How to Get Blyton’s Style: Gents

Posted on May 27, 2016 by pippastef

If you saw my post from last week you’ll know that I picked out some clothes from today’s fashion that could be considered Blytonesque. They were clothes for the girls by and large and today I thought that I would give you the clothes I’ve picked out for the men! I hope you agree with me that they are fairly Blytonesque.

shortsShorts: These shorts with the rolled hem, seem casual enough to create the summer hols look the Famous Five would have gone with. I can see Dick and Julian running around the moors in shorts like these in an attempt to thwart the bad guys. Plus they look like they have deep enough pockets for everything a good explorer needs to carry, maps, compass and dog treats. You can find them here.

 

 

 

shirtShirt: Through the illustrations and the descriptions we can safely assume that shirts were worn even when they were not at school. Open necked shirts were the fashion I believe and I was thinking that this shirt would top the shorts nicely in a casual fashion. I thought that the light blue was neutral enough to go with the jumper. This sort of shirt is fairly easy to come across and makes a nice edition to any wardrobe regardless of whether or not you’re dressing the Blyton way. You can get it here.

 

 

jumperJumper: I mostly chose this jumper because I liked the colour more than anything else, and thought it would make a very nice combination with the shirt and shorts. We often hear about the Five wearing shirts, jumpers and blazers even on holiday so this seemed like a nice option. Its proper wool as well which means it would be hard wearing and have a long life.The jumper can be found on this website.

 

 

 

bootsWalking boots: To help round off the casualness of this ‘holiday’ outfit, I have tried to find the best option for walking boots. I think the ones I chose may be a little but too modern especially in the soles – too much rubber –  but the uppers look very similar to the ones that the cast wore in the nineties Famous Five when they went walking. The boot is high enough to support the ankle and sturdy enough to withstand much of what the Five and Blyton’s characters get up to. Millets do a good range, here.

 

 

macMacintosh: Frequently the character get caught in the rain and have nice Macintoshes to keep them dry and warm. Now I don’t know about you but I love a good mac (I need to replace mine–it’s too big now!) But this one looks like a good one for boys especially. It has the suggestion of an RAF dress coat, with the nice shoulder pads. Would be nice to see our boys trailing their suspects in these.

 

 

 

blazerBlazer: To round off the outfit off a blazer tops off the whole Blytonian feel to the whole holiday outfit. This nice navy one would fit in with the shorts and look good on top of the jumper. We’re just lucky that the blazer is an ‘in’ look at the moment so they’re easily come by. They can be found here.

 

 

 

 

So there we go, there is a complete outfit for all the men who read the blog, and I hope it fits with everyone’s idea of a Blyton costume. Hope you like it!

 

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The Twins at St Clare’s – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 7

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Fiona

I’ve just noticed I named the previous two parts as ‘part five’. So I’ll skip six and move on to seven! This will be the last one as I got through the final five chapters tonight. All previous parts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

1945 edition of Twins at St Clare’s
Egmont front cover of The Twins at St Clare’s.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: KATHLEEN HAS A SECRET

Only one change in this chapter. The girls had remarked that they could get up the attic stairs in a trice. This is now in no time. Trice is such a nice Blytony word so it’s a shame to lose it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE SECRET IS OUT!

Another unremarkable chapter with only two changes. First, what I suspect is a correction – from The class, already in a state of giggle to a state of giggles. I’ve never heard giggle being used like that before, but giggles makes sense.

Then maids become cleaners. Maids have become messengers and staff before, but this time it doesn’t make sense to make them cleaners as their job is taking the trunks down for the girls to pack. That doesn’t sound like a job cleaners would do!

CHAPTER NINETEEN: A SHOCK FOR ISABEL

Not only a shock for Isabel, but a shock for us. Not a single thing has been updated, corrected or otherwise altered in this whole chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY: THE CONCERT

Slightly more this chapter, perhaps to make up for the dearth in the last one.

The girls had been tying  handkerchiefs round their hair to clean out the cupboards but this is cut entirely, as is when the twins found big hankies and tied up their hair. I know that people don’t tend to use hankies but girls do actually still tie their hair up in scarves for cleaning, and more often fashion!

Bathe becomes bath, though I would more normally say ‘you can have a bath’ rather than ‘you can bath’ as the book has it. Bathe is an action, but bath is a thing.

A pen-knife then becomes a ruler in this paragraph:  “I thought I’d never see that pen-knife again!” squealed Doris, pouncing on a small pearl-handed knife in delight. “Wherever has it been all this time?” The word pen-knife is replaced with ruler, then the longer description is replaced with  a small ruler. Doris must really have loved her ruler to react like that, which seems odd. A pearl-handled knife, however, you can understand.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE LAST DAY

Three small changes this time.

The loft (previously referred to as both the attic and boxrooms) is changed to boxroom, though all three mean the same thing anyway.

Binks, the dog, is called the most uproarious person.This then becomes most uproarious soul, as clearly a dog can never be called a person even in a humorous line in a children’s book.

And finally, Blyton has the train sound like it’s saying We’re pleased we’re coming back again-TO-ST-CLARE’S! over and over. The paperback renders this as We’re-pleased-we’re coming-back-again-to-st-clare’s!

Blyton’s is much more evocative as a train does not always make a word-word-word rhythm. Secondly, the lack of capitals is just silly as St Clare’s is still the name of the school!

I have counted that as 11 changes. That means our grand total for the book is 83. Quite a lot less than some of the others!

Posted in Updating Blyton's Books | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Monday #167

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Fiona

Once more the weekend is over far too quickly and one again I don’t seem to have done half of what I need to.

Anyway I’m off to Scotland for this week, come Wednesday, but don’t fear, I shall be staying with Fiona who has generously agreed to let me have her wifi code in exchange for  cake to blog for Friday for you all.  Which means the lady herself is blogging on Wednesday and doing a St Clares chapter review.

I shall look into what current fashion could pass for a Blyton look for men to go with the women’s blog I did last week!

So with that all planned, I hope you’ll join us this week for the blogs! I shall leave you with some pictures from a walk I’ve had in the last couple of weeks of a local park! Hope you like them!

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How to get Blyton’s style: Ladies

Posted on May 20, 2016 by pippastef

I thought I would bring you something a little different over the next couple of weeks on the blog – inspired by a pair of shoes I found on a clothing website. This week I will look at how to have Blyton’s style for ladies and then next week I shall look at the Blyton style for men.

femalesandelsI shall start off with the shoes I mentioned earlier. The ones that gave me the idea for this post.

These shoes remind me of the ones I saw on the book covers for the 1990s Famous Five TV tie-ins. These look almost exactly like the ones our favourite Five were wearing. Unfortunately they wore them with socks, and that is quite unfashionable, even for me, and as Fiona will tell you, I am not at all fashion conscious!  This style seems quite trendy at the moment so you should have no trouble getting hold of them if you like. You can find them here courtesy of New Look.

femalesshirtThis shirt is possibly not what we would imagine any of Blyton’s characters to be wearing but it comes pretty close to the fashion of the day. The fact that children tended to wear shirts even in the holidays if you were as many of Blyton’s children were, upper or middle class. The inclusion of sleeves on this article of clothing would of course have made it better, but team it with a cardigan and you would barely be able to tell the difference. Another thing to ignore would be the knotted bottom as that was certainly more a 1950s onwards feature, but maybe girls such as Anne, Darrell, Sally and the O’Sullivan twins would have grown up and started wearing shirts like that to keep up with current fashion. Who can say. You can find the shirt here.

 

 

femaleshortsShorts are the next part of our ensemble, and I’m rather chuffed with the discovery of these. The colour may be a bit strong, but actually to me they look very Blytonian. Not to mention practical. The rolled up hem of the shorts seems a very vintage thing for me, especially for children who were brought things with the idea that they would ‘grow into them’. The rolled up hem symbolizes to me that there would be enough material to get several years worth of wear out of them before a new pair needed to be purchased. What do you think? Click here for a closer look at the shorts.

 

generalneutralsatchelNow on to a lovely piece of kit that could work well for both sexes. This vintage style rucksack looks big and sturdy enough to carry all manner of camping equipment, and enough food, as well as maps, compasses and dog treats for your faithful hound. The extendible space also makes it perfect to go camping with, allowing you to add more in for a long week away! Not only camping but perfect for school as well. Lots of room for books and looks very neat and smart. I wish I had had one when I was at school, though I probably would have been too worried about getting it dirty to use it! Now, tell me who wants one? Find them here.

 

femalepinaforeJust two more bits to go; we’re just going to have a look at some items that could be considered ‘school uniform’. Now it was unlikely that I was going to be able to find a pinafore dress in the brown (and orange) of Malory Towers so I plumped for a navy blue one. Neither Fiona or I could remember if the St Clare’s books mentioned what the girls’ uniform is like so we just went for a navy pinafore, with a smart look.

To me that looks fairly Blytonish, except erring a little more towards the 1960s. However you get the idea. Now this, with our last item will definitely make you into a very jolly-hockey-sticks lady indeed!

Find the dress here.

 

 

femalestrawboaterThe hat! No school uniform or Blyton girl was ever without her school hat, in fact even Malcolm Saville’s characters were attached to their school hats, which I hope looked something like this. This is also reminiscent of the hats provided by Seven Stories when they did their End Blyton exhibition a couple of years ago, so this is what I thought would work as the traditional school hat. The only issue that Fiona would tell you is that the bow on the hat is black and the pinafore is navy so they should never be worn together, but there’s nothing stopping you either getting  a black dress or switching the material on the hat to match the dress.

So there we are a couple of bits and pieces to make the perfect Blyton tribute. Now, off you go and have some nice adventures but remember to report back next week to see what we’ve found for the boys to wear!

P.S: All the clothes were chosen by me (with some help from Fiona) and we’ve not been paid for sponsored by the companies featured.

 

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If you like Blyton: Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Fiona

Stef has already reviewed this (as has Poppy) but as always I’m late to the party and have just gotten around to reading it. I had many thoughts and so I am now going to inflict them on you all.

This isn’t one of those books that has been advertised with the sticker reading “if you like Blyton, you’ll love this,” but it seems to have gained an imaginary sticker of recommendation from Blyton fans nonetheless. I’m aware this book was not written as an homage to Blyton, nor to be aimed at the Blyton fan market but this is a Blyton blog and so I will be writing this review as a loose comparison to Blyton’s works.

THE FIND-OUTERS MEET MALORY TOWERS

With that in mind Murder Most Unladylike melds two of Blyton’s popular themes: boarding schools and a mystery.

murder-most-unladylike

Deepdean, the boarding school, resembles Malory Towers or St Clare’s. It has mostly female teachers, one or two male ones, the requisite handy-man, headmistress, matrons, a san, dorm rooms, a few hundred well-to-do girls, a gym, common room and all the other basics. It differs, however, in that many of the mistresses live out – and this is quite important to the plot at times. I (as a reader of several boarding school books) wonder how the school managed to run with most of the staff off-campus at nights and possibly weekends.

There are many familiar elements like lacrosse, hockey, Mam’zelle, gym knickers and so on, and some unfamiliar ones. The girls have a bunbreak every morning, which is exactly as it sounds, a break to eat a biscuit in. They call the lower school shrimps (Malory Towers tended to call them babies or just the lower formers). They go to prep like Blyton’s girls, but they also have socs or societies after class to do extra activities.

THE GLORIOUS NINETEEN THIRTIES

Unlike modern editions of Blyton which have had many of these old-fashioned words erased, Murder Most Unladylike makes no apology for being set in the 1930s. (Blyton’s boarding school books were set five to ten years later than this, which may account for some of the differences). Murder Most Unladylike retains pre-decimal currency, maids at school and home, Fry’s chocolate and many other things that children today might be unfamiliar with. Some things are given brief explanations in the text and as the book is written from the POV of Hazel writing a ‘log’ of events, it works. There is also a glossary at the back, again written by Hazel for the readers’ benefit and explaining phrases like hols, matron, bunbreak and so on. I think that would be a great addition to Blyton’s books if it would reduce unnecessary updating to the main text.

THE MYSTERY

Anyway, on to the mystery element now. It is admittedly a different type of mystery to anything Blyton’s characters ever had to solve. A the title suggests, this is a murder mystery.

To outline the plot briefly: Hazel (one half of the Wells and Wong detective agency) finds Miss Bell dead in the gym. Has she fallen from the balcony, or was she pushed? They can’t be sure as when Hazel brings help, the body has gone. Nobody at the school is concerned as Miss Bell has left a resignation letter on the headmistress’s desk.

Being a detective agency Hazel and the Sherlock to her Watson, Daisy, decide that it is clearly murder. Since everyone else believes that Miss Bell has simply upped and left, they realise they are the only ones that can solve her murder.

They are very organised, and like the Find-Outers, draw up a list of suspects and go looking for motives and alibis. They are aided by the fact that it can only be a staff member that is responsible (a slight leap of logic, but believable, so we go with it) and that gives them a finite list of suspects. The Find-Outers and Secret Seven had an entire village of possibilities (never mind that anyone could have travelled in from anywhere!) but Wells and Wong are able to focus on half a dozen names, and the eyes of a few hundred girls to document their whereabouts. The fact that the teachers live-out is a hindrance, however, as they are unable to search anyone’s room for evidence. Luckily many clues are to be found hidden in locker rooms and other places around the school.

The mystery is actually a very satisfying one – and it kept me guessing all the way along. I admit I was rarely more than half a step ahead of the girls as it went along. The fact that they can’t agree on who still a suspect helps, as it muddies the waters at times and leaves you not knowing what’s happening. Alibis are confirmed one minute, then knocked down the next when another piece of information comes to light. Daisy’s logic can be a little flawed at times, especially when she is so keen to accuse someone of the crime so that her favourite teacher cannot be responsible, but these are fairly realistic behaviours for a young girl.

The suggested motives are, I would say, more mature than those you might see in a Blyton. Blyton tended to go for  easy to understand ones like desperation or poverty, some jealousy, revenge, greed and simple cases of people being bad’uns. Murder, being a much more serious crime than the theft of a painting or sending poison letters, naturally involves some more complex reasons. Some are of a romantic nature – jealousy from a jilter lover, fear of a lover going back to someone else, others are professional as there is a fight going on over the position of deputy-head of the school. The girls seem to have quite a grown-up understanding of these issues – as well as the secret relationship between two female teachers. No word is ever applied to these women, but one is jealous of the other when she finds a male suitor, and it is said that one has unfashionably short hair which is very relevant.

There are some red-herrings along the way and several times you think the mystery has been solved only for it to be proven entirely wrong. So wrong, in fact, a second murder occurs, and confuses things even more.

The girls feel exceptionally guilty about this as they feel it is partly their fault. I rather agree, as they (well, mostly Daisy) blundered in, vague accusations flying, and upset someone so much that they ended up getting murdered. It’s not entirely their fault, however, as the person in question was a grown-up and should have dealt with it a bit better!

The resolution to the mystery is quite a good one, as the girls do solve it (with a bit of luck) and then find themselves fleeing down the school corridors from the murderer, who has turned from perfectly pleasant to chillingly dangerous in the turn of a page. Naturally, they throw themselves into further danger by deciding to sneak along to the denouement (Blyton’s cast could never resist this either) and several other secrets are let out of the bag at the same time.

The final, fully explained solution, proves the girls were on the right track with half of their earlier assumptions, and then of course that they got the murderer right as well. In addition to that, little pieces of information from earlier in the book have sudden relevance beyond being mere gossip or ghost stories which is always nice.

In conclusion: a solid mystery in a nice old-fashioned boarding school. If you like Blyton, Nancy Drew, Helen Moss or Malcom Saville, you might well like this too. If you don’t like those (firstly: why are you reading this?) you might still like it as it’s a good book.

 

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Monday Post #166

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Fiona

Ristorante6

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Wandering in the dark near Kröller Müller — Kunst en Cultuur – Arts & Culture

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Fiona

This link was sent to us from Hans van der Klis from The Netherlands. He says:

 I’ve written an ‘adventure’ story on my blog, that we (my wife and I) experienced during a visit to a museum in the forest. With some thoughts of Enid Blyton influencing my mind, how to handle, how to be prepared with the lessons I have learned in her books.

And so now I’m sharing it for you to read as well.

“Dear visitors, … we’re closing within ten minutes …

Would you be so kind to go direction exit and pick up your coat in the cloakroom. We thank you for your visit and hope to see you again another time.

via Wandering in the dark near Kröller Müller — Kunst en Cultuur – Arts & Culture

P.S. how lovely are the Dutch editions of the Famous Five?

image002

Posted in Personal Experiences | Tagged | 1 Comment

So Many Editions

Posted on May 13, 2016 by pippastef

DSCN0798I can’t be the only one who collects many editions of the same books in their collection. I have spoken to a couple of people who indeed find it hard to pass up different editions of their favourite books and this is just as true with Blytons. In fact even more so, and I want to have a look at why this might be.

Now as Fiona will confirm I have many versions of the same books, mostly Famous Fives (And Malcolm Saville’s Lone Pine adventures) and she doesn’t really get why. The only time she had double copies were because of the comparisons she’s been doing for the blog or to replace her copy that has worn out through no fault of its own.

I on the other hand, tends to scoop up any copy of the the books even if I have a copy, perfectly reasonable and usable at home. I don’t really know why I do pick up the copies but I am up for examining options. So lets get on with this.

  1. Different Editions: :Like all of us in the Blyton fan club we know how much our beloved author has had her work ‘updated’ to keep her in with the politically correct brigade. Names, money, characters even have had their names changed. So as an avid fan I like collecting the different editions, the different imprints to see in a rather studious way, when the changes started to appear in Blyton’s books. Do you?
  2. Presents: When I was younger I got a lot of my Blyton books as presents, in fact I even got one from my primary school crush which I still have. Part of the reason I held on to that on in particular was because it is the story of Five go to Demon’s Rocks with the cover of Five go off in a Caravan on the front. It’s a paperback from Hodder and I would like to think it is rather a rare find. Also I have Five on Kirrin Island Again a couple of times because I had my mid-nineties to early two thousands paperbacks, and my grandmother was always on the look out for them for me and brought me loads from the charity shops and then for my 21st birthday my parents brought me a first edition with dustjacket. I love my first edition, its awesome, but I just can’t really bring myself to part with the books that my grandmother brought me, mostly because she was such a key person in my life, the books still help me feel close to her. Have you had any duplicates as presents?
  3. It’s the only one in the shop: This is my most common one and most despaired by from Fiona. Every time I spot a nice hardback, bound copy of the Famous Five or Malory Towers or even a Malcolm Saville, I really really struggle with putting the book down and walking away. Especially if it’s a lone book in a shop. I tend to be a bit sentimental about the books and think that they need a home, a home with other friends of their kind, not these glossy paperbacks so helpfully donated to charity shops. I feel old books need to be nurtured and Blytons especially so because of the chopping and changing of the text. The older books have had a hard life, probably hidden in attics or at the back of book shelves and really just want to be in a nice comfy house with other books. Right?
  4. Not sure what I have at home: This bugs Fiona no end. She is super organised and has a list of every book she owns, either on a spreadsheet or very carefully catalogued on her Goodreads page (I wish I had her persistence to do such a thing!) The simple truth is I forget a lot of the time what I have at home, what edition and how much I paid for it, so if it’s an especially nice copy, and even with dustjackets and coloured plates I will buy it, whether I think I have it or not. Reasonable don’t you think?
  5. Dustjackets, covers and illustrations: My last reason is, as you may have guessed related to what I said in point four about the dustjackets and coloured plates in the earlier editions. Now I am a sucker for a dustjacket, especially a good condition one, and once brought a Five Run Away Together just for the dustjacket and the coloured plate in the front. I also like to get the ones with different covers, in particular I spent a lot of time trying to gather together each of the 21 Fives with the 1996 TV tie in covers. I have now succeeded, and they are being stored nicely in my room. These covers are sometimes quite tricky to get hold, given that the 90s TV series rather falls off the Blyton radar, and there aren’t all that many copies left. I had a couple when I was younger and the obsession with the Famous Five grew from there. I just had to have them.
    Last but not least, illustrations, who could resist those beautifully drawn pictures by Eileen Soper? They really are something to behold. However I am about to admit to sacrilege here but once I got the Millennium editions from the library and they had coloured illustrations. When I was younger these sparked off my imagination and I desperately started trying to gather them, once again with my nan’s help I gained quite a collection before they quietly disappeared from shelves. I love those ones, they’re my main reading copies and are well loved. I think I’m allowed those!

There we are then, five reasons why I have so many editions of the Famous Five! Sorry it wasn’t the promised blog about cake, but I forgot to make it. I hope you didn’t mind this improvised blog, please let me know what you think and why you have more than one edition of a Blyton book!

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The Ring O’ Bells Mystery

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Fiona

Ring O’ Bells is probably my favourite from this series, but after telling Stef this was what I’d review I had to do a hasty double-check that it was indeed the next in the series. It is, of course, and that makes sense when you know that Rubadub comes later with its progression in the Barney-and-his-mysterious-father storyline. But as always, I doubted myself and decided to check the books. Many books from series have a little list of previous titles in them (though annoyingly, if its a reprint, they may list all books minus the book you have open and leave you none the wiser). Thankfully Blyton often includes a short message to her readers along the line of this book being the third in the series, but each is complete in itself.

So, I checked what Ring O’ Bells said. To my slight surprise the little message reads:

This is the fourth book about Roger, Diana, Snubby and his dog Loony, and Barney and his monkey Miranda.
The other three books are:
The Rockingdown Mystery
The Rilloby Fair Mystery
The Rubadub Mystery

At that point I entirely believed I had been wrong and took The Rubadub Mystery off the shelf too. Inside that reads:

This is the fourth book about Roger, Diana, Snubby and his dog Loony, and Barney and his monkey Miranda.
The other three books in this series are:
The Rockingdown Mystery
The Rilloby Fair Mystery
The Ring O’Bells Mystery…

Clearly they can’t both be right! Common sense then kicked in, and saw that Ring O’ Bells was first printed in this edition in 1953, and reprinted in 1954, while Rubadub’s dates were 1954 and 1955. It would seem that an error has crept into Ring O’ Bells possibly when it was republished. I’m not sure what other differences there are between these editions and the originals, though, as they are both by the same publisher – with just three years in between – and there’s no distinction make on the Enid Blyton Society listing.

Anyway, superior detective skills won, and Ring O’ Bells was the right book. Incidentally, though, the foreword there tells us that Blyton clearly didn’t know what to call the series either! The books are known equally as The Barney Mysteries and The R Mysteries it would seem. Both are much catchier than the Roger, Diana, Snubby and his dog Loony, and Barney and his monkey Miranda Mysteries.

THE ACTUAL STORY

Four hundred or so words ago, I told you this was my favourite in the series, so let’s get back to that. This story has some similar chilling and historical aspects to Rockingdown, though much of it has a fairytale spin.

The most chilling part is the reference to the drowning – though it plays a much smaller part in the story than perhaps I had remembered. It’s a dark little tale, though, and somewhat unusual for Blyton although she had used a similar idea in Rockingdown with the deaths of the children at the manor.

As for the fairy-tales there’s Naomi Barlow, known to the children as Old Red Riding Hood, thanks to her tattered red hooded cloak and cottage in the woods. Despite it saying many times that she has white curly hair in addition to the witch-green eyes, I have always pictured her as a much younger woman.

Naomi Barlow aka Old Red Riding Hood

Naomi Barlow aka Old Red Riding Hood

There’s also Mother Hubbard, though like Old Red Riding Hood this is a nickname bestowed upon her by the children. It’s mostly just because she lives at Hubbard Cottage, but is compounded by the fact that she – gasp – has a cupboard! The fact that it’s a larder full of food is irrelevant, but the children’s reaction makes you wonder how rare cupboards were in those days!

Then there’s the myths and legends surrounding the bells at Ring O’ Bells Hall which apparently rang out to warn of enemies in the past. ROB Hall is a typical Blytonian hall, meaning it not only boasts a hiding-niche up a fireplace and a secret passage behind a panel but also a stern and unpleasant curator who wishes to keep out riff-raff such as inquisitive children and their dogs.

These are all things which have graced many of her books. Talking of which – the reason they are in ROB Village is they have had the ‘flu  (after four! weeks of Easter hols) and have therefore been instructed by the doctor to go somewhere they can relax and have a ‘change of air’. This time it’s not sea-air or mountain-air they need though (who knew different types of air was so important?) so they end up going to a different village than the one they live in for this change of air.

Secret passages (especially ones behind sliding panels) are practically a staple in Blyton’s adventure worlds, but this one shares similarities to two that feature in Famous Five books. One similarity is with Five Go Off to Camp and a brick wall, the other to Five Have a Mystery to Solve and one entrance to the cave of treasures. Actually, it’s also very similar to the Craggy Tops’ entrance to the undersea tunnel in Island of Adventure when it comes to that.

Old Grandad could be straight out of any number of stories as an old bearded fellow of indeterminate but great age who can tell of past tales and legends. There’s Yan’s Grandad from Five Go Down to the Sea, Great-Grandad from Five on Finniston Farm, Jeremiah Boogle from Five Go to Demon’s Rocks… 

Old Grandad. Not to be confused with Yan's Grandad or Great-Grandad or any other patriarchal figures.

Old Grandad. Not to be confused with Yan’s Grandad or Great-Grandad or any other patriarchal figures.

Ringing the bells to wake the village and get help to the hall is an idea that is used again in Five Go to Demon’s Rocks – both scenes have quite an impact it has to be said.

Unfortunately, perhaps, in Ring O’ Bells old-fashioned attitudes towards women are quite prevalent – including in this bell-ringing scenario. I tend not to notice this too much as I don’t believe Blyton was a raging sexist – George shows she was quite the opposite – but there are several instances of women being portrayed firmly as the weaker sex.

Diana is not in the hall when Barney rings the bells as she has willingly agreed to stay home, rather too afraid to go though she feels she ought to. It’s debatable whether the boys would have let her go anyway. She’s also absent from exploring the passage from the end in the woods. Instead she often gets to be the one to help make up the lunches and do other chores. When the bells ring dogs bark, cows low, cats flee, men throw back the bedcovers and leap out and women? The women scream! It’s also Diana who is the first to go white and weak after their first day of exerting themselves.

MY THOUGHTS

After saying that this is my favourite of the series, I have to admit that the mystery/ adventure elements are perhaps not Blyton’s strongest. It’s a fairly straight-forward tale of hearing noises in the night (much like at Rockingdown), investigating a tunnel and finding a dead-end, a little chatting to people in-the-know of these things, some further and more exciting tunnel exploring, and then a finale which somewhat redeems the story. I say somewhat as although both Roger and Barney are trapped by the criminals it’s for a very short time and they are never in any true danger.

It still remains my favourite, though, thanks to the added history and fairy-tales woven into the story.

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Next review: The Rilloby Fair Mystery

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Welcome to Monday

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Fiona

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend –  hasn’t the English weather been glorious (especially in the south) this weekend? I’ve been out and got myself a little tan, and all my freckles are finding their way out!

Anyway the blogs for this week are a look at The Ring O’ Bells Mystery from Fiona to go with the rest of her Barney series reviews, we have a reblog to do for you from a fan who emailed us last week, which we are looking forward to, and I think I am going to try a recipe for seed cake that I found at work. I’m pretty certain that seed cake was mentioned in one of Blyton’s books, somewhere!

Hope you’re up for a smashing blog week! I shall leave you with some of my favourite pictures from last week, which I do admit mostly includes bluebells. Hope you love them as much as I do!

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The River of Adventure

Posted on May 6, 2016 by pippastef

I know it’s been a while since I have reviewed any of the Adventure Series books but I know where I got up to, and that was River. So without waiting another second it’s time to have a look at the final Adventure series book and find out what trouble Philip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann get up to.

I think its fair to say that River of Adventure is possibly one of the weaker books of the series, and in the same vein as Five are Together Again, it tends to be the least favourite of the fans. The plot does tend to feel like a mash up of previous ones, the children being unable to go back to school, the unexpected trip out of town with Bill and in this case Aunt Allie, the bad guy is searching for an underground treasure and the adults are conveniently captured so the children can go on and find the treasure trove by accident.

It’s a fairly standard end of the line plot really, it is as if Blyton couldn’t find an further ways to grow her characters and find new adventures for them. I’m a bit hazy on her personal timeline but a quick check on the Enid Blyton Society website tells me that it could be understandable that Blyton was a bit distracted at this time as she was having to start legal proceedings to stop the rumours that she didn’t write her own books. In that instance we could probably forgive her for being a little less absorbed in coming up with adventures for her books.

Anyway back to the adventure; the whole reason for the children being anywhere near this middle eastern ‘river of adventure’ is because of Bill and his work. He is tracking someone called Raya Uma who is a jack of all trades as far as criminal business is concerned and is after some highly valuable treasure that is apparently hidden in the desert. Bill takes his wife and the children for his cover, to appear to be a family man on holiday while doing all he can to catch Raya Uma. However as I’m sure you can guess, best laid plans and all that, it all goes wrong for Bill and Aunt Allie as they’re kidnapped by Raya Uma and his men.

The children then ally themselves with the boat driver and a young boy from the local ‘sinny-town’ (Cinema town, you know a big fake place like on a Hollywood movie set?). During this excitement Philip ends up with a poisonous snake that has had its venom ducts removed which means it is essentially harmless, and avid readers of the book will know that the snake does save the day.

However back to the plot. I must admit I didn’t ‘gel’ with it, it was very sporadic when moving from scene to scene and although it had been touched by Blyton’s magic, the fact that once again the children had managed to find undiscovered treasure had lost its shine by this point. The plot is overused and sloppy in places, the motions are just that, motions. There is nothing new to surprise the reader, especially if they have read all the others. As usual I may be being too hard on it as its a children’s book and I am an adult (how I hate admitting that), but I think even as a child I knew when a book didn’t quite fit in. I knew that Five as Together Again was not as strong and instead was quite boring compared to the others, and its the same with The River of Adventure.

However I know that any book written by Blyton has a magic about it, and that’s not to say it’s well written but it just doesn’t sparkle as much as the others. You may disagree with me, and you may like to fill me in on what I am missing! I just think that the last book of Blyton’s series are the ones that suffer most from over used plot lines and predictability.

One last point on River of Adventure is that if you look at the first editions or at least those published before 1953 Kiki, our favourite parrot, would screech “God save the King” quite happily. In River this changes to “God save the Queen” as it was two years since Queen Elizabeth the second had been crowned and the phrase was changed to fit into the times. However I’m not too sure how well you could convince a parrot like Kiki to change her favourite saying, but if anyone could it would be Jack and Philip.

So there you are, those are my thoughts on the River of Adventure. What do you think? Do you agree with me or not? Let us know in the comments or write us a blog saying why not!

First edition dustjacket

Fiona has also reviewed this series, starting here.

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My twenty-second Noddy book: Cheer Up Little Noddy

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Fiona

This Noddy book has been the hardest to review. It was supposed to be my 18th review from the series, but when I opened my copy I discovered that it was missing the first 20 pages. I then added a copy from eBay to my Christmas list, and my mum bought me it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the cover from Cheer Up Little Noddy… and the contents of Noddy Goes to Sea! The copy I’m finally going to review came all the way from Alton and was bought for me by Stef. Needless to say I asked her if it had all pages and matching contents and cover before I let her part with any money!

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THE STORY

Noddy’s day starts with washing his car, but right away you could see trouble was coming.

Little Tubby Bear and Tommy Bear are watching and admiring his car and Tommy Bear says he can drive. Uh-oh. Noddy is silly enough to let them sit in his car. Double uh-oh.

Naturally, being naughty teddies they drive off in his car and it ends up smashed to pieces. For once, a catastrophe has occurred that isn’t truly Noddy’s fault and everyone is very sympathetic. Mr Golly takes the car for repair and various toys come to visit Noddy with jam tarts and chocolates.

Little Tubby has been spanked by his parents for his behaviour and is to give up what is in his piggy bank towards the repairs. Tommy Bear has run off. (No-one seems to be particularly concerned about a missing child, or a case of grand theft auto, however.)

Noddy’s plan (conceived with Big Ears who is a much brainier chap) is to barrow a borrow…  no, morrow a barrow tomarrow… um, temporarily use a wheeled box to ferry shopping and things for people at sixpence a go.

In a place like Toy Village this sort of venture can only be a success. Toys always have a spare sixpence for someone else to do a boring or time-consuming chore for them. I actually wonder how anyone manages to catch a train or get their shopping home when Noddy’s on holiday or on a day off or without his car for whatever reason. Despite there being enough traffic for Mr Plod to have to control it nobody else (or at least none of the regular characters) seem to own any sort of vehicle. And I’m looking too deeply into a fantasy toy-world created for small children, I know that.

Anyway, the barrow-jobs turn out to be hard-going on Noddy due to lots of heavy loads. He upgrades to a hand-cart after a day or two, but even then he’s tired out as everyone is giving him jobs as they think it’s helpful. Big Ears thinks about getting a horse to help, only he doesn’t know anyone with a horse… And straight away a travelling saucepan sales man comes along, with a donkey.

NODDY AND THE SAUCEPAN MAN

As happens fairly often with Blyton, this is a little cross-over, or cameo if you will. Big-Ears calls him the Old Saucepan Man, and he wears a saucepan on his head. The constant clattering of the pots and pans has made him quite deaf as well. I’ve not got around to reading the Enchanted Wood/Faraway Tree books yet but even I know that this is the same Saucepan Man that appears there.

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All too conveniently the Saucepan Man is looking for someone to look after Ee-Aw his donkey while he goes off visiting his aunt, Katie Kettle. Despite having thought about getting Noddy a horse not two pages ago, Big-Ears is outraged. He has no where to keep a donkey! It takes until the Saucepan Man has gone off in a huff before he thinks to let Noddy have the donkey and solve two problems at once.

Not much really happens after that. Noddy goes back to working, using Ee-Aw to pull the cart, and apart from one upset when Bumpy-Dog send Ee-Aw running off, it goes well. Saucepan Man then comes back for Ee-Aw unexpectedly early, but it’s fine as Noddy’s car is repaired and life can go back to normal.

Tommy Bear never turns up again, incidentally.

After waiting so long to read this, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.

 

 

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First Monday of May

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Fiona

It’s May now, not that the recent weather would lead you to believe that. For me the last week of April was not a case of April Showers. It was a case of repeated hail showers and then a reasonably heavy snow fall. I can only hope spring returns with May!

Anyway, at least the weather won’t stop us blogging.

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Thanks to Stef I have now acquired two of the three Noddy books I was missing, so I can return to reviewing them now, while Stef is going to finish the Adventure Series and we have a reblog on Sunday all the way from The Netherlands.

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Last Term at Malory Towers: Audio Adaptation

Posted on April 29, 2016 by pippastef

So here we are at the last audio adaptation of Malory Towers. Its been a rather short run of these audio comparisons but with only six volumes in the series, how could we expect more? Maybe I shall have to bite my tongue and read the Pamela Cox continuation novels and bring you some reviews of those. Anyway, on to the actual adaptation.

The introduction of the last term begins with Darrell at home, just about to leave for Malory Towers for the last time. She runs out to the car where her father is waiting impatiently for his daughters to appear.This is the first time we actually hear her father speak, and her mother is absent. In the books, both parents and Sally join Darrell and Felicity in the car to Malory Towers. I suppose that because she doesn’t say much that for the audio adaptation to keep to time it is just as simple to leave her out altogether than to squeeze her in.

The journey to Malory Towers is short and bittersweet because we all know this is the last one but even before we arrive at the wonderful world of Malory Towers we are being introduced to more new characters. In the last term there is a focus on the younger girls who can still get up to lots of mischief where the older girls, Darrell etc, can’t. Felicity and her friends in the second form make up the focus of a lot of the book. The character we’re introduced to in the beginning of the Last Term is someone called Josephine Jones. It seems that the girls in the car are all aware of her and she has been at Malory Towers for at least one term. Jo, as she’s usually called, has an appalling father and a very high opinion of herself which later on becomes her downfall.

One of the issues with Jo’s story is that when it comes to the money aspect of it (her parents are very wealthy) the PC brigade has been in and decided that they need to change five pounds in old money into ten pounds sterling as it’s assumed the listeners will not realise the time in which the story is set and have no idea of the currency change. As a purist it is these kinds of changes that make some the magic disappear from Blyton’s novels. The assumption that children wouldn’t think that five whole pounds was a lot of money is ridiculous. When I was the right age for these five pounds felt like a fortune, and all right when I was eight or so five pounds could get you a lot more, so much more that Jo’s ten pounds felt like a fortune! What really is the need for that sort of change? It’s just pedantic.

The next thing I want to talk about it the complete removal of a character from the adaptation. In the adaptation there is one new girl, the sports loving Amanda Chartlow (or Shoutalot, if you’re Mam’zelle Dupont) who plays a big part in the story, especially in regards to the second form and the bumptious June’s wake up call to stop just being the class clown. However in the book there are two new girls in the sixth form, one of them being Mam’zelle Rougier’s niece Suzanne who has come all the way from France to learn some English customs. Although Suzanne does not add much plot to the book, she is in a way the comic relief, and is another link to the second form as she adores the tricks they play on the Mam’zelles.

In regards to Amanda Chartlow, who is superb at games from a famous games school, her parts are mostly still intact. However there are some big jumps in her storyline with Alicia’s cousin June, such as the conversation where Amanda offers to coach June in tnnis and swimming, but it is more or less all there. Amanda is a very dominating character and although it comes through in the audio, it is very much lacking in line with the book.

When the audio starts drawing to the end, we don’t really get the full whack of feeling that Darrell’s leaving causes us in the book; the sombre walk around the school, having to say goodbye to everything and making Felicity promise to carry the standard high. Its a very touching part of the book, and really its lost in the audio where this part is cut out in favour of instrumental music.

It’s not the best Malory Towers adaptation, that probably has to go to the fifth, but its good because in a way there isn’t much from the book it doesn’t cover, the change in money is annoying to those of us in the know, and the exclusion of Suzanne is just frankly ridiculous when you could have cut some of the time from the instrumental music to fill in those parts. As always it’s little things, but if they get children wanting to read the books, well then, that’s the best we can hope for.

I will say however, even though I’ve been looking at these critically they are still full of nostalgia for me, and they do just confirm my love for Malory Towers. Oh how I wish I had been to that school! Long live Malory Towers!

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This is the last book in the series so there is no ‘next review’ but you can read a review of the Last Term novel here.

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The Secret Series on TV – Moon Castle

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Fiona

The previous episode went for a very modern sci-fi feel, which was miles away from the original story. This time around they seem to have gone for a ghostly one, which doesn’t sound all that far from the book, but manages to be entirely different all the same.

It actually reminds me of a couple of Murder She Wrote episodes, namely A Killing In Cork and Nan’s Ghost. That would be partially down to the location – which just so happens to be Ireland… yes, Ireland. I think I’d better go back to the beginning, hadn’t I?

THE OPENING SCENE

Charlotte is to visit and write about some Irish castles and so invited the Arnold crew plus Ruby along. (Why four children of that age need a nanny when they are travelling with their father and another adult is not clear.)

Castle #1 on the list just so happens to be Caislean Geall. Sorry, I mean Moon Castle, though both names are on the sign. Caislean, as I imagined, means castle, but geall seems to mean pledge or wager. Google Translate tells me that the Irish for moon is, er, moon, but elsewhere I’m seeing it as gealach or gealai so geall isn’t far from that.

Castle Wager/ Moon Castle is set up as being haunted by the opening scene with a ghostly horseman (and random drunk shouting SEAMMMUUSSSS!) It is also surrounded by what looks like the bog of eternal stench, but is later revealed to be a mostly harmless peat-bog.

The not-headless horseman

The not-headless horseman

THE O’MOONS?

A chap who I assumed to be Guy Brimming is angry with a woman I took to be Mrs Brimming, the caretaker. He is furious that she has advertised the castle for rent, but she argues that it will be fine. She’s lonely there as not a soul ever visits. This is in opposition to the book, where Mrs B (and her two sisters) as well as Guy don’t want anyone in the castle.

As it turns out these two are actually Mrs (or Ma) O’Moon and Fin O’Moon. Because you’re not Irish enough without an O in front of your name! They are the same characters though, just re-named. They must own the castle, as their ancestor Fin Bar O’Moon is mentioned a lot. Mrs O is dressed up like a vampire practically, I just have to add that.

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Mrs O’Moon

Fin is still a mad scientist type, but he seems to be working alone to produce a ‘magic potion’ – I kid you not, those are the words used. The cat laps some up and leaps from the top of the tower without injury, so we’re definitely into something weird.

TWANG, DONG, PLINK AND HONK

That unsettles the Arnolds as they arrive, especially Laura who thinks the castle doesn’t want them there. Unsurprisingly she is the one to harp on about ghosts the whole time. It doesn’t help that for the majority of the episode she is the only one to see green eyes lighting up in the portrait or the ghostly horseman outside. Though she says “it looked at me,” instead of “a green light shone from the eyes” so everyone thinks she’s just being silly.

Lots of weird things do happen, though, sort of like in the book. Suits of armour fall over. The musical instruments do indeed go TWANG and DONG, but also PLINK and HONK. It’s so terrifying that Ruby manages to fall down some stairs and hurts her knee. That’s the perfect excuse for Mrs O to give her some of the magic, (sometimes smoking), luminous green potion. Ruby not only thinks that’s entirely normal but also quite delicious.

Here, have some lovely green juice.

Here, have some lovely green juice.

Unfortunately for Ruby it only serves to make her battier than ever – she has extreme amounts of energy and almost flies over the bog, then later nearly dances off a cliff.

Back to the ‘weird things’ though, and lots of the Arnolds’ things go missing. A cassette player, a teddy, a cardigan, socks… Laura naturally blames the ghost. There are mini-earthquakes that send books flying from the shelves.

Mrs O blames pretty much everything on the castle being built on a bog. IT’S THE SUBSIDENCE! is heard a half-dozen times at least. But in private, she blames Fin, who denies pretty much everything.

THE SOLUTION

The children’s leaps of logic are quite astounding, really. They realise that someone came in to open their curtains so that they were guaranteed to see the horseman in the middle of the night. That must mean that someone is trying to scare them off. And you know what THAT means. There MUST be a secret passage in their room! This has slight hints of the book where the curtains are deliberately drawn so that someone can sneak in and access the secret passage there, but the children take their time to mull it over and come to a clever solution to a puzzle. They also decide that there must be someone else involved, someone who goes up into the tower where Fin and Mrs O say they can’t go as there is no key.

As with pretty much every episode my attention waned around this point. I must have been forty or fifty minutes in – the episodes are a ridiculous hour and a quarter or something. Anyway, they find the secret passage, some of them get kidnapped, Prince gets ill, Ruby gets kidnapped or trapped with the children. there’s more earthquakes, and then there’s some reveals about who is involved with the mystery in what capacity.

The green stuff is a potion for eternal life… or eternal youth, something like that. The mastermind is actually Ma O’Moon herself, and she brought the Arnolds in to test the potion on them, to make sure it was safe for her to take.

She and Fin argue over it all and it turns out Fin did the object stealing and horse-riding to try to scare the Arnolds away. He didn’t want them to end up like ‘the others’ who jumped from the tower believing they could fly. Ma isn’t best impressed when he denies the twang dongs etc. For some reasons she still says ITS THE SUBSIDENCE again for good measure and he insists IT’S FIN BAR HIMSELF.

And it turns out he’s right. There really is a ghostly presence, and it’s Fin Bar their ancestor who wants them to stop their bad ways. He even talks to them through the painting to say NO MORE.

MY THOUGHTS

So that is the main ‘plot’ of the episode, not that it makes a great deal of sense. There is also a Charlotte/Thaddeus sub plot, naturally. This time it’s more romantic than dramatic. Long story short, Charlotte proposes (I think we should get married, Thaddeus. Everyone thinks we’re a couple, and it would save on bedrooms  – but I suspect some of it was tongue in cheek, or I hope so at least) and Thaddeus pretty much does a runner. She goes looking for him and thus they miss much of the action at the castle while they mope and brood and argue. I predicted them having a relationship from the first episode, so this is hardly surprising, though there has been few, if any, romantic moments or anything official on them dating before this. It’s almost Bill and Allie-ish in the lacking romance department.

It takes just a little bit of over-dramaticness – Charlotte sliding down a tiny cliff – for Thaddeus to realise he does want to marry her after all.

And now, for the things that I couldn’t work into a plot synopsis.

Jack finally gets adopted into the Arnold family at the start as all the official paperwork has come through. Took them long enough!

Mike barely features in this episode – remember he was laid up in bed for most of Killimooin as well! This time he swaps places with Tom the gypsy boy. Tom wants to go visit a castle and Mike would rather go to the horse show with Tom’s father, so he’s there for two minutes at the start and end. It doesn’t make much difference either way as all the children are pretty interchangeable.

There’s so much melodrama it’s ridiculous. Laura is about to fall into the bog? NOOOOOO, cue slow-mo running. That’s Fin this time, but the children use shouting NO as a primary method of stopping things. Like Ruby falling off a cliff, or drinking more potion. And it’s entirely ineffective.  Prince tries to do a Lassie and fetch help and instead causes Thaddeus and Charlotte to drive off the road. Ruby nearly dances off the castle tower at the end, only to be SUNG down by Laura. But of course she slips anyway. For the drama.

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And lastly, we need to update our geography maps badly. They seem to drive from Spiggy Holes to Moon Castle. I think they’re trying to pretend that it’s all been set in England the whole time. Even so, they still drive from ‘England’ to ‘Ireland’ without so much as a mention of a ferry.

I think on the whole we can call this another ridiculous instalment and move on. They cut the Brimming sisters, turned the scary and creepy moments into melodrama, there’s no Prince Paul, no mines with men in suits, no pins and needles… all so they could write their own stuff about potions for eternal life (which turn your shed skin cells green – a Bad Science candidate for sure) and add real ghosts and a bog which seemed at first to be important and then had nothing to do with anything.

 

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Monday

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Fiona

Here we are, another Monday, another week into the year, and we here at Word of Blyton aren’t quite sure what this week will bring you.

Fiona will try and get another TV epsiode of the Secret Series done and compared for you this week, and I think I shall end up with the last in the series of the audio comparisons of Malory Towers. So looking at the changes and cuts made to Last Term at Malory Towers.

I think thats all from me this Monday I’m afraid, we’ve not got any exciting news at the moment, but I hope you’ll all be back for our blogs this week!!!

I shall leave you with some pictures from my recent walk in our somewhat nicer weather than we have been having this week. Hope you like them!

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In the Fifth at Malory Towers: Audio Adaptation

Posted on April 22, 2016 by pippastef

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We’re almost at the end of these comparisons, mostly because there was only ever six to do with Malory Towers. In the Fifth is my second favourite Malory Towers book, the first being The Third Year at Malory Towers. The reason why In the Fifth is only my second favourite is because I didn’t read it until much later in my Enid Blyton reading.

In fact that is probably why the Fifth is one of my favourites, when I reading the book the girls were the right age for me to relate to in my tender teenage years. I could see why they decided to treat the new girl Maureen Little the way they did. This part has made it into the taped adaptation I have, but I have no idea on whether it would have been edited or removed from the later versions as the way the girls handle Maureen can be seen as cruel and in fact, is a form of bullying. However it being a Blyton book and Maureen being one of the ‘bad’ girls and everyone else being ‘good’ as a youngster you get away with the scenes as it just means that everyone is being put in their place.

As an adult however the handling of Maureen, Catherine and Gwen is uncomfortable to listen to, let alone read the full descriptions of ‘taking them down a peg’. In fact the attitude of our ‘good’ girls is hardly anything spectacular. Blyton might have included that to show that even though there are silly people in the word, not everyone is one thing or the other. I know now that life, even for the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people is never as easy as it seems. People aren’t all bad and people aren’t all good. We all deal with things differently and perhaps the way the fifth dealt with Maureen, Gwen and Catherine was them trying to deal with things in a very young way. In fact the first suggestion is to act scornfully towards them but this was turned down in favour of laughter. The acting out of it can be a bit lacking in intensity and drama, whereas the book gives the full whack. I never realized the seriousness of the situation when I was younger and through the audio, but being older and having read the book, I see the horridness behind the actions.

The cassette covers things quite closely in this one, though there are swathes of text cut and more instrumental music to fill in long gaps where the narrator walks you through the book. The Fifth is one of the better adapted novels as the plot does not jump about from chapter to chapter and follows a main story arc. This holds it together better throughout the audio experience and things to not seem quite so random in this one. Perhaps it is because we know the characters better or that I just know the book by heart I know whats happening in-between the segments of text. As a once first time listener with no idea of what the book said these audios do work well, but now as a seasoned Blytonite, the world from the books has become my life and the most important thing about it was the description that Blyton included in her books. I loved that we got more of a flavour about the characters in the books, and little glimpses of character that were somehow lost in the audio. It was through the books that I began to fall in love and enjoy the characters even more!

One of the nicest things about In the Fifth is that when the Fifth form perform their pantomime, and go through rehearsals, we get to hear parts of ‘Darrell’s’ script. Of course these aren’t really included in the book and must have been put in by the script writer but they really do make the whole idea of the fifth putting on a pantomime more or less realistic. It is a performance I would have paid any silly amount of money to see; I really would. I’m sure it was the performance of a life time for the girls, and through the audio we get to experience a little bit of that magic.

As I’ve said, this has to be one of my favourite audios, and even though like the rest of them, it has its plot cut about to condense it into an hours performance, the result is a pleasing one. A lot of it is down to the actors of course, and perhaps needing more ‘oomph’ in their plummy acting, but still these are the girls of Malory Towers, they’re learning to become proper ladies!

Next review: Last Term at Malory Towers: Audio adaptation

Or read a review of the In the Fifth novel here.

Posted in Audio Books and Audio Dramatisations | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Twins at St Clare’s – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 6

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Fiona

This week (after abandoning this series for over a month) I got through two chapters. That leaves just five to go. Earlier posts – one, two, three, four and five.

1945 edition of Twins at St Clare’s
Egmont front cover of The Twins at St Clare’s.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A TERRIBLE QUARREL

The class-related discussions suffer from the most updating in this chapter. There are one or two slightly uncomfortable moments, where the St Clare’s girls look down on Sheila for being ‘new-money’ (though that phrase is never used). Saying that, it is made clear that they don’t care that she’s not always been rich, but that she hasn’t been honest about her situation and has pretended to be something she’s not. That may still sound horrible, but Sheila was one to constantly brag about her house and servants… and well, that’s where the edits start to creep in so I will get on with documenting them.

Sheila brags (or indeed swanks) about her marvellous home and the number of servants they keep, and her horse, and their three motor-cars. This gets changed to her marvellous home, and her horse, and their three cars. Obviously nobody nowadays is allowed to have servants, but the least they could do was make it staff. Very rich people still pay people to cook and clean for them! Also, three cars is hardly boarding-school bragging material now. I would think that having only three cars might be a shameful point.

Likewise, Janet’s speech about Sheila’s bragging gets cut up. She had said you talk about your servants and your Rolls-Royce cars, your house and your lake and goodness knows what – and then you talk like the daughter of the dustman! and now it is you talk about your house, and your cars, your horse and your lake and goodness knows what – and then you talk like a barrow-boy.

Again, that could have been staff rather than servants and Rolls-Royce is still a well-known luxury car brand. Or they could have had Janet mention their Bugatti Veyrons or Porches of course, if they wanted something more ‘now’. Also, I’m not sure how barrow-boy is less offensive or classist than daughter of a dustman.  I suppose that there are likely to be daughters of bin-men reading, and not so many barrow-boys but the classism is still there. I’m not entirely sure it’s that classist, even. It would be like saying ‘you waltz around like you’re the queen and then talk like you’re from a council estate’. It’s not polite, but it points out an incongruity.

Janet also says that decent people don’t use some of the phrases Sheila does. This has been changed to simply that people don’t. I suppose they felt that it wasn’t fair to imply people who don’t speak ‘well’ aren’t decent, but that’s Janet’s opinion and not a fact.

I sort of agree with one change, however. Initially Sheila knew she wasn’t as good as the others [because she was born poor]. This has been changed to she thought she wasn’t as good. I think that’s a positive change as Sheila isn’t any less good than girls who were lucky to be born into wealthy families. She might not be as nice as them, or have other skills they do, but she isn’t a lesser person for that. Though saying that, Sheila ‘knowing’ something is still a very personal thing. She could ‘know’ she is not as good and yet be entirely wrong.

After all that there are still a few minor changes to mention. The habit of removing some italics continues, though the majority are left. So what is the matter with her? loses much of its emphasis. ‘What is the matter with her?’ sounds like a very casual question. With the is highlighted, however, it makes the speaker sound quite flummoxed.

Good heavens is used twice in the chapter, both times the newer edition makes it Good Heavens. I can’t say I particularly agree with that. Then again I’m not a fan of ‘he’ etc getting capitals when it’s to do with God.

The gramophone is again ‘updated’ to a record player – I’m sure I’ve already queried why Pat and Isabel aren’t putting their i-Pods into a dock to play music.

Queer becomes strange and every one quite rightly becomes everyone as it refers to people.

There are also two things left in that seem strange. Janet, in another rant, says goodness knows how many servants and cars and that is left unedited – the only reference to servants which isn’t removed. They also leave twopence in (I can’t remember the exact wording now but it was as in ‘I don’t care twopence for her) when usually now it’s tuppence.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SHEILA DOES HER BIT

And then, after all that, I could only find one change to this chapter. It’s hardly worth mentioning, really. Very left-out becomes very left out. That’s it.

I make that as nine changes – all in chapter 15. That brings us to 72 in total.

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Monday

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Fiona

Ristorante5 (1)

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Famous Five 90s Style: Five Are Together Again

Posted on April 15, 2016 by pippastef

Now the general consensus from Blytonites is that Five Are Together Again is one of the weakest series endings to come from Blyton, and that it really isn’t the best adventure the Five could have ended on. If you think the book is poor, then maybe its easier to understand why there are so many changes to the script in this one. Its almost like a completely new adventure based on the bones of the original –  a little like Five Have a Wonderful Time –  except no broken leg had to be accommodated this time.

So many of you know that the basis of this book is; the Kirrin cousins go to stay with Tinker Hayling because George’s parents are in quarantine for scarlet fever because Joan the cook has come down with the illness. However in the 90s adaptation the children have just been sent to stay with Tinker while his father stays with the Kirrins as the two professors need to work. The Five and Tinker are left without adult supervision as the Hayling’s cook/housekeeper is no where to be seen! Once again it’s left to Julian to be the responsible one, making Marco Williamson’s Julian even harder to like as he assumes the air of superiority. It really doesn’t help the case for Julian not being seen as a bossy boots at all!

The biggest change to the story line is the introduction of the Japanese garden, where a lot of the action seems to take place in the adaptation. In the book Kirrin Island is the destination chosen by George to hide the papers that had been stolen. The Japanese garden doesn’t seem even half as safe as Kirrin Island does, even if you know the end of the story (I must admit I have a hazy memory of it but I haven’t read it in years) but I suspect the change in story had to come from the fact that the production company Zenith had pulled out of the series by the time the second series came around. So the use of some of the sets was pulled, which obviously made it harder to follow some of the story lines to a T.

The framework of the plot is there, but there is a lot that just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t really flow, and the weakest book seems to have translated into the weakest TV episode. The use of the chimp Charlie was very well done –  he wasn’t over or under used but his comic element wasn’t really there mostly I suppose because of time. Even with a poor plot like Together Again, 25 minutes is not enough to convey the proper comedic timings or various characters. There are some good scenes in the book of flare ups between Tinker and the others, not to mention Jenny the housekeeper and Professor Hayling. Also the discovery of the ransacked study in the tower at the bottom of the Hayling’s garden is much less dramatic than in the books. Instead of an anguished howl from the professor it’s sort of met by flat disbelief from the Five who discover the mess.

Tinker also seems to have lost a few brain cells in this one and starts acting like a child once again, even though he is clearly as old as the rest of the Five. I would like to take a moment here to note that James Tomlinson is one of the only guest stars to return over the two series. He appears once in Demon’s Rocks which is in series one and then again in this episode which is filmed in series two. The rest of the guest stars, if they gave reoccurring episodes are kept within the same series. I wish I knew why! In fact the change in Five Have a Wonderful Time from Jo to Sniffer is still a mystery to me (however, you can see my theory to why that would have taken place here).

There is the added distraction and farce of the two Tapper clowns who just seem to be scene stealers, and though it doesn’t take much, give Anne the creeps until she mysteriously decides that they’re all right at the end of the episode. I’m pretty sure that the clowns don’t appear much in the books (Fiona’ll tell me if I’m wrong I’m sure!) so they seem rather an odd choice to add into an already skewed episode.

As ever the Five come through and it’s all laughs at the end. You may be able to tell I am not a huge fan of this particular episode or book for that matter and that is rare for me. I do feel, however, that you just can’t win them all, and this is one that was possibly better somewhere in the middle of the series than at the end of it. We needed a more dramatic ending I think, something that really sends the series of books and TV shows off with a good shove! Fingers crossed for a still to be discovered hidden book somewhere that rounds it off? I know I’d enjoy that!

So that concludes my Famous Five 90s style blogs. If you’re still interested I may look at the 70s episodes compared to the books. Let me know in the comments if that’s worth me doing!

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