever, she just appears in the school along with her classmates.

Mr Parker is also back to be the first year form teacher, while Mam’zelle Rougier takes the fourth form. Mr Parker’s arrival is a throw-back to his arrival for series two. There, at Porthmalory Station Darrell crashes into him. Here, at the station used for boarding the train to Malory Towers Felicity crashes into him. This gives him a chance to shout Felicity Rivers so we all know who this unfamiliar girl is.

Miss Greyling is back – as is the original actress Jennifer Wigmore – and Matron, too.

Our new girls are Felicity – now played by April Woods instead of Minti Gorne, Susan, June Johns and Clarissa Carter. Clarissa is a first former, not a fourth former, so that will be interesting. I suppose they wanted more characters with actual storylines in the first form to justify featuring them as a class.

We also briefly see Mrs Rivers who is still played by Flora Dawson, and who we last saw in series one.

The fourth form

As above we have the majority of the usual girls together, but we see them after we see Felicity at the station. Felicity laments that Darrell has ‘gone on ahead’ which makes no sense – all the girls get the same train with the exception of those who are getting dropped off. So we miss out on the reunion between Alicia and the other girls.

The dorm is not in fact their dorm any more, it is now the first year dorm. The fourth formers get to have three-bed dorms instead. That’s not too illogical, having three large dorms which girls use from form 1-3 then smaller dorms for the older girls, but it’s not how it goes in the books! I think in the books, in fact, they move dorm each year as each dorm is allocated to a particular year group. I can see this giving them a chance to explore different friendship dynamics in those groups of three.

I’m not sure why the fourth formers decide to go to their old dorm when they know it’s no longer theirs, but Alicia takes advantage and gets them to apple-pie all the beds.

Miss Rougier then finds them and has them draw names out of a hat to see who will be sharing a dorm room. Gwen is hilariously tactless as she demands to redraw as she has picked Darrell. Darrell then draws Alicia and is much more pleased – Sally, in the background is not so thrilled. We’ve had a bit of the Sally/Darrell/Alicia jealousy before but it seems that we will be getting more of it this year as well.

We don’t get to see how the other girls are divided up but the rest of them would all get along I bet. The Gwen/Darrell/Alicia dorm sounds downright explosive.

We see Gwen, Darrell and Alicia in their new dorm – A NEW SET! I wrote, obviously excited. The girls bumping their heads on the sloping roof added a nice touch of humour. (I laughed the first time and again when I skimmed through for the screen caps.)

I also loved Gwen trying to charm Matron by admiring her ‘new’ dress.

Same dress I’ve had for 20 years.

While in the books Darrell is made head of the upper fourth, here she is made Head of Lower School. There was no mention of a separate head of the fourth, so I assume she is technically both. With that title comes the ability to hand out order marks and issue punishments.

The first form

On the train Felicity meets Susan, June and Clarissa. June has already nicknamed them Suzy and Clare, while Mr Parker has bestowed the names Mini Rivers and Pocket Johns on Felicity and June. Talking nicknames June reveals they call Alicia the Joker, while Darrell is called The Volcano by Mr Rivers due to her temper.

June is not what I was expecting. She sounds so sweet and soft-spoken, but I suppose sounds can be just as deceiving as looks. She’s also terrifically posh – and not Canadian like her cousin.

Felicity, June and Clarissa fall asleep, and when they wake Susan has left their carriage to use the toilet. They assume that they have reached Porthmalory despite it being a tiny halt (so tiny there’s no staff), and get off the train.

The train only stops for about five seconds, just long enough for them to get off and realise there are no other girls on the platform before it steams off again. Mr Parker shouts at them to stay put.

So what do they do? They decide to walk to the school, of course! It’s not entirely June’s doing but she does persuade the others – I’m having a hard time seeing her as June still as everything she says is delivered so gently. I thought she’d have a similar confidence and sparkle to Alicia.

Clarissa struggle a bit which could be a hint to her weak heart.

They do make it to school eventually – after the police have been called and Darrell’s been having conniptions – with some help from Ron’s brother Fred who is the new gardener’s boy.

At bedtime the girls discover the bed trip. June rips right through her folded sheet – how cheap are the MT sheets? (Or how sharp are her toenails?)

Oh, she’ll pay for this!

June says of Alicia, but the delivery is rather flat. She and Felicity sneak out in the night to wreak revenge, though we don’t see what they do.

Darrell vs June

June in the books was described as impossible to squash. She cheeked everyone and always did exactly as she liked. Obviously this is only the first episode but it’s very much Darrell against June, what with Darrell being head of the the lower school.

So Darrell goes to tackle June over the grass snake which ended up in Gwen’s bed – I don;t think you need have watched the episode to know how Gwen would react to that. She doesn’t do at all well, and actually makes a bit of a fool of herself. I feel bad for her because June (despite the lack of attitude) is infuriating.

It feels like a parallel of the scene in series one episode one where Darrell tussles with Gwen and Gwen falls into the pool fully dressed. Here she tussles with June and they both go in, Darrell with her robe still on over her costume.

June goes back to the school in the huff, which leaves Darrell to have a nice moment with Felicity as they have their first swim together in the sea pool.

The acting

I was prepared for bad acting, and I got a mixed bag. Fred is pretty wooden. Susan wasn’t featured enough for me to get a good feel for her, while Clarissa seemed fine though she didn’t have anything much of interest to say or do. June was hard to describe. Her facial expressions were pretty good, but her delivery was just off. She lacked the spark that other characters have when they are being the antagonist. Felicity was OK – not as good as Minti Gorne, who had a certain cheekiness balanced with a youthful innocence. Like June she lacked oomph and conviction at times.

I actually went back and rewatched a few scenes from series 1 episode 1 to compare. I had forgotten how young the cast were then! The acting is not as strong as it is now, but it was definitely better than we are seeing from the new first formers.

The music

As a side note (as if I haven’t gone on for long enough already) the music has changed. The title credits theme seems to be a sped-up version of the previous music, while the end credits get a choppy jazzed up version.

The Doubloon

Darrell feels the pressure of leadership, as she tries to keep the First Formers in check.

–

Felicity and June learn about possible treasure at Malory Towers, while Darrell’s leadership skills are put to the test organising a welcome party for the wayward First Formers.

Sounds like more Darrell vs June, plus a groan-worthy fresh treasure to pad out the storylines.

The treasure

I genuinely did groan when I realised there was going to be another treasure hunt. It begins with Darrell finding a doubloon inside a fish that they are dissecting in class, and Mr Parker telling the first formers about the pirate ship which sank in Malory Bay and the treasure onboard which has never been found. Funny how this was never mentioned before, when they talked about Lady Jane Malory’s treasure.

It’s enough to get the first formers all hyped up though and June and Felicity go off to ask Ron all about it, nearly missing the also freshly-made up first form tea party in the process.

Class rebellion

As head of the lower school Darrell has the dubious honour of supervising the first form class while Mr Parker is talking to Matron. There seems to be a lot of pressure put on Darrell so far – all about her authority over the younger girls and how she must command their respect and keep them in line. Seems like setting her up for failure as she is still a school girl and not a teacher!

Freshly arrived are Ruth and Constance who don’t have the same contrast as in the book. In the book Connie is much bigger and bolder. On TV they have a more similar appearance and although Connie is clearly in charge she is hardly bold.#

Conne asks to use the bathroom and although it is against the rules Darrell allows, knowing they’ve just arrived after a long journey. Connie insists Ruth comes too, and so Darrell can hardly say no. The June demands to go, as if Connie and Ruth can go then she must be allowed too.

Half the class (not counting the one or two nameless girls we barely see) is now at the toilet and Felicity soon goes after to bring them back. It reminded me of the legend of the Nine Maidens where a farmer sends his daughter to the well to fetch water. When she doesn’t return he sends the next daughter, and so on until all nine daughters are gone and he has to get off his behind and look for them himself. He finds them slain by a dragon, which is not quite what happens here, though Matron can certainly resemble a dragon.

After hiding behind a curtain the three missing girls are returned to class leaving Darrell embarrassed.

Despite the three girls causing chaos – quite knowingly – again, the delivery wasn’t right. It was fairly half-hearted and quiet. June’s cheeky wave, though, was just right.

June has another moment of rebellion when Darrell catches the first formers having a pillow fight in their dorm and assures them that it’s OK, as pillow fights are fun. June immediately wallops her with a pillow, and when told that’s not OK, does it again, leaving them wrestling over the pillow.

The mentors

Darrell has the idea to assign each first former to a fourth former (possibly just to ease the load on her!) and gives Felicity the list to pass on without so much as mentioning it to Miss Grayling.

The pairings are

Darrell & Felicity
Alicia & June
Gwen & Clarissa (so we have an opportunity for a similar storyline to the books perhaps)
Mary-Lou & Susan
Jean & Connie
Sally & Ruth

Bill and Irene don’t get a first former.

After the tea party Darrell switches mentee with Alicia, and Felicity is hurt thinking that she is being punished for being late to the tea party.

She is in for quite the challenge then. June is revealed to have been asked to leave her last school but claims she is really trying. Trying to what? Be asked to leave again? There is a parallel there as Darrell left St Hilda’s because she had pushed a bullying teacher down the stairs. Perhaps they will find common ground there.

The laughs

Alicia gets a good line when she says to Gwen Let me fetch you a chair. Maybe a crown? when she is disgusted and claims she feels faint at the fish dissection.

I knew it was going to happen when Gwen said she hadn’t dropped the cake – she of course trips and falls face first into it on the table. I didn’t find it that funny though as normally when these sorts of things happen to Gwen it’s comeuppance for something, here it serves no purpose. Gwen’s reaction was also rather muted which is unusual as normally Danya Griver steals the show.

So overall, not the greatest start to the series. There is more of the first form than we get in the books – I consulted my Malory Towers expert (Stef) who agreed that there is a 70/30 split in the books between the fourth and first formers. Here we have more like 50/50 – perhaps more like 40/60 if you don’t count Darrell alone as representing the fourth form. This is a pity as the first form are nowhere near as compelling as the fourth form now, or as first formers themselves. June I’m sure will continue to be interesting – if only she could show a bit of oomph, and the same goes for the rest of them.

There is some good news though – we have extras again! Look at all these background actors making the school look like it actually has six forms!

Posted in Blyton on TV | Tagged Malory Towers, Malory Towers on TV, Malory Towers series four | 1 Comment

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top: The graphic novel

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Fiona

So far we’ve had two decent adaptations and one pretty poor one. Which way will this one go?

Sacrilege from page one

What could be worse, I ask you, than an adaptation of Five Go Adventuring Again that takes place in Autumn?

Well, it’s an adaptation of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top that begins with the Five approaching Smuggler’s Top because they’re going for a nice holiday.

To me it’s not Smuggler’s Top without the storm and the ash tree falling on Kirrin Cottage so that’s an unforgivable omission even when there’s a need for abridgement.

The unrecognisable-ness of the story continues, sadly. The Five have caught the bus Castaway Hill but it’s too dangerous for the bus to cross the flooded path. Instead Tinker arrives in a truck (which he has driven!) to collect them. Mr Barling is also around – though where he came from is anyone’s guess. Tinker says they are taking him home with us, so a page or so later when they arrive at a big house I initially thought that was Smuggler’s Top and couldn’t fathom why he was hosting them. That would be a really big change to the story! Then I realised his earlier reference to an interrupted journey meant they were dropping him at his house on the way to Smuggler’s Top.

George refers to the village as Smuggler’s Top which further confuses things and Mr Barling refers to the village of the cursed rock and magnetic storms which plague the marshes.

On the plus side I like the way they’ve depicted Castaway Hill (or whatever they’re calling it).

The problem of Timmy

In the book the trip to Smuggler’s Top is arranged at short-notice, and yet there’s still time for it to be made clear that Timmy is not welcome there. As they are coming for a simple holiday this time, how is it that Timmy is with them and George doesn’t know that dogs are a problem until they arrive?

There is still the secret passage they smuggle Timmy through, but now it leads to a small sparsely furnished room which opens into Sooty’s room. There’s a regular sized door connecting the rooms, so it’s hardly a secret space. This is where the buzzer is, though, and it seems to alert Sooty if someone enters his room while he’s in the small room. It’s all very weird.

The problem of Mr Barling and Block

Having stuffed the Five up with tales of smugglers and magicians and cursed rocks Mr Barling is next seen through his window (by all of the Five) talking to Block. The bad guys generally get very little coverage in these books, abridged as they are, but I feel here that the Five don’t really have sufficient reason to think there’s something funny going on. They’ve decided the pair of them are suspicious before they see the flashing lights in the tower.

There’s not even any clear indication that Uncle Quentin and Mr Lenoir want to drain the marshes or that Mr Barling needs the marshes for his smuggling.

Block does put a fake pillow body in his bed, but George discovers it the night of the signalling from the tower, so that mystery barely lasts a minute!

The problem of Uncle Quentin

Uncle Quentin doesn’t even arrive at Smuggler’s Top, he and Mr Lenoir are due to arrive back but don’t, therefore are assumed missing.

For no reason at all they then find a secret passage in Sooty’s room (there’s no shadowy figure in the night, Sooty is not kidnapped, there’s no screw found) which leads them to… the same passage that Mirabelle’s trap door leads to. It very much feels like they wanted to stick to the book here and so had them find the window-seat passage, but there’s no need for it. There’s no mystery of how Uncle Quentin was taken from that room. It’s not helped by the strange illustration which shows what looks like a trunk sitting below the window instead of a built-in window seat.

All’s well that ends well?

Down in the catacombs Five and Sooty (armed with golf clubs) find Mr Barling and Block threatening Uncle Quentin and Mr Lenoir.

Timmy goes off, but instead of falling into the marsh he finds a room out of a Scooby Doo episode (or indeed, straight from the 90s Secret Series tv show where they too had to add weird science and/or supernatural elements to the episodes). This is where the magnetic storms are created.

Then time/pages are wasted as they find the old canal and a barge boat which has been used for smuggling. Timmy jumps in, but as it’s just water it’s fine. There’s also the nonsense of the Mr Barling’s myth about the curse being broken by a hand and a finger of the pure of heart which they decide means the Five plus Sooty. There were much better things they could have included in the story – the ash tree, George trying to get to Timmy, getting locked in her room and climbing out the window, Sooty and Uncle Quentin being kidnapped, Timmy getting stuck in the marsh…

Overall

This is probably on par with Five Go Adventuring Again in terms of quality. There’s just too much filler nonsense and not enough of the original story.

The Five aren’t particularly well-characterised either. Anne bursts into tears just hearing Mr Barling’s story. Dick goes on about eating a dozen times it feels and comes across as greedy rather than just having a good appetite. The Five tease each other in rather more unkind ways than they do in the book, which wastes more time.

For example, in the catacombs Anne hears a drip and is able to find water for Uncle Quentin. Dick is gleeful (it seems) about telling her she’s too late and he’s awake already. Anne is the smug when the water is drunk by Mr Lenoir.

I found it unhelpful that Sooty was given the same colour and very similar style of hair to George. As a neutral side-note I noticed that the vehicles are all left-hand drive!

There also seems to be a mistake in the translations or perhaps the original writing. Beyond Sarah becoming Renee, the boys see the lights flashing at the top of the tower, but Sooty warns them that a spiral staircase leads down to the dungeon and the steps are narrow and steep. I brushed that off as him meaning “don’t fall down it”. However, the light-flasher (dressed ridiculously in a red cape like a vampire) runs off and Julian says Let’s try the dungeon, he might have left a clue. They are then drawn in what is clearly the top of the tower but the text says They took the spiral staircase down to the dungeon.

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged Béja, Five Go to Smuggler's Top, Five Go to Smuggler's Top: The graphic novel, Graphic novels, Nataël, The Famous Five | Leave a comment

Monday #623

Posted on March 24, 2025 by Fiona

I’m aiming high this week – read something and watch something before reviewing both. Let’s see how well I do!

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top: The graphic novel

and

Malory Towers on TV series 4

Having just reviewed the graphic novel of Five Run Away Together, and having planned to look at the Smuggler’s Top one this week I decided to look at see if any others were out yet.

And the news is – the next two are due to be published on July 3rd. They are (strangely, out of series order) Five Get Into Trouble and Five Go Off in a Caravan.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged Graphic novels, March, Monday | Leave a comment

Five Run Away Together: The graphic novel

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Fiona

The graphic novel version of Five on a Treasure Island was fairly good, while Five Go Adventuring Again was rather poor.

What will I make of Five Run Away Together? Let’s find out.

An unrecognisable beginning

We start off with the Five out on a walk where Timmy crashes into two men on bicycles. I had thought they were perhaps station porters or something due to their uniforms, particularly the hats. They are, however, revealed to be policemen. (The text gets translated, clearly not the illustrations!)

Then Uncle Quentin cycles up (!) to reveal that Aunt Fanny has been taken into hospital. The police, having been on their way to see him anyway, reveal that Jennifer Armstrong’s kidnappers have sent a ransom demand from the South Seas.

They return to Kirrin Cottage to meet Mrs Stick, Edgar and Tinker who have just arrived to replace Maria. (If they’re translating Francois, Mick, Annie, Claude and Dagobert back to Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy, then why not Maria to Joan/na?) And just like that Uncle Quentin leaves them with these total strangers… What’s interesting is Uncle Quentin says that Maria recommended the Sticks. This may be to make it seem more sensible, leaving the children in the care of strangers, but it makes no sense considering the Sticks are not only unpleasant people but also criminals.

Not entirely unrecognisable, at least, beyond the strange run-in with the police. The heavy abridgement required means there was no time (or rather, page space) to have the Sticks arrive before Aunt Fanny goes into hospital.

The Sticks

While in the book the Sticks are at first only a bit annoying before becoming truly awful as soon as the Kirrin adults are out of the way, here they launch straight into being nasty.

Within eleven panels of Uncle Quentin driving off, the Sticks are trying to poison Timmy, after he and Tinker have a bit of a fight. When Mrs Stick declares she doesn’t start work until 6pm the boys go make sandwiches (or rather, baguettes as it is France after all), but there’s no showdown with Mr Stick sadly.

George’s Plan

George goes off on her own for a bit, and when the others find her she says she has a plan and the others have to go home. After dinner she insists they all go for an evening walk. She sees a light on her island and declares it time to put her plan into action, rushing off across the beach and telling the others to go back.

Julian tells Dick and Anne to go after her, while he goes back to the house to fetch torches. He finds George’s note about going to stay on her island, but has to wait a while to return to the beach as Mr Stick has arrived. When he gets back to the beach he finds George heading off in her boat and Dick and Anne standing on the cliff uselessly.

I’m not sure that all makes sense, really. Why take her cousins out on an evening walk just to ditch them to head to her island, knowing they would try to stop her? I assume seeing the light hastened her plans, perhaps she intended to tire them out so she could sneak off that night while they slept, but then why leave the note on Julian’s pillow?

Anyway, despite the details, the general events were the same. George tried to row off and was stopped, the others planned to go with her. In a very non-Blyton turn Julian writes the Sticks a note with the blatant lie that they are all getting the train back home. (In the books they leave out a train timetable hoping that the Sticks will infer they’ve gone for the train.)

On the Island

Again, this is hugely abridged.

They discover signs of a squatter in the one whole room of the castle (depicted as much more grand than it ever appeared in my head) and are worried about the roof.

They check out the wreck (I can’t bring myself to call it the Ayacotl) which despite being beautifully seaweed-free is incredibly slippy. There they find a trunk (but fail to examine its contents).

From there Dick sees a load of greenery blow in the breeze to reveal a cave in the cliff (ala Mountain of Adventure). This makes George’s failure to ever find the cave before more understandable than it is in the books.

Interestingly, the illustrations show that they rig up a ladder rather than using a rope for the skylight entry/exit. Seeing as Timmy couldn’t manage either, they depict a clever solution that is never featured in the books thus leaving the odd plot hole.

The Sticks arrive that night with a large sack, and when they hear a scream the Five are straight out of the cave. Mr Stick mentions Mr Wilton – relating back to the previous book – and then he and the other Sticks go down into the dungeon whereby the Five block them in.

Nobody gets shut in the ingot room at all, but Dick does go down the well to block that exit off using nothing but big sticks and his and Julian’s shoe-laces. I couldn’t help but think of them tripping about in their loose shoes after that, but needs must! I also pondered where they found so many perfectly straight and exactly the right length sticks for their ladder, and the door blockade.

Despite the various nitpicks I’ve made I thought this was much better than the second one. It did change various parts of the story but crucially it didn’t add a whole lot of nonsense. Overall it remained recognisable as Five Run Away Together. I enjoyed seeing Natael’s impression of the cave in particular.

I wonder if Mr Wilton is going to be in the background of more of the stories of if that’s his involvement over. I don’t really like the idea of him working with Mr Barling or being shoe-horned into Lou and Dan’s thefts.

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged Five Run Away Together, Five Run Away Together: The graphic novel, Graphic novels | 1 Comment

Letters to Enid part 67: From volume 4, issue 4

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 4.
February 15th – 28th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Jennifer White, Busy Bee, Loughborough, Leicestershire.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I decided to give my pets a happy Christmas, so I bought them presents. I bought Timmy, the goldfish, some new stones for the bottom of his bowl, and a box of new fish-food. Thumper, my rabbit, had a bag of fresh hay. I put it in her hut on Christmas Eve. Tinker, my cat, got a lot of things – a ping-pong ball, a red collar with a bell on it and a bit of chicken. Tinker loves something round his neck so on Christmas Day he wore his new collar and bell, and was very proud.
Yours faithfully, Jennifer White.

(I am giving you my prize, Jennifer. It is nice to hear from such a thoughtful Busy Bee.)

A letter from Janferie Adam, Tasmania.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I would like to tell you a little about one of the most unusual schools in the world. It is called “The School of the Air” and is “attended” by the children who live in the Australian outback, far away from anywhere. The children are equipped with transmitting and receiving sets so that questions can be asked and answered. Most of the pupils of this unique school have never seen either their teachers or form-mates, but recently a party was arranged for them and most of the school was assembled for the first time! Wishing you and your magazine prosperity in the future, from
Janferie Adam.

(This is an interesting letter, Janferie, and I know my readers will like to hear about your most unusual school. Thank you for telling us.)

A letter from John Orlon, Birmingham.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I must tell you what my dog did the other day. Our cat was outside on the pavement and a dog came after it – and our dog rushed to the rescue and drove off the first dog with fierceness. Then he ran to our cat and licked her all over, and she didn’t mind a bit.
Love from
John (aged 8).

(Thank you, John – you wrote a very good letter about your pets.)

Jennifer White’s letter reminded me of my childhood determination that we must always bring back a present for our hamster from our holidays. We must have visited many pet shops across Scotland and England over the years to choose some sort of hamster toy for a hamster which probably hadn’t even noticed we had gone away! (My cousins always looked after our hamsters for us, even when we took the school hamsters home one summer – they weren’t left to fend for themselves.)

Janferie’s letter was fascinating. I don’t think I had heard of such a school – but it must sound remarkably familiar to anyone who had children doing lessons via the computer during lock-down! Having looked it up it seems that the school still runs. It used radio up until 2009 when it switched to the internet.

John’s letter is the second pet-themed one from this week. It’s unusual to have no fundraising or donation letters, but if there’s letters which take precedence it’s usually pet or garden-life ones.

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | Leave a comment

Monday #622

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Fiona

It’s Monday so that means it’s that day where I sit and try to figure out what I’m going to write this week. It’s not that I have a lack of ideas, I have a long list, it’s more that they all require a certain amount of preparation! I have to be realistic about whether or not I’d manage to read a book or watch a programme in time to review it.

Letters to Enid 65

and

Five Run Away Together – the graphic novel

When looking for the draft Monday post to write this I happened to glance at the numbers at the top of the posts page. And there it said Published: 2,000.

Yes, there have now been 2,000 posts on this blog!

Somehow I’m surprised by that, but that is pretty much 3 posts a week for 12.5 years. (I told you, maths is not my strong suit!)

If I’d anticipated this (it wouldn’t even have taken maths, I could just have paid attention to the number at the top of the page!) I could have written something to mark the occasion. Instead I posted about the Noddy Toy Village build.

At least I’m marking it now, in traditional World of Blyton Blog style!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday | 1 Comment

Building Noddy’s Toy Village

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Fiona

You may remember my Christmas presents post where I showed off what I got in the way of Blytonian gifts.

One of those things was Noddy’s Toy Village, which I have now built and am ready to show off.

Noddy’s Toy Village

Although the box reads Noddy’s Toy Village there are actually four sets in the series, each with the same design on the lid. The yellow box at the top right indicates which of the four sets is inside – Mr. and Mrs. Tubby’s House, Noddy’s House and Garage, The Toyland Station or Golly’s Garage.

Mr and Mrs Tubby’s House is shown here, while mine is The Toyland Station.

The box also reads simply put the pieces together and build it yourself. So let’s see what happened when I did just that.

Inside the box

On opening the box I was faced with around a dozen printed cardboard pieces. Crucially, I was not faced with any instructions or even a parts list so I was building blind and hoping for the best!

The bottom of the box turned out to be the base for building on, once it was turned over, which I thought was clever.

I had no idea how many pieces I should have had, but I sorted them out anyway.

There were two parts to the station and the platform.

Four parts to the train (not pictured is the funnel as I didn’t know what that was at the time!). There were no numbers or letters to show you how to form the engine/cab, tender and carriage but there was really only one way that those could go.

Seven character pieces – as you can see they had run through the whole alphabet already and had to move on to AA to DD.

Construction

Thankfully, being aimed at children, the lack of instructions did not pose any great challenge for me. I doubt there were any instructions to begin with as it’s so simple. You just find tab A and put it into slot A, and so on.

In hindsight I should have started with the numbers and then done the letters as I put in the station building and the train, then tried to squeeze the platform in the middle. Starting with the platform would have been a lot easier. I should also have attached the cab to the engine before putting the engine on the box, but I was more or less picking up things at random at this point.

One downside of using the box as part of the construction was that, over the years, the box has gotten a little bashed and so the bottom has bowed. This made it a bit difficult (or in one or two cases impossible) to get a tab into a slot, but enough went in that it didn’t really matter. Obviously the makers weren’t considering people building it in the 2020s when they designed it in the 1950s!Other than the dented box and my haphazard building order it all went together fairly well.

I only realise now that I didn’t take a good front-on picture more level with the build. I’ll have to add that later.

Playability

Being so simple to construct I doubt it would have taken children very long to put it together. On its own it doesn’t have much in the way of “playability” (or many play features as Brodie would say) as it would be difficult to move the train around (it is in three parts) or even the characters. Perhaps children would remove some of the characters from the platform and pretend they are boarding the train etc. If they had any little Noddy figures or any other small dolls they could use those too.

Once built it is easy to take apart to be built again another day.

Finished item

I’m actually very impressed with it once built (and that has nothing to do with my construction skills!).

There is detail all the way round the station building which so easily could have been a Ciné-Town construction – all front and nothing else! For some reason Brodie was particularly impressed with the back view – that earned a gasp and an the back is incredible! from him as he walked around to see it from all angles. I think he liked the policeman as he said he remembered him from the stories.

Even after several decades the colours are still bright and it looks really good and there’s lots of details on the train and characters. The engine has a nice curve to it – though the cab perhaps could have done with a flap to close it off a little as if you look at it from the right you see the plain card inside. A driver character would have been fun too (but maybe adding too much complexity into fitting it together).

The tabs show some sign of wear and tear, suggesting this has been constructed many times over already, but with the exception of one (which was still in the box!) they are all there. One or two of the slots have torn but still held things together. The funnel of the train had also torn off but I was able to simply push it into place and it stayed. If I had the time and inclination I could probably do a few minor repairs to it, but it all holds together just fine as it is.

Pretty incredible for a cardboard building set! The first production of these building sets was 1953, though they were probably produced for several years and the one I have could easily be from the 60s. Still, it’s likely to be 60 years old at least and was never intended to have that long a life!

Your mileage may vary if you buy one (especially online) as not everyone will have looked after these sets so carefully, but if you do see one for sale it’s well worth a punt!

Posted in Toys and Games | Tagged Noddy, Noddy's Toy Village | Leave a comment

Letters to Enid part 66: From volume 4, issue 2

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here. It appears that I added the wrong letters page last time! The cover and dates were from 4.2 but the letters were the ones from 4.3. To fix this I have retitled that post as 4.3 and uploaded the cover from 4.3. This post will then the slightly out of order as we go back to 4.2. Confused yet? I know I am…

NB this letters page uses 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 2.
January 18th – 31st, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from one of our readers, who is herself a spastic child. It is such a nice letter that I have awarded her my letter prize this week.
Dear Enid Blyton,
As a member of your Magazine Club, I would like to send 15s. to help the spastic children for Christmas. I have collected it by saving stamps, and some is my own pocket-money, which my Daddy gives me every week for doing my music lesson and my exercises. I am a spastic too, but one of the lucky ones that can live at home with Mummy, Daddy and my brother. I go to the local school and the children are very kind to me. I am also in the Brownies. It is only my legs that are affected, and my walking is not so good sometimes. I feel very lucky to be as I am, when I hear of other spastics much worse off than myself.
Love from
P. T. (aged eight)

(I am very touched by your letter, which is beautifully written, and I think you are very kind to think of other children as you do. I am delighted to award you my letter- prize this week.)

A letter from Pamela Daniels, Morecambe.
Dear Enid Blyton,
My Daddy is the manager of a store, and every year Father Christmas comes and someone has to help him with the parcels he gives the little children, so this year Daddy chose me to help in the grotto. I went every Saturday, and there were really lovely gifts. All the parcels were wrapped up, so the children got a lovely surprise when they opened them. I did enjoy helping Daddy like this.
Love from
Pamela Daniels.

(A very interesting letter, Pamela. I think any child would enjoy being Father Christmas’s helper!)

A letter from Ross Jellicoe, Higher Bebington, Cheshire.
Dear Miss Blyton,
I have had great pleasure in making models of islands and so on out of your Famous Five books. I have made Kirrin Island and also Castaway, on which Smugglers’ Top stands. I made a model of the Cornish Coast and put in the Wreckers’ Way to Tammeron Farm. Yours sincerely,
Ross Jellicoe.

(I felt that I must print your interesting letter, Ross, because other boys may like to use your idea!)

I know many people look back on the 1950s as a halcyon era where everything was jolly, everyone worked hard, children were respectful to their elders etc etc… but imagine living in a time where you’d feel lucky to be able to still live with your family if you had cerebral palsy. It’s heartbreaking, really, when you think about all the children (and therefore, later, adults) who had physical or mental disabilities and lived in institutions because of (amongst other things) shame around disabilities and a lack of support for parents with disabled children.

I find it interesting that unlike almost all other letters there is no name and location given for that first letter, just P.T. I wonder if the author withheld that information or if the magazine chose not to print it.

Pamela sounds very generous in giving up her Saturdays to help at her father’s work – I hope he rewarded her for it as it sounds like a lot of free labour otherwise! I wonder, if, reading between the lines, her father himself was Father Christmas though of course she wouldn’t want to spoil the magic by giving that away!

Ross’ letter sounds very Blue Peter and I’d love to have seen photos of his islands. Strangely Tremannon is misspelled – I’d expect the magazine editors to pick up on that, but perhaps they didn’t fix mistakes in letters (or it was a typing error made by the magazine that was also missed?). I’d like to think that despite Blyton’s note plenty of girls were inspired to create models too. I’m surprised she put boys, actually, as she generally encouraged all children to be creative!

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | 2 Comments

Monday #621

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Fiona

It may be spring (meteorologically) but after a mild weekend with a bit of sunshine it is back to being pretty cold. We are seeing lots of crocuses, snowdrops and a few daffodils, though, so there’s hope yet.

Letters to Blyton part 66

and

Building Noddy’s Toy Village

Ah, the Famous Five then.

A slightly tongue-in cheek reference here, from the narrator of episode two of the BBC2 documentary Boybands Forever. The Five, or should I say 5ive, actually being talked about are the boy band of course. The voice over was about them appearing at the 2000 Brits and winning Best British Pop Act.

Now, you all know I’m fairly obsessed with the actual Famous Five but once upon a time I was utterly obsessed with the (Famous) Five boy band to the point I had a shoebox in my bedroom where I kept Five-related cutouts from magazines. Posters, obviously, went on the wall, but every interview, every little snippet that had their picture or a quote, I cut out of Smash Hits and Top of the Pops magazines and stored away.

So there you go, a little secret from my past!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday | 1 Comment

Malory Towers on TV – A series three overview

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Fiona

As with series one and two I thought I should do a recap.

A brief episode recap

I’ll have to wrack my brains here as I watched the earlier episodes a really long time ago! There will be spoilers included here.

1. New Arrivals

We start again on the first day of term. Most of the girls have returned with the exception of Alicia who is in Canada having joined a skating team and Sally who (as per the books) has the mumps. The new arrivals the title refer to are Bill, Thunder and Miss Johnson.

Gwen’s misdemeanours of the previous series are forgotten and she instantly starts throwing her weight around as her father is joining the board of directors.

Bill is extremely horse-mad and starts things off quite badly by breaking the rules about visiting the stables on the first day of lessons.

Miss Johnson comes across as what I can only describe as suspicious at this point. She seems kind-but-strict but her facial expressions hint that she’s got a lot more going on beneath the surface.

2. The Trials

There are lacrosse trials to be held but Miss Johnson throws spanners in the works by being ridiculously rigid about rules and seeming to do her best to prevent the girls from practicing.

Mary-Lou has trials of her own (I have only just this moment realised that the title has a double-meaning) as she starts her periods and doesn’t know where to turn.

3. The Surprise Picnic

The girls decide to have a midnight feast in the stables, but have to change it to their dorm at the last minute as Miss Johnson is creeping around the stables that night.

Bill continues to get into trouble for constantly being at the stables, and Irene offers to play the piano for Mavis’ singing audition.

4. The Accident

Thunder appears at the classroom window in a manner reminiscent of Lassie, trying to get Bill’s attention as something is wrong. And something is very wrong – Miss Grayling has taken Thunder for a ride, fallen off and badly hurt herself.

With Miss Grayling taken to hospital and unable to manage the school a temporary replacement must be found, and it ends up being Miss Johnson!

5. The New Headmistress

Miss Johnson immediately starts to enforce new rules at the school. No more talking in the corridors, no talking to the ground staff, personal belongings are not to leave the common room or dorms, and so on.

Darrell fights back and lands herself in trouble, but manages to make the lacrosse trials and is chosen for the county team.

6. The Voice

Sally returns to find the school almost unrecognisable and tries to talk to Miss Johnson about it. She assumes she can continue as head of form but Miss Johnson gives that honour to Gwen instead.

Irene and Mavis have no choice but to sneak out to Mavis’ audition as Miss Johnson has refused them permission to go. They have to walk back as Mavis begins to feels unwell.

7. The Dance

Gwen turns a dance lesson with some boys from another school into a Dance complete with decorations, food and the girls in their best dresses.

Mary-Lou finds a mysterious statue in the woods, but it disappears as soon as they have told Miss Johnson about it, and Gwen completely betrays Mary-Lou to Miss Johnson in order to protect herself.

This is mostly a filler episode as little of importance occurs other than Gwen firmly putting herself with Miss Johnson and against the girls, and the statue being found.

8. The Sisters

Felicity visits Malory Towers to sit the entry exam, and has to switch clothes with Mary-Lou to be able to explore the school and grounds because Miss Johnson has forbid it.

The girls letters home are being censored, so when Darrell’s attempt to smuggle out an uncensored letter via her sister fails, Ellen comes up with a coded way to let Alicia know what’s happening.

This is again fairly filler-y, though it serves a purpose in highlighting how Miss Johnson is isolating the girls.

9. The Hamper

Alicia’s response to Ellen’s letter is to send a hamper of food and tricks. The girls pull off the fake mouse trick at first, but are then caught by Miss Johnson and Darrell takes the blame.

Darrell makes the county lacrosse team while it is revealed that Mavis has laryngitis.

More filler!

10. The Peaches

Alicia’s hamper also contained two tins of peaches which the girls are desperate to share between themselves, and also with Mavis as peach juice is supposed to be good for the throat. Only Miss Johnson has taken them for herself. Four of the girls manage to avoid going on a school trip so they can reclaim the peaches for themselves.

Miss Johnson is so nearly caught out as they discover some of the letters she has hidden in her desk, but she talks her way out of it.

A lot of filler with the exception of the finding of the letters and the near-exposing of Miss Johnson.

11. The Ride

When Thunder shows signs of being unwell Bill can’t think about anything else and gets herself into trouble. Matron takes the time to look in on the horse but Miss Johnson is adamant that nothing is wrong. Bill rides of dramatically to fetch the vet, and Miss Johnson gets something nastier than egg on her face when she is proven wrong about Thunder.

The episode which remains the truest to the book despite none of it being exactly the same.

12. The Arrest

Ron has found a stash of paintings and other objects hidden in the stable, but ends up being arrested as the art thief. Darrell is adamant that he is not guilty, but most of the girls in her dorm side against her and Ron, as they don’t see how Miss Johnson could have been at the stables and in the school at the same time.

Miss Grayling returns, and although Miss Johnson tries her best to keep the girls from talking to her, she does hear some concerning information about how the school has been run in her absence.

13. The Thief

Darrell sees two Miss Johnsons at the stables but nobody is inclined to believe her at first, even when Irene finds a picture of Miss Johnson sitting beside a woman who looks identical to her.

Ellen proves that two paintings in the school have been painted over some of the stolen artwork, and Miss Johnson tries to flee when she realises she has been found out.

Gwen holds her up by talking and then taking her van keys, keeping her there long enough for the other girls to come help before the police arrive to arrest her.

The cast

As with series 2, while most of the girls returned some didn’t, and we got some new characters too.

Returning girls –

Darrell Rivers ( Ella Bright) – Darrell continues to struggle with her temper, especially when faced with Miss Johnson’s infuriatingly strict rules. She is determined to solve the mystery of the statue in the woods and then to prove Ron innocent of the thefts.

Irene (Natasha Raphael) – Irene is mostly used for comic effect, though at times her clumsiness and forgetfulness do advance the plot. Her main storyline was in helping Mavis audition at the Conservatoire and getting in herself.

Sally Hope (Sienna Arif Knights) – Sally is absent for the first few episodes as she has had the mumps. When she returns she highlights the absurdity of the new school regime as it is all a complete surprise to her.

Jean (Beth Bradfield) – Jean is mostly in the background this series, although she was head of form to begin with, and had some intelligent comments to make about the new rules. Her best moment was her going to Miss Johnson to drop Sally in it – an orchestrated plan to prevent Sally from having to go on a school trip.

Mary-Lou (Imogen Lamb) – Mary-Lou was also often in the background, though she had her own little story-line with starting her periods. Her artistic abilities were used in a couple of episode, and it was her who found the stolen statue.

Gwendoline Mary Lacey (Danya Griver) – Gwen had quite the arc this series. She got to be head girl but unfortunately used that to snitch to Miss Johnson and enforce all the new rules. At the end, however, it seems that she really understood how awful she had been, and how Miss Johnson had manipulated her, and she wrought her revenge magnificently.

Ellen Wilson (Carys John) – Ellen uses her science skills a few times in the series, but is generally in the background.

The new girls –

Wilhelmina Robinson (Amelie Green) – Bill, as the new girl, takes over most of the series. She constantly goes up against Miss Johnson over visiting the stables to see Thunder.

Mavis (Bre Francis) – As she’s older we don’t see a lot of Mavis. She’s more modest than her book counterpart, and only sneaks off as Miss Johnson has unfairly gone back on the plans for her to attend an already arranged audition.

Absent (temporarily) –

Alicia Johns (Zoey Siewart) – Alicia is in Canada having joined an ice skating team, though she is mentioned from time to time and of course provides the hamper of tricks and food which becomes important in a couple of plots. As far as I know she does return to the school later.

The returning staff –

Mam’zelle Rougier (Genevieve Beaudet) – We don’t see a huge amount of Mam’zelle though she teaches a few classes and is seen to be unimpressed when Miss Johnson is chosen for head over herself.

Matron (Ashley MacGuire) – Matron – despite having appeared to have thawed to the girls in the previous series Matron becomes Miss Johnson’s right-hand woman, and seems to take delight in enforcing rules and punishing the girls. There are still moments of humour from her, but perhaps less than in series one and two.

Miss Grayling (Birgitte Solem) – Miss Grayling is absent for more than half of the series as she is in hospital. She allows Miss Johnson pretty much free reign before her accident, and returns just in time to find out that the girls have solved the art thefts mystery and to see Miss Johnson arrested for it.

The new staff –

Miss Johnson (Emily Piggford) – At first just a new form mistress, Miss Johnson is soon promoted to headmistress. Having already come down hard on the third form she immediately enforces new rules on the whole school. Although she declares these rules are to assist the girls to focus on their studies and promote good values, she has really just been trying to keep the girls away from what’s going on in the school grounds, and from telling anyone what’s going on at the school. (Besides, I suspect, just enjoying exerting control over everyone.) By the end of the series it is revealed that she has a secret twin sister and the pair of them have been stealing artwork and hiding it in the stables.

Everyone else –

Ron (Jude Harper Wrobel) – Ron pops up regularly and becomes integral towards the end of the series in investigating the strange goings on at the stables.

Mr Lacey (Christien Anholt) – Becoming a member of the board Mr Lacey has some say in what goes on at the school and it is he, apparently, who inflicts Miss Johnson on them as headmistress. He appears at the beginning of the series where he is less cold to Gwen, but still unkind, then again at the lacrosse trials where Gwen is desperate to impress him.

Felicity (Minti Gorne) – Felicity is in just the one episode, where she sits her entry exam. I like Minti Gorne as Felicity, but I know she is replaced by another actress in series four.

My thoughts on the series

Like with series two I found this a lot less compelling than the first series, probably because it strayed so so far from the events of the book.

But first, the good points –

While I am generally a fan of sticking as close to the books as possible I actually thought that the evil headmistress story was a good idea. I’m not sure if there was any reasoning behind it, such as Birgitte Solem being unavailable for filming. If so, it was a very good way of getting around it.

Miss Johnson was extremely well-acted by Emily Piggford and was a character that I loved to hate. I think that her draconian control over the school would have been a good enough plot for the series without the addition of the art thefts. Perhaps she could have been embezzling school funds instead.

The acting from the rest of the cast was of a very high standard which is what I have come to expect from the show. As ever Danya Griver shone (though perhaps had slightly less screen time this series), while Matron’s comic timing was brilliant as always, and pretty much everyone had at least one moment of brilliance. Bill eating the carrot in class, Sally going up against Miss Johnson, Jean’s remarks about the new rules and so on.

And now for the bad –

There seemed to be lots of things which I thought were hints at what was going on, but which went nowhere. Instead we had the reveal of an identical twin which – beyond Miss Johnson having a picture of “herself” on her desk – was not hinted at in any way. I would have loved to realise at the end that a strange moment or two (Miss Johnson not remembering something, or having suddenly having changed clothes) be explained by it having been her twin. Similarly her betraying her twin was so last-minute it couldn’t be explored.

The most recognisable elements from the book – Thunder becoming ill and Mavis sneaking off to her audition – were sadly less dramatic on-screen. TV Mavis taking a bus to an audition then walking back on a mild day without a blazer and developing a sore throat can hardly compare to book Mavis getting refused entry to a talent show, missing the bus, getting soaked and collapsing by the side of the road only to be rescued by Miss Johnson who is racing to fetch the vet for Thunder.

So a mixed bag, really!

Posted in Blyton on TV | Tagged Malory Towers, Malory Towers on TV, Malory Towers Series three | 1 Comment

February 2025 round up

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Fiona

While January seemed to never end February has seemed to pass by quite quickly.

What I read

I read a lot of titles, though several were fairly short. In total I’ve read 33, which is 8 ahead of schedule. I did badly on the not reading so many books about bookshops and libraries (BABALs?) as I read six… Though I have managed not to borrow anything physical from the library, so I got through three books from my to-read pile. As the pile has over 70 books in it, that barely made a dent. Swings and roundabouts!

The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac – JK Rowling
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library – Michiko Aoyama
In Bloom (Sweetpea #2) – CJ Skuse
A Better Tomorrow for the East End Library Girls (Library Girls #4) – Patricia McBride
The Book of Witching – CJ Cook
Death of a Gossip (Hamish McBeth #1) – MC Beaton
Enchantment in the Garden – Shirley Hughes
Public Library and Other Stories – Ali Smith
The Secret of Killimooin
The Servant in the House: A Brief History of the Sewing Machine – Frederick Lewton
The Little Venice Bookshop – Rebecca Raisin
The Library of Lost Love – Norie Clarke
Five Have a Puzzling Time and other Stories
Red, White and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
The Angel of Nitshill Road – Anne Fine
Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) ) – Travis Baldree
Pages to Fill (Legends & Lattes #0.5) – Travis Baldree
Saving Miss Mirabelle (AKA The Country Pancake) – Anne Fine
A Murder at the Church (The Bookshop Mysteries #2)) – SA Reeves

I ended the month still working through:

Unlikeable Female Characters – Anne Bogutskaya
The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (The Ministry… #1) – Robin Stevens
The Seven Year Slip – Ashley Poston
The Secret of Moon Castle

Five Have a Puzzling Time and Other Stories, Red Fox, 1997

enchantment in the garden shirley hughes

what you are looking for is in the library

What I watched

We continued with Only Connect, House of Games and we finished Ghosts. We might try the US version at some point but not straight after finishing the original, so instead we watched Sweetpea, which was nowhere near as brilliant as the books. It ended on a cliffhanger though, so we will be watching series 2 to see what happens.
I’ve been watching Call the Midwife and also Victoria which I am really enjoying. I do have to pause it quite a lot though to look things up including the royal family trees which are incredibly confusing!
I think the only movie we watched with Brodie was Moana, which he said was boring despite having watched it all avidly! Ewan and I watched Barbie (finally) which I enjoyed more than he did, not surprisingly.
My sister and I went back to Ten Years Younger but then took a break to watch the first episode of the Boyzone documentary No Matter What.

What I did

The fairly miserable weather meant we didn’t get out much at the weekends though Brodie went swimming and to a comic con.
We did make a trip to the aquarium at St Andrews where for the first time we made use of the fact their tickets are all day tickets. We spent an hour looking at all the creatures then went off for lunch (at Nandos as it’s Brodie’s favourite) then back to the aquarium before having a quick explore of the beach. The beach was very cold and the tide was chasing us in so it really was a quick explore.
I built my new Lego orchids.
We had a crafternoon – Brodie made an infinity gauntlet using one of my old gloves and I worked on my mini bookshop scene.
I made a few more mini books at home and also some at work as I’ve turned it into a craft our customers can do as well.

How was your February?

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged Doing, February, Monthly round up, Reading, Round Up, Watching | 2 Comments

Monday #620

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Fiona

March has arrived and with it meteorological spring has begun. We picked up some grow bags and seeds at Aldi at the weekend, but will have to wait until we stop having frost to plant anything. That could be as early as April, or as late as May… the gardening websites can’t seem to agree!

February round up

and

Malory Towers on TV: Series three round up

Often considered one of the weaker books in the series, we have now reached The Secret of Moon Castle. I actually rather like this one, though I’m finding my opinions are definitely changing as I reread various Blytons with Brodie. We have just reached the first TWANG DONGS, so I’ll see soon if it is as good a book as I remember.

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged March, Monday, Moon Castle | Leave a comment

Letters to Enid part 65: From volume 4 issue 3

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here. This post was previously letters from volume 4 issue 2, but I uploaded the wrong letters page! The letters page has stayed but I have updated the title, dates and cover to match the letters now.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 3.
February 1st – 14th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

TWO PRIZES THIS TIME !

A letter from Margaret Sharp, Batley, Yorks.
Dear Enid Blyton,
My four friends and I have a club which we call “The Famous Five Club.” We have a meeting every week. We each took sixpences to the meetings and then when we had a fair amount we went shopping, and bought material to make things, and to embroider. We held a sale of all these things and had two stalls, a confectionery stall and a needlework stall. The needlework stall raised £7 10s. od., and the confectionery stall £3. Altogether this came to ten guineas, and a kind gentleman gave us ten shillings, and also we received another pound. So we are sending you eleven pounds, and we hope the Famous Five Children’s Home will benefit by it.
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Sharp,
Florence Ellis,
Anne Whitaker,
Christine Henderson,
Christine Cooper.

(Thank you for your wonderful cheque, Margaret, and your excellent letter. It was interesting to hear how you had held meetings, collected money, bought material, made things -and sold them! I am sending a prize between you-a box of choco- lates to eat at your next meeting! Well done.)

A letter from Lois Tiddy, Solihull.
Dear Enid Blyton,
Three months ago I went to the post for Daddy, and on the way back I found a purse with 3s. 6d. in it. I took it to the Police Station and the Officer said that if the purse had not been claimed in three months’ time, I could have it, and the 3s. 6d. Today I had a letter, and no one had claimed the purse, so I thought I would give the money, with some of my pocket- money, to make 5s. for your Children’s Home.
With much love from
Lois Tiddy.

(What an interesting little letter, Lois-and how kind of you to send me the money! I am sending you a prize too, because yours is just as good a letter as the first one is.)

Only two letters again, but also two prizes! I’ve always wondered what the prizes for letters were, thinking perhaps the latest book or a bit of merchandise. This time it’s a box of chocolates – but that’s perhaps because it’s easier to share than a book or toy.

Margaret’s Famous Five group does seem very industrious – they must have sold a lot of needlecrafts and sweets to raise ten guineas. Had to do some looking up again, as I couldn’t remember that a guinea is one pound and one shilling (21 shillings) , so their total could also have been expressed as £10 10s. Either way, that plus another 10 shillings makes 11 pounds. Or ten guineas and ten shillings…

Lois’ letter got me thinking about all the usual and unusual ways money has been raised and then donated to Blyton’s various causes. And also just how much of it! Perhaps when I have finished with the letters pages (only 87 more to go) I will make a list of all the money’s sources and the total. Of course, it’ll only be a tiny fraction of the true information but I think it will be interesting nonetheless.

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | 2 Comments

Monday #619

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Fiona

Last week I finally finished the third series of Malory Towers! As I’ve already watched the Christmas episodes that came between series three and four I can now move straight on to series four. After doing a series three overview, of course.

Letters to Enid part 65

and

Malory Towers on TV: A series 3 overview

A suitable time to refresh memories of series one and two of Malory Towers, I think.

Malory Towers on TV – A series one overview

Malory Towers on TV – A series two overview

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Monday | Leave a comment

Malory Towers on TV series three: episode 13

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Fiona

We, or rather I should say I, am at the final episode of series three. I’m sure most fans of the series have already watched series four and five, it’s just me that’s way behind.

But there are those who don’t (or can’t) watch, and (hopefully) those who have watched and are still interested in someone else’s thoughts a year or so down the line.

The Thief

I feel like this is an odd title for the final episode. We will see them reveal the true thief, but somehow an episode titled The Thief makes me feel as if it should be the first episode where the girls realise there is a thief, rather than the unmasking of the real thief after the mistaken arrest of the supposed thief. It feels more suited to there is a thief, rather than here’s the real thief. In my head, anyway!

With Darrell focused on clearing Ron’s name, Mary-Lou and Ellen uncover new information that changes everything they thought about the art thefts.

The episode synopsis doesn’t give anything away, despite us all knowing who the thief is. Darrell SAW two Miss Johnsons at the end of the previous episode so I hope she doesn’t waste time believing that was a mirage or something.

Famous last words

I know I usually try to start with the positives but this is the last episode so I’m changing things up.

Of course they start out with nobody believing there were two Miss Johnsons.

Maybe you were seeing things. Two Miss Johnsons, it doesn’t make any sense.

No, Irene , it makes TOTAL SENSE. That’s how Ron saw her load the van, while she was also seen outside the study. Even Sally doesn’t believe her.

(At this point I was wondering if they’d ever switched back and forth or was it always the same twin in the school the whole time.)

Despite Irene (somewhat conveniently) finding a photo that proves there are two identical women, the others continue to disbelieve her and Darrell.

What worked well

Miss Johnson continues to have so much confidence she installs herself behind the headmistress’ desk and calls for girls to come see her, the moment Miss Grayling is out of the school. Yet at the same time we see her desperate to show that she has done a good job with managing the school.

I’m not sure what her motivations are – does she want to stay at the school? Or is she just trying to keep in favour until she can do a runner?

Although Irene finding the photo was really rather too easy and convenient I loved the reveal. We had seen the photo in earlier episodes and of course I thought it was just vanity that had her put her own photo on the desk but it’s far more likely the part that was showing was her twin. So it was a nice early clue that I completely disregarded. As a side note, on taking the screenshot for below, I did start to think that it looks awfully like the window in the dining room/assembly hall of Malory Towers.

We get another great Gwen vs Bill moment (why couldn’t we have had a lot more of this through the series?)

Bill is declaring that the stolen goods are why Miss Johnson kept her away from the stables etc and Gwen replies:

No, to be fair, Wilhelmina, you were impossible. Anyone would have given you punishments.

It was good to see Ellen’s chemistry knowledge being used again, especially with household products in place of the official set.

Miss Johnson’s disappearance reminded me of the Von Trapp Family not going on stage to receive their prizes at the music festival, as they have fled from the nazis. Max Detweiler is on stage calling them up, once, twice, just like Gwen calls for Miss Johnson only to realise that she has gone.

Although sad, the scene of Gwen’s illusions being shattered was well-done. It actually reminded me of the books, and how she would go all silly over various girls or teachers aways to be let down. It was also good to see her stand up for herself and the other girls and tell Miss Johnson that she was wrong for what she had done. Just a pity the other girls didn’t all see her having grown so much spine!

The end was fairly satisfying with Miss Johnson being caught… er… brown handed. It couldn’t live up to the earlier scene with Thunder, but it was still good to see her humiliated again. Nothing less than she deserved!

What didn’t work so well

Yet again a lack of cast was painfully obvious at times. There is a lot of talk about the end of term assembly. Miss Grayling arrives back just in time for it, and Miss Johnson plans to leave straight after it, so this rather rules out the idea that there were six assemblies. Yet Gwen refers to it as the third form assembly, perhaps desperate attempt by the script writers to explain why there are only 15 people in the room including the staff!

Note the wooden shutters behind Matron and Miss Grayling. A mirror image of the ones in the photo of the two Miss Johnsons?

Things I felt ambivalent about

Although I was fully on the girls’ side, I was hugely frustrated when Bill stands in Miss Johnson’s way and she behaves as if this is an impossible roadblock. I literally told her (out loud!) to just shove Bill out of the way. She has been ruthless all series, so why not now?

She is shown to be utterly self-serving, though, as she chooses to leave her twin locked in a horse stall rather than shoving Bill and unlocking the door. It’s a shame that this wasn’t explored at all – it would have been nice to see her twin betray her back in revenge, or something.

Overall

This was a fairly strong end to the series. Miss Johnson got what she deserved at last, and Miss Grayling is back. Gwen grew a spine (at least temporarily), and the girls worked together well once they all believed Darrell.

Posted in Blyton on TV | Tagged Malory Towers, Malory Towers on TV, Malory Towers Series three | 5 Comments

Letters to Enid part 64: From volume 4, issue 1

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Fiona

Previous letters pages can be found here.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 1.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

A letter from Jane Phillips, Hatton, nr. Runcorn, Cheshire.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I want to tell you about our Church Bazaar. Daddy and Mummy have the toy stall and John and I help. This year we had Noddy’s Tea-Party for our stall. Daddy made a roof and door for our little Wendy House, and painted bricks on paper and pinned it on the walls so that it looked just like Noddy’s House-For-One. We had fairy lights outside too. We sold tickets to children to come and get a present from Curly Doll (me !) and then they went into Noddy’s House to see Noddy and Big-Ears having their tea, and each child had an iced biscuit. John was Noddy and a friend was Big-Ears, and my Daddy was Mr. Plod. He was a VERY BIG Mr. Plod because he is six feet two! We made up a little rhyme for me to say. It was-
“Hallo, little children, come along and see
Where Noddy and friend Big-Ears are going to have their tea,
Step inside the tiny house,
Tiptoe as quietly as a mouse,
Mr. Plod the policeman is very big and strong,
He will show the children which way to come along!”
With much love from
Jane Phillips (aged 7 ½).

(This is one of the best letters I have ever had, Jane-you certainly deserve a nice prize. What a wonderful family you are for ideas!)

A letter from Jasper Lee-Woolf, Lower Heyford, Oxon.
Dear Enid Blyton,
I am a Busy Bee, and I would like to tell you about our two geese. We hatched them out of two eggs that were given to us, and a hen sat on them and acted as mother. One is a goose, and one is a gander. They are fully-grown now and stand on tip-toe to try and get the bread off our bird-table. They run to meet me and my brother Philip when we come home from school, but hiss at strangers. I don’t think we shall ever be able to eat them for our Christmas dinner!
Love from,
Jasper Lee-Woolf.

(I think your letter is so good, Jasper, that I am sending you a prize as well as Jane. I really think I shall have to put your two geese into a story – so look out for it some time this year!)

Only two letters this week, as Jane’s was pretty epic. This is one of those times I wish that photographs were printed as I’d love to see the Noddy/Wendy House and all the family’s costumes.

I wonder if Blyton did write a story about two geese in 1954. Can anyone think of one?

Posted in Magazines | Tagged Enid Blyton's Magazine, Letters page, Letters to Enid from volume 4 | Leave a comment

Monday #618

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Fiona

We are over half-way through February now. The one bright spot – Valentine’s Day – is over with now. I got some flowers that day, and as they are Lego ones I’ll be able to enjoy them all month (and beyond), so that’s something!

Letters to Enid part 64

and

Malory Towers on TV series 3

I’m very certain that Kiki has already been the character of the week on here. But as she keeps popping up lately, I’m having her again.

Having just posted about my two Lego Kikis, I was then idly trying out a free hidden object game on my laptop. A few levels in and who do I see? (Sadly she wasn’t an object to find, but she did ruffle her feathers now and again.)

Then, just this evening, I was half-watching Brodie play Minecraft and who should I see?

Where will she pop up next, I wonder?

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Kiki, Monday | Leave a comment

Kiki in Lego

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Fiona

I’ve never written a Lego review before. I’ve written plenty of book, magazine, TV and film reviews, but never Lego.

But then again, Lego have never made an Enid Blyton set! And they still haven’t, but so far this cockatoo is about as close as you can get.

This set is officially retired as of this year, though it does seem to be available at some retailers still.

White Rabbit 31133

No, we haven’t veered off into Alice In Wonderland territory. The Lego cockatoo is actually part of a 3-in-1 set, where you can build three different animals (but not all at once).

The “main” build of a rabbit, the cockatoo and a seal (or a dog with only two legs, as Brodie described it).

The rabbit is billed as the main star as I assume it uses the most of the 258 pieces the set has. Having built the cockatoo there were quite a lot of pieces left-over (which Brodie immediately claimed so he could build with them), and the seal looks smaller still.

Kiki

The text of the books describe Kiki as a red and grey parrot, and she is likely to be an African Gray which are well-known for their talking abilities. However, they do not have moveable crests.

Cockatoos do have movable crests and can talk too, and so that is how Stuart Tresilian has always depicted Kiki. It’s more obvious on the covers as they are in colour.

Apparently Blyton was delighted with Tresilian’s drawings and said he has made the book twice as good with his interpretation of the characters, especially the parrot. This was in correspondence between Blyton and Macmillan, and was quoted in the deluxe hardback edition of The Island of Adventure. So Blyton obviously approved of her cockatoo-look.

The build

This was a fairly easy build – although, being not the main build, required emptying all the bags out at once instead of the more usual one at a time in numbered order.

I have divided jigsaw trays which I use for both jigsaws and sorting Lego for builds so they came in handy here.

Apart from that, the build was straightforward.

The finished build has some poseability, the head turns side to side, the tail can be positioned as can that all-important crest. Brodie was a bit disappointed in the wings, as they are fixed folded in at her sides. The tips can be tucked in or angled out a bit, but that’s all. It would have been nice it the wings could have come out from the body a bit more, using ball joints like some of the other joints have. The crest could have made use of a couple more feathers, too.

The fact the set’s pieces have to function in up to three separate builds does mean these compromises were made. Saying that, though, it was only £17.99. A more complicated wing attachment and more feathers could have pushed the price up.

It is easy to stand up, as the legs are sturdy and the tail helps with balance.

Overall I think it’s a really nice build which looks good on the shelf.

Mini Kiki

One Lego Kiki obviously wasn’t enough as I then found myself hunting through the series 27 minifigures at Smyths the other weekend. I was looking for the Pirate Quartermaster as she comes with a tiny cockatoo.

The boxes are supposed to be blind boxes, but there are apps out there which can scan the barcode and tell you what’s inside. It’s just as well I didn’t just chance it and buy a few hoping to get the pirate as I think she was about the tenth box I scanned, and although there are some other cute figures I only really wanted the pirate. Or, well, really, I only wanted her parrot.

Brodie got the steampunk inventor that day, then the Pterodactyl Costume Fan and the Bogeyman another day. The Wolfpack Beastmaster eluded us though, as he is the one everyone seems to want.

So now I have two Kikis, and I am wondering if I can build an Adventure Series scene using the mini one. But what to build? I’m thinking the children having a picnic at the top of the castle tower in The Castle of Adventure would be the easiest, as we already have a castle!

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged Kiki, Lego, The Adventure Series | 1 Comment

Malory Towers on TV series three – Episodes eleven and twelve

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Fiona

After another longer than intended gap, we are nearly at the end of the series.

The Ride

The episode description is Bill’s desire to see Thunder intensifies after he becomes unwell. When Matron suspects it may be something more serious, Darrell and Bill race to get help!

That sounds as if it is at least based on the books, but I doubt that we will get as close to the book as we wish!

What works well

Bill ricochets around this episode desperate to get help for Thunder as she is convinced that he’s not well. It does feel a little repetitive as she has been defying orders over Thunder all term, but there is a real sense of urgency here and it does echo the book more closely. I enjoyed Bill’s Just because you don’t have any friends! It was a great comeback against Miss Johnson, though admittedly not very clever given Miss Johnson’s penchant for hefty punishments.

She manages to get herself banned from going to the stables at all and Gwen is put firmly in the middle as she is to ensure that Bill obeys. In a move that’s too little too late Gwen does try to cover for Bill but fails.

All this is a set up to get Matron to the stable where she speaks kindly to Thunder and shows concern for his well being. Obviously she is taking on the Miss Johnson role from the book in this episode. TV Miss Johnson is clearly too evil to be the one who helps save Thunder but it does work using Matron, who has played a similar role as book Miss Johnson did in keeping Bill from Thunder.

There are some great scenes in the second half of the episode and some really good dialogue.

For example from Gwen as Bill tries to appeal to her better nature regarding animals:

I’m allergic to cats, I’m afraid of dogs and I just don’t see the point in hamsters.

Gwen, being flippant asks why they don’t just take Thunder to the vet if the vet can’t come to him. Bill thinks this is genius (I think it’s stupid). But we get this great scene from it:

Bill: You might have just saved Thunder’s life.

Gwen: Well, we all make mistakes.

Bill: Aren’t you going to try and stop me?

Gwen: Would you listen to me?

Bill: No.

Thankfully Darrell shows sense and tells Bill that riding a sick horse is a really bad idea and they go to Matron.

Matron: I don’t think he’ll fit in one of the beds.

Matron continues to become a more sympathetic character again – after having been particularly awful to the girls. Even in the face of some major emotional blackmail she doesn’t back down but she does seem torn, and says that it’s more than her job’s worth, suggesting she does fear for her job if she doesn’t obey Miss Johnson. This doesn’t let her off the hook, though. She has seemed to take pleasure in enforcing all the draconian rules.

She does at least go to Thunder and it is she and Ron who begin walking him up and down to prevent him from lying down.

It’s therefore Bill who goes riding off dramatically (though in the middle of the day) to fetch the vet.

We also get the absolute delight of Gwen standing up to Miss Johnson, pointing out that no, she doesn’t know where Bill is, as she was considering her position as head of form, as ordered by Miss Johnson. That doesn’t sound like much but her tone of voice says more than her words. (As a bonus she covers for Bill and Darrell here as she does know what they’re up to).

And then the absolute best part.

Miss Johnson at her odious best (worst?). It’s unbelievable how smug and controlling she can be. The vet declares that Thunder has gone downhill, despite Miss Johnson repeatedly telling him that he has had a wasted journey. She is so determined that he not come back until his appointed visiting time of 5pm she then has the cheek to accuse him of trying to exaggerate the situation in order to charge her an extortionate call out fee.

You can see that Bill, Ron and the vet are all thinking how vile she is but it’s Thunder that answers back. I mean… who would be stupid enough to stand behind a horse with colic? I shrieked with laughter so much so that Brodie came running to see if I was all right. I’m not normally one for gross-out or bodily function humour but this was divine.

Not so smug now, are you!

Honestly, that and the earlier dialogue pretty much redeems the whole third series.

What didn’t make sense

Honestly, for once, not a lot in this episode!

Gwen sabotaging the girls’ plans in order to please Miss Johnson gets a bit tiring after so many episodes of it, but Danya Griver’s acting is so good I can’t bring myself to mind too much.

The girls continue to be wildly and annoying impetuous at times, but generally for the good. For example Bill showing she’s a much better friend to Gwen than Gwen is to her, as she practically shouts at Miss Johnson that Gwen is not to blame for her sneaking out. Not so clever for someone who is trying to persuade Miss Johnson to see things her way.

Darrell asking Mary-Lou of all people to distract Matron while she runs off to the stables to warn Bill seemed silly when there were better options available. Likewise, why Matron was hanging around long enough to be distracted instead of heading straight for the stables herself.

Bill having a slight fever (from riding for the vet?) came out of nowhere at the end of the episode but I assume this is going to become relevant in the next.

Other thoughts

The final minute of the episode gives away some of what has been going on as it shows a mysterious figure sneaking around the stables and looking in a chest of silver. They then (somewhat foolishly) hide a key on top of a door frame, only for it to fall down as they leave…

It’s been fairly obvious that something has been going on at the stables what with Miss Johnson’s determination to keep the girls away from it, and that she’s knee-deep in it all. It looks like she’s keeping stolen goods (or perhaps forgeries) in there which would tie in with the bust they found in the woods. I had thought she was hiding a person in there, but perhaps not.

The Arrest

Ron shows Darrell and Sally a stash of art found in the stables – but where did it come from? Miss Johnson is caught off-guard when Miss Grayling arrives back at Malory Towers.

I’m starting to wonder why I haven’t included the episodes’ synopses before!

This is a dramatic title if ever there was one, but as there is one more episode to go, I can’t see them arresting Miss Johnson just yet. Someone else will cop the blame – probably poor old Ron. But Miss Johnson’s time is running out, surely, with Miss Grayling back she will be demoted and lose her seat of power.

What worked well

It was so good to see Miss Grayling return. Although I initially preferred Jennifer Wigman’s Miss Grayling to Birgitte Solem’s, I have got used to the new actress and was thrilled to see her back. To be fair, anyone has to be better than Miss Johnson and I can’t wait for her to be put in her place.

The frustration continues, however, well drawn-out by Miss Johnson insisting that Miss Grayling rest, and interrupting her just as the topic of the art thief comes up.

You can absolutely tell that Miss Grayling is not impressed with Miss Johnson, including the way she has taken over her study. She is ready to listen to the girls though we don’t get a resolution by the end of this episode, I know Miss Grayling will put things right in the final one.

I had to laugh at Matron checking that the girls’ sweets were really sweets, by eating one of course, and I enjoyed the return of Know Your Onions in Bill’s get well soon card. Even better was the girls’ “murder board” on the inside of a wardrobe door as they try to solve the mystery.

What didn’t work so well

I know they wanted to drag things out for one more episode but this ended up being so frustrating.

Miss Johnson blaming Ron would be expected, but not the girls, and certainly not so many of them.

I feel like we returned to series one episode thirteen where the girls vote against Darrell and blame her for Gwen’s tricks. Have they learned nothing about siding with Gwen against Darrell?

What clinches it really is Ron’s insistence that he saw Miss Johnson loading the goods into the van, yet Miss Johnson was hanging around outside Miss Grayling’s study at the same time.

It’s so patently obvious that it’s the lazy plot twist of identical twins! (And it looks like I was right about there being someone else hiding around the stables.)

Other thoughts

Darrell goes into the stables and does indeed see double – so much so that everything seems to spin and go hazy for her rather than triggering an aha! moment – but it’s too late anyway as Ron has already been arrested, setting us up for the series finale.

Bill having a fever kept her in the san, and it seems that it was so she could use the phone in there to call Miss Grayling. As that involved getting Matron out of there anyway, it seems like it could have been done without Bill being ill.

Posted in Blyton on TV | Tagged Malory Towers, Malory Towers on TV, Malory Towers Series three | 3 Comments

Monday #617

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Fiona

My excitement that January had finally ended was short-lived as I remembered that February is really just January part 2, and is just as dreary and cold.

Kiki in Lego

and

Malory Towers on TV series 3

Spring still seems a long way away but some good spring reads may make it feel a bit closer.

Stef’s spring reads

Posted in Blog talk | Tagged February, Monday | Leave a comment

	Anonymous on Eileen Soper’s artwork
	Dale Vincero on Reading The Secret of Spiggy H…
	Anonymous on A closer look at the Magic Far…
	chrissie777 on My 2025 in books and Blyt…
	Anonymous on A closer look at the Magic Far…

The Rivers Sisters

The characters

The fourth form

The first form

Darrell vs June

The acting

The music

The Doubloon

The treasure

Class rebellion

The mentors

The laughs

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Sacrilege from page one

The problem of Timmy

The problem of Mr Barling and Block

The problem of Uncle Quentin

All’s well that ends well?

Overall

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An unrecognisable beginning

The Sticks

George’s Plan

On the Island

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 4. February 15th – 28th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

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Noddy’s Toy Village

Inside the box

Construction

Playability

Finished item

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 2. January 18th – 31st, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

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A brief episode recap

The cast

Returning girls –

The new girls –

The returning staff –

The new staff –

Everyone else –

My thoughts on the series

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What I read

What I watched

What I did

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Letters page from Volume 4, issue 3. February 1st – 14th, 1956.

OUR

LETTER PAGE

TWO PRIZES THIS TIME !

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The Thief

Famous last words

What worked well

What didn’t work so well

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 4.
February 15th – 28th, 1956.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 2.
January 18th – 31st, 1956.

Letters page from Volume 4, issue 3.
February 1st – 14th, 1956.