Anyone who knows me will know two things – a) I love a bargain when it comes to buying books and b) I love reading children’s books. Those two together is how I came to buy the Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories. I found them in a charity shop in Perth (which I didn’t realise was actually closed when I walked in – but neither did the staff as their clock was wrong!).
They had baskets of books at 4 for £1, so how could I resist? I got the Milly-Molly-Mandy book as I had heard her mentioned by other Blyton fans and book sellers, and I also picked up Stuart Little by E.B. White, The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett and The Haunted Island by Jean Bellamy. I’d never heard of the last two, but the blurbs seemed promising. I may end up reviewing them in this series if they are any good.
BEFORE I START
I’ll warn you that I’m going to have to shorten the poor girl’s name to MMM as it’s going to drive me batty to type it out in full every time. Really she is Millicent Margaret Amanda, but her family felt that was too long to shout out every time they wanted her, so they shortened it to Milly-Molly-Mandy. (Really, Milly would have been enough!)
The copy I got of the MMM stories is a puffin paperback from 2007. It was originally published in 1928, so it precedes much of Blyton’s written work although she had a few books published by then. The best thing is, though, the MMM book is not updated that I can tell. It is set at a time when cars are only just starting to become common on the roads, there is no electricity or telephones in homes and children are free to wander to school and back by themselves at a young age.
In contrast to Blyton’s books, where the gramophone has become a radio and maids have become staff, there instead is an introduction to the MMM stories by the editor. It explains that
Milly-Molly-Mandy lived a long, long time ago in another kind of childhood altogether. She can wander to the village shop alone; walk to school alone; speak to anyone she likes and do many other things that are now outside the experience of children.
…
When Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories was first published, the little girl at the heart of them represented the daily ups and downs of a not untypical, country childhood. For today’s reader, in addition to the joy of sharing Milly-Molly-Mandy’s delight at her life, there is the added curiosity and undoubted pleasure of seeing how different childhood once was.
This would be a great addition to any of Blyton’s works if it meant they could be left alone!
As you can see, although the cover is a new one it isn’t a terrible modern one. MMM looks just the same as she did back in 1928.
There are thirteen stories in this MMM book, thirteen short, simple and sweet little stories of every-day life in the village. Amongst other things MMM does errands, goes blackberrying, does some gardening, gives a party and goes to a fete. As suggested by the editor’s note, MMM does much of this quite independently. She even takes care of the village shop for an hour one day.
There is a great deal of repetition in the stories, giving quite a nice rhythm which I think would be quite good for reading these aloud. Of course you have Milly-Molly-Mandy which is nice to say than type, and then little-friend-Susan too. Then you have lots of situations where names or objects are said and repeated throughout. For example in the first story each member of the family asks her to run an errand for them, so their name and the errand are given one after the other and MMM repeats them to herself throughout so she remembers. She then goes out and buys or fetches each item for each person, then returns and gives each item to each person.
There are plenty of very old-fashioned things throughout the stories as well as some colloquialisms. The money used is all old money, though it is kept very simple and is mostly in pennies so that children could easily follow it. There are horses and traps driven around, MMM has a striped dress for summer and a red serge one for winter, clothes are altered for new events and everyone has a hat for when they are out in public. MMM calls her parents muvver and farver which is a little jarring at first if you’re not used to that sort of thing.
Another plus from this 2007 edition is it retains the original illustrations which were done by the author herself.
There is one story entitled Milly-Molly-Mandy spends a penny. I know that Blyton once used spends a penny either as a title or in a story and had to be told that it had another meaning, and therefore she had to change it. Some people doubt that Blyton could be so naive – and yet Joyce Lankester Brisley was using it in the late twenties so it’s not so unbelievable. Either she didn’t know it either, or it the alternative meaning came a little later. Either way, Blyton would have grown up in a time when it was a perfectly innocent phrase.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I think the MMM stories would make good bedtime reading for young children as they are short and simple and couldn’t possibly get anyone at all worked up. That would actually be my only criticism – everyone’s just so perfect! Nobody is ever unkind, lazy, careless, argumentative or naughty. Nobody even accidentally breaks something or has a mishap. Even the editor’s note calls MMM a bit of a goody-goody. I prefer my story characters to have some flaws, but MMM can’t really offend. She’s just a very nice girl having nice, simple and fun adventures.
Oh, and bonus points for having a map at the start. Who doesn’t love opening a book to find a map?
There are many books we’ve recommended to you if you like Blyton, Robin Steven’s Murder Most Unladylike series being the latest one, not only in publishing terms but as being reviewed on the blog.
The first thing you would want to become a proper Blytonian would be the adventuring rucksack. Now you’ve seen this one before, as I used it for the
enjoyed biking and would often set off on a bike to have a picnic or catch an adventure. Bikes are part of the reason I’m sure that the Five could eat all those gorgeous cakes and picnics without ballooning to the size of houses. Can you imagine how the adventure would have gone if the Five had gotten out of breath by just walking down the stairs? So bikes it is, good exercise, good Blyton adventuring material. Find your vintage bike 
Speaking of food, what would a Blyton adventure be without a picnic, carried along in a smashing picnic hamper? I think one of my favourite descriptions of having food out of a picnic basket comes from Five Have Plenty of Fun when they go down to the beach just before Berta arrives and enjoy home made lemonade and a whole fruit cake while frolicking about in the sea. I don’t know what it is about that description but it always makes me want a picnic. You can see from the basket I’ve picked that it has a handy strap for carrying it over those difficult rocks that get in the way while trying to find the perfect place to picnic. You can find the basket 
Now which member of any troop of children from Blyton’s books would go exploring in the great outdoors without a torch? No one, that’s right, and they always have spare batteries. I love the passages in the books where they’re creeping through the darkness or in tunnels and they just whip out a torch from any pocket whichever clothes they happen to have on. A torch is such an important thing in their adventures and it should be in your life as well, you never know when you may come across a cave waiting to be explored (a bit like Fiona and I did last week — well I went to explore, she wimped out!) Get this lovely vintage torch 
Last thing for those adventures, the one thing you really can’t have an adventure or camp without? A tent. Now I tried to find a nice vintage looking one, but they came in big sizes and were very expensive. In the interest in making this as practical as possible I’ve found a reasonable tent which is made out of more modern materials but will definitely keep you dry. I have chosen a two person tent because you need one of the girls and one for the boys (not to mention any pets who happen to be accompanying you). So head out, get yourself a tent and enjoy your camping adventure.
P.P.S. You forgot the rope to wind around your waist, ready to tie enemies to trees or to let you drop down into a cave. That’s what gave me the idea for this post – seeing rope in some shop. I can’t remember which one, so here’s a nice snazzy (if not particularly 1950s) one 
Shorts: 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 
Shirt: 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 
Jumper: 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 
Walking 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, 
Macintosh: 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 
Blazer: 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 
I shall start off with the shoes I mentioned earlier. The ones that gave me the idea for this post.
This 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 
Shorts 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?
Now 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
Just 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.
The 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.
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 