First Valentines: A St Andrews Story, chapter 1

Posted on February 15, 2015 by worldofblyton

Not what was promised this week (I can’t actually remember what was) but Stef and I had a sudden urge to write a Valentine’s day fic. As we’ve not shared any of what we’ve written later in these characters’ lives we’ve set it in the February after New Year’s Dip takes place.

This is part one anyway, and we’ll have more for you soon.

Julian bounced down to the breakfast hall on the fourteenth of February and smiled at David. “Morning David! How are you?” he asked. “Did you get those flowers ordered for Peter like you wanted?”

“Well aren’t you cheerful,” David groused, hands in his pockets. “I got it all arranged with the florist. They’re going to deliver them to her over at the riding stables this afternoon. Not half as good as being able to give her them myself, but at least she’ll know I’m thinking about her.”

“That’ll be nice,” Julian agreed. “I am a little. I’m all set to take Sally out tonight, and then for a walk,” He smiled. “What are you going to do tonight?”

“Sit and be miserable,” David joked as they walked down the corridor. “I’m kidding,” he added, before Julian could say anything. “I’ve got tickets to the cinema. Darrell and I are going to go, seeing as Toly said he wouldn’t be back tonight.”

Julian nodded. “No back row shenanigans now! Toly will be upset if you get up to anything with his girlfriend now, won’t he?” Julian chuckled. “What are you going to see?”

David gave Julian a thump. “As if I’d even think about sitting in the back row with her. Aside from the fact that Toly would kill me, Peter would never forgive me either! And we’re going to see Alice In Wonderland,” he added with a sigh. “Darrell doesn’t want to go see anything romantic. Or anything with spies in it.”

“Alice in Wonderland is a decent, if confusing, film to watch,” Julian agreed. “Well I hope you have fun.” He tucked into his porridge. “Aren’t you going to ask me where I’m taking Sally?”

Continue reading →

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Looking at The Famous Five Annual 2015, part 1

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Fiona

So this week I’m going to read and review the 2015 annual, I posted about getting it for my Christmas here. I also reviewed the 2014 annual here and here.

ON THE OUTSIDE

As with last time I’ll start with the cover. Again it’s a Soper illustration, (there’s no acceptable alternative for me) this time from Five on a Secret Trail. Last time they used Five Go to Demon’s Rocks which is quite a lot higher up my favourites. Secret Trail is somewhere around the middle of the favourites list for me, but it has  a good cover, as it’s very much an action-shot of the Five.

an15

Although it has a different colour scheme to the 2014 annual they look good sitting side-by-side and definitely feel like part of a series.

I know from the previous annual that the contents aren’t reflected by the cover, so let’s dip inside and see what they’re like.

ON THE INSIDE

This annual, like the last one, started with a coloured-in Soper illustration (from the full-colour editions of the nearly 2000s,) and like last time I’m trying to guess where it’s from. I’d guess Five Get Into Trouble, perhaps, because of the bike just showing in the corner, but they do bike around a lot so perhaps someone else can enlighten me?

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The contents page illustration is from The Famous Five Special (containing three stories) although the image is flipped. This is a nice (and unusual) addition as it’s probably not a well-known title – but for many I imagine they wouldn’t know what it was from or how to find out.

The contents look interesting and a similar sort of mix to last year with puzzles, facts, quizzes and extracts from the books. I’m looking forward to page 46 this time as it has something from Smuggler’s Top – my all time favourite.

DSCN0791As with my last annual review I’m going to review section by section (and most likely end up needing to split this into two reviews!)

WHO ARE THE FAMOUS FIVE?

Instead of individual pages on each member this time we’ve got one half-page with a box on each. This makes sense as there’s no point in this annual just redoing or copying from the last one, while at the same time, recognising that there’s still a need to introduce the characters.

This leads me onto an aside – how many people buy an annual or receive one as a gift and yet need told who the main characters are? It’s just a traditional piece of content I suppose.

The descriptions are short and to the point here and get the characters across well – though I’m not sure I’ve heard Dick described as zany before!

The lower half of this page is an illustration and I’m not completely sure who it’s by. Jolyne Knox, perhaps? I seem to recall us discussing her as the other alternative to Soper (the other being Betty Maxey).

DSCN0796MEET THE BADDIES

Last time we had the Famous Five’s friends, this time we get their alter-egos – the baddies! Again this is an alphabetical list from Lewis Allburg through to Dirty Dick (Taggart) with each getting a short description and the book they’re from gets identified too.

I can’t help but think (after so much lengthy discussion on the Society forums) that these rather give away a lot of spoilers. It doesn’t matter in the slightest for me as I well know who the baddie in Smuggler’s Top is, but others might be surprised to know it’s not in fact Mr Lenoir but Mr Barling!

I’m impressed that the annual describes Lou and Dan separately, giving different but  interesting information rather than the typical “see above”. I also love that Junior Henning’s section seems to make out he’s a baddie mostly because he’s rude and untidy as opposed to helping his father cheat the Philpots out of money.

I’ve just learned that Jacob and Ebenezer’s last name is Loomer. I honestly can’t recall ever seeing that in the book, though I imagine it would probably have come from the policeman or Jeremiah. They do have a mistake here though as it is Ebenezer (the correct spelling) in the title of their section and Ebeneezer in the illustration caption.

Also new to me is that Red Tower’s house is at Port Limmersley. I had to get out my book to check that detail and what Jo says is that the coast is pretty desolate all the way up to the next big place, Port Limmersley. Red Tower’s place is somewhere near there presumably, on the coast between Kirrin and Port Limmersely but not necessarily in or at that place.

This isn’t a bad list but I can think of quite a few omissions. There’s no mention of any baddie from several books (though not all have names given that I can remember) : Five on a Treasure Island, Five Have a Mystery to Solve, Five on a Secret Trail, Five Go Off to Camp (Mr Andrews) and Five Are Together Again (Mr Wooh). Plus Mr Curton is missed from Five on Kirrin Island Again. I’m afraid I’m rather a completist and feel these should have been included. Junior Henning could easily have been missed to give them more space.

FIVE GO TO BILLYCOCK HILL

This is a crossword that requires you to look at the book’s chapters to find the words that fit. I will have a go at some point I’m sure. I’m just unsure about why they’ve said they’ve included five famous letters and they are H, O, W, R and Y. They don’t spell anything and aren’t initials of names or anything famous I can think of.

THE FAMOUS FIVE ON TV

Like in the last annual the 90s series gets rather sidelined (two pictures) compared to the 70s one (ten images). Interesting information about both series (including what’s available in the way of DVDS) is included though.

FIVE HAVE PLENTY OF FUN EXTRACT

This is another comic, and I’m not a fan of comics at the best of times. Especially when they take my beloved Five and modernise them with unattractive illustrations. I’m hating this. Really. The Five meet Aunt Fanny (or “Mum”) and Uncle Q in London and take a taxi to a big hotel. That’s not even CLOSE to the book. Surely to be an extract it should be extracted from the book and not rewritten into something else? It’s horrendous, really. The crooks try to snatch Bertha, yes, she’s gained an H, from the hotel corridor (and oh yes, Bertha looks like she’s from eighteen-hundred-and-something complete with crinoline frock and corkscrew curls…) and then George and Bertha change outfits to sneak out of the hotel back to Kirrin. I can only assume this would lead to George getting kidnapped but thank god the “extract” cuts off there.

Bertha
George

MEET EILEEN SOPER

My favourite illustrator gets a two-page spread as well as having her work liberally sprinkled through the book. The story of her career is told, and it’s an interesting one. It’s good to see her getting some limelight as she really did add so much to the original editions and gave many of us our first look at the Five.

FOOD IN THE FAMOUS FIVE

A really interesting and fair look at the food in the books. The food was so important but as the annual notes – the social interactions at meal time were just as important.

BEHIND THE SCENES…

A short look at Enid’s writing process (though no mention of her private cinema screen showing the stories when she closed her eyes). It includes a page or two of manuscripts which many people won’t have seen before but you may need a magnifying glass if your eyesight isn’t so good.

SUNNY STORIES AND ENID BLYTON’S MAGAZINE

This annual seems to have a bit more about those behind the Five than the Five/the books themselves. Which is fine, just an observation! I’m sure many fans won’t have known about the Five books being serialised in the various magazines.

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW…

Not to boast but I probably did (for a lot of these) but we’ll see. So I knew knew six for sure, one’s vaguely familiar and one is new to me. But there’s nine facts – one of which is a partial repeat which contradicts the other. I’ll put it below so you can see what I mean!

DSCN0795And I will stop here. I’m almost half-way through the annual and I’ve written way too much already. Despite how critical I’ve been I am enjoying it! I sometimes just wish I knew less and so could be more wowed by the contents. It’s a lovely book though, full of colour and pictures. As one of the Five might say, it’s smashing!

Next post: Famous Five Annual 2015 part 2

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 26

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Fiona

Chapter twenty-six:

Mrs Cunningham Again!

The children followed Bill to the inn. There was faint light on in the kitchen. They trooped in at the back door and into the kitchen. What an exciting night it had been! The children were almost asleep, and their eyelids were drooping sleepily. Suddenly Kiki gave the most alarming screech and flew off Jack’s shoulder. There, sitting at the table in the kitchen with her hands cupped round a large mug of hot cocoa was Mrs Cunningham! Her face was pale and worried, but she looked quite well. Kiki sailed to her shoulder and sat there. Mrs Cunningham looked up and the worry fell away from her face at once! She hugged the children all in one and gave Bill a great big bear hug! Mrs Jordans was bustling about the kitchen hunting for spoons and she smiled to herself when she saw ‘Mr Big Bill’ again. She hugged the children and gave Bill a peck of a kiss on the cheek! He smiled at her and gave her a hug too.

Raymond, Howard and Sammy smiled all around, glad to have finished another case. They sat down at the other side of the table. Mrs Jordans fetched them all a cup of cocoa. They drank them thirstily. Bill sat down beside his wife and the children gathered round too. “Where have you been?” asked Mrs Cunningham, letting her husband put his arm around her shoulder. “I’ve been ever so worried about you, and I just got better yesterday, so I packed up all my things and came here. I’ve just arrived now, and we heard this dreadful throbbing noise outside, didn’t we, Mrs Jordans?” poor Mrs Cunningham said.

“We certainly did,” Mrs Jordans said, looking through her drawers, “Oh, gosh, where are those stupid spoons?”

“I suppose you don’t know about that, do you?” asked Mrs Cunningham, turning to her husband. Bill winked at the children and they laughed.

Mrs Cunningham watched, suspiciously. “What are you not telling me?” she asked. She couldn’t help but laugh too. “Are you going to explain?” But there was such a lot to explain!

Continue reading →

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And the Week Begins Again

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Fiona

So we begin another week, and of course we have some more blogs for this week.

Fiona will be looking at the 2015 Famous Five annual and reviewing it. Our contributor will be Poppy with the final chapter of her story, The Marsh of Adventure. I shall be hoping to finish The Mountain of Adventure and write part two of my review.

This week I am without my usual computer and it is quite difficult to post pictures from my tablet, so Fiona has found me a link to share with you that is Blyton-based. If you click the link you’ll be taken to the BBC News website where you’ll be able to watch the video that gives us a look at the Enid Blyton Exhibition that has found its way to Canterbury. The video also talks about the changes that have been made to Blyton’s texts over the years, and why they might have been needed. There is also a short section about why children still love to read Blyton. Take a look for yourself and enjoy!

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The exhibition is in Canterbury, at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge and will be there until April 19th.

If you go, we would love to hear about your experience!

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The Mountain of Adventure, part 1

Posted on February 8, 2015 by pippastef

The chosen book The Mountain of Adventure

So I was supposed to have read and finished The Mountain of Adventure for the blog this week. Unfortunately time got away from me and I only managed to read half, so I thought I would give you half a review which would give me a chance to look at it more in depth.

I do like the beginning of this book, the scene of pulling up to the mountain farm in the car. Bill has joined Allie and the children on their holiday. This seems to be the first proper time when you feel something between Bill and Allie, before the nice surprise in the next book.

The Mountain of Adventure does remind me of Five Get Into a Fix, with the Welsh setting and the rumbling mountain. However the reasons behind these two adventures are very different. Of course the children are very excited to be on the farm and able to explore.

They explore the farm after the highest of high teas by Mrs Evans and her husband Effans. Call me strange but don’t understand why Blyton changes the “V’s” to “F’s” for the Welsh accent. She doesn’t seem to do it for the Famous Five or  any other novels. It can be quite off putting for me. I don’t know if anyone else feels the same.

Philip is on form in Mountain, in the first five chapters he adopts two new pets for the adventure, a slow worm called Sally Slither and a goat kid called Snowy. Snowy becomes a firm favourite with all the children, even Dinah who refuses to be anywhere near Philip when Sally Slither is on the move.

The kid is a sweet little nuisance, and head butts Philip and the others when he doesn’t feel like he’s getting enough attention. He is an endearing little soul, and it makes me think about how nice it would be to have a little kid goat about but then I’m reminded through Blyton’s own words that goats do like to eat everything and would not necessarily be a good pet to have a home. However, do feel that through the book, you can almost have Snowy as a pet along with Philip and the children.

Apart from having a holiday to be excited about the children are also excited about having a donkey each to ride up and down the mountains. Lucky them, is what I say, except I can’t ride a donkey or a horse as well as they can. Anyway, they hire some donkeys from the shepherd’s brother David, enough for Bill and Allie to come as well, and ask for permission to camp for a few days and try and find the ‘Vale of Butterflies’ in the mountains.

Before they can set off however, after a few days getting used to riding the donkeys, Mrs Mannering gets her wrist trapped in a barn door. Bill takes her to the doctor to get an x-ray in case there was a broken bone.

After they get back, it is confirmed that Mrs Mannering had a small fracture in her wrist, and that she can’t go on the donkey ride.  Bill, who is described as being very fond of Aunt Allie, says he will stay with her and take her back to the doctor in a few days. They agree that the children can go on the donkey ride if David can take them . David is a weedy fellow who agrees to take the children, though reluctantly. He starts leading them through the mountains, and the children are happy to follow them for a while.

Unfortunately, David does not speak much English so that hampers the children’s communication with him, and when they try to find out if they’re going the right way for the butterfly valley, he can’t explain that he doesn’t know where he’s going and soon takes them away from the track. The children trust his judgement, but think he’s a bit of a fool when he starts getting scared, and eventually runs away from them with the donkeys leaving them stranded on the side of a big mountain.

The children get geared up and set their camp in a cave, to spend the night.

When they wake up in the morning, after a disturbed night, because of Welsh ‘wolves’, who make friends with Philip, Lucy-Ann is sent down to the stream to wash their things and finds a person in one of the trees, warning her of the mountain, which quakes and rumbles.

Lucy-Ann flees back to the others to tell them of the man, but when she returns he’s gone. This is as far as I got with the reading this week, and I think it’s a good place to end on as it leaves us gagging for more of the adventure to come.

One thing I would like to say about the Adventure stories, that I have never really noticed before is the girls often end up doing the housework, and the boys encourage it. I know that people often criticize the Famous Five, and Julian in particular, for enforcing gender stereotypes, but there is a lot of reinforcement in the Adventure series as well. Philip and Jack do tend to expect Lucy-Ann and Dinah to sort the food and washing up out. It just isn’t as obvious as the stereotyping in the famous five.

I still very much enjoy this adventure and can’t wait to finish it. What are your thoughts about Mountain of Adventure?

Part 2 of The Mountain of Adventure review

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The Island of Adventure – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 5

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Fiona

Chapters nine and ten this week. I was wanting to carry on to chapter eleven – Bill Smugs – but there was so much happening in chapter ten alterations wise that I had to stop there. Earlier chapters were covered in part one, two, three and four.

My copy of the book is an 8th impression from 1955 (handed down from my mum) and the modern copy I’m comparing it to is a Macmillan one from 2001 (borrowed from Stef).

Reading two copies at once
Island of Adventure Millennium edition by Larry Ronstant

CHAPTER NINE: A STRANGE BOAT

When talking about the girls’ refusal to use the secret passage into Craggy Tops’ cellars Philip says Lucy-Ann is just a baby. This is updated to Lucy-Ann takes her [Dinah’s] side. I’m not sure why he can’t call her a baby, he is teasing her and his sister after all.

Not surprisingly the phrase burnt as brown as gypsies has been altered. Perhaps surprisingly they still get burnt (no concerns about skin cancer here) but its as brown as toast, which I found an odd analogy. When I burn toast it goes black and charred, not how you want your skin to look.

Philip’s bathing-drawers become swimming trunks, though bathing-suits remain throughout the chapter, hyphen and all.

This time it’s the original text that refers to Jo-Jo as sullen, but as it reads the sullen black man it gets chopped to just the man. The same happens when he’s originally the black man.

Lastly, for this chapter anyway, we have Uncle Jocelyn’s experience of Kiki was definitely not good. And no wonder, she sneaks into his room and shouts things at him, then tries to land on his head! This, for some reason, becomes not so good. I suppose they were trying to imply it was bad in comparison to Aunt Polly’s experience which precedes it, but the comparison is there by their accounts being given one after the other. Besides, Uncle Jocyeln’s experience is not a good one, by adding so it sounds like his experience is only bad when compared to Aunt Polly’s.

One more thing they didn’t change – Jack still says there’s a good girl to Lucy-Ann. That’s the sort of thing I thought they’d find sexist or what-have-you now.

CHAPTER TEN: NIGHT ADVENTURE

There’s a lot altered in this chapter, so I’ll start with the simple stuff first.

Queer is now odd. Jo-Jo is now just the man, him or he at various points (I know they’ve made Jo-Jo into Joe but why not just call him Joe rather than taking the name out completely?)

Sailing-boat becomes sailing boat, which I don’t like. A line such as “the sailing boat came into the harbour,” means a boat which is sailing. A sailing-boat is a particular kind of boat.

The black man is changed to the angry man, the winded man and also to the tall man on another occasion. Jo-Jo’s black face is now Joe’s face.

Originally the moonlight coming through the window fell on to his face, in the newer edition it just fell on his face. 

Jack or Philip (I can’t remember) does use an odd phase one morning: I don’t think we’d have waked up. It’s probably perfectly correct, but it sounds strange like lighted can sound odd instead of lit. Anyway, they’ve changed it to the more usual woken up. 

Less explainable is the change from the fun of puzzling Jo-Jo to the fun of teasing Joe. I think puzzling is  perfectly good word for what the children are doing – talking about sleeping all night long when he’s sure he saw Jack and Philip down on the beach in the middle of the night.

Now, onto a scene with many small changes. I was rather expecting this, to be honest, remembering Jo-Jo catching the boys at night and threatening them with his rope. Well, most of the references to the rope are removed first of all.

Jo-Jo climbed out of the water… and picked up a thick rope-end is now Joe… came towards the boys determinedly. 

Then the way to the house was barred by the big powerful body of the black man, swinging his rope-end just ends with the big powerful body of the angry man.

Removing the rope-end seems to be about lessening the violence of the scene, I thought. But then when Jo-Jo swung the rope-end into the air and Jack gave a yell,  the rope-end becomes his fist. So Joe is going to punch one of the boys, how is that “better”?

The other boy still head-butts Jo-Jo in the stomach (hence our winded man from above) and we still have lines like golly – he’s going to lick us, and we shall be licked black and blue by Joe. Considering lick only has one common usage nowadays, involving a tongue, I can imagine those phrases sound rather strange to modern children and I’m surprised they left those. Even if they understand the meaning (because, my goodness, maybe they asked an adult? Is that even possible?) it adds a level of violence that negates the removal of the rope.

The boys even suppose he might even kill us, and Joe thinks he shall give those two boys a good hiding. He also tied the rope-end around his waist the next morning. (Oops.)

In the original Jo-Jo stood… the rope-end in his hand while in the cave. This becomes ,clenching his fist hard – and yes, that’s a comma stuck to the C, exactly as it appears in the book. Seems like the cut some words and pasted in others without the needed space. And again, is a clenched fist less violent or menacing than a rope? And, incidentally, does one ever clench just one fist? In my experience it’s usually clenched fists.

Lastly, what did read rope-end in hand now reads armed with a rope. I can’t even fathom that. They’ve removed almost all references to the rope (except the one they seem to forget about) and now being armed with a rope is somehow more appropriate than having a rope in his hand… I can’t begin to offer any explanations for their reasoning, if they had any.

Two more things they left in are the boys’ shorts, jerseys  and rubber shoes (those surely should have been jeans, t-shirts and trainers?) and Jo-Jo’s funny English: You two boys been asleep in your room the whole night?

Phew, so fourteen changes I think. It’s hard to determine, sometimes, what a new or unique change is. I’m probably not being truly consistent either, but I’m doing my best! 

That takes us up to forty-nine unique(ish) changes now.

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Learning French with The Famous Five by Chris

Posted on February 4, 2015 by worldofblyton

Elsewhere on this blog, Ellie has written about reading The Famous Five in French, and I want to add to that by recounting my experience of doing the same thing but for a very particular reason: as part of my attempt to learn French. Just to explain, I have been married to a French woman for 23 years but, because we live in England and she speaks perfect English, I have never bothered to learn French. When we see her family I get by on the basis of French O level, a bit of bluster (from me) and a lot of good will (from them). But in the last couple of years we have been thinking that when we retire we will move to France and, therefore, I have been taking French lessons.

My French teacher came up with the idea that I should read some children’s books in French and/or read some books in French with which I was very familiar in English. The theory was that the language of children’s books would be easy, whilst books I was familiar with would mean that I had the content in my head already. For me, as an inveterate re-reader of children’s books, the obvious conclusion was to read in French some children’s books I already knew very well in English … enter Enid Blyton.

Thus, for Christmas, my wife bought me the first five volumes of Le Club des Cinq, published under the imprint of Les Classiques de la Rose by Hachette Jeunesse, a division of Hachette. So far, I have read the first two: Le Club des Cinq et le Trésor de L’Ile (Five on a Treasure Island) and Le Club des Cinq et Le Passage Secret (Five Go Adventuring Again). Translation is by Anne-Laure Estèves and there are some quite basic line drawings as illustrations (illustrator uncredited). As is clear even from the titles, the translation does effect some changes, and in the comments beneath Ellie’s article, Serge has provided some very interesting, detailed information on these.

As Ellie has explained, the characters are renamed: Julian becomes François, Dick becomes Mick, Anne is Annie, George (Georgina) is Claude (Claudine), and Timothy (Tim, Timmy) is Dagobert (Dag, Dago). And Kirrin in Cornwall becomes Kernach in Brittany. This takes a little getting used to, but one soon adjusts. Regarding Dagobert, in the comments on Ellie’s post there is some speculation about this name, but my wife confirms Serge’s view that it refers to the name of a French King and, more specifically, a nursery rhyme that all French children learn (or used to learn). See this video.

All that aside, how does it work as an aid to language learning? Very well, I would say. The constructions of the sentences are quite simple, and this really helps to understand how these constructions work. All the small linking words – such as ‘en’ or ‘y’ – that are quite difficult for an English speaker – are easier to understand. Understanding words which have subtly shifting meanings depending on context (‘d’ailleurs’, for example = anyway, although, besides etc.) is aided by seeing them used in several different contexts.  I would say that it is sentence construction and grammar that are most helpful; vocabulary less so. For sure, there are various words (e.g. ‘épave’ meaning wreck, as in shipwreck; or ‘lingots’, meaning ingots as in gold ingots) that were unfamiliar to me and easily guessed but, perhaps, not that useful unless one happens to find oneself embroiled in an adventure looking for gold ingots from a shipwreck, for which I live in hope!

The real value to the language learner, however, is different. Reading Le Club des Cinq has enabled me to read French without translating as I go. What I mean is that because I know the stories well and because the language is simple I just read and understand without thinking. I know what is going to happen and it is somehow ‘there’ in my head and I can read pretty much as I would in English. It’s true that when I come across particular words or constructions I have to stop and translate in my head. But by and large I can read just as I read (in English) when I was a child, and can just ‘soak up’ the language as I go. I’ve been mainly reading the books on the train to work, and have noticed that afterwards I find myself thinking in French: it sinks in, somehow.

There’s another bonus, too, and a quite unexpected one. Whereas the familiarity of the books helps my French, reading them in French somehow makes them unfamiliar. Thus reading the Famous Five in French is strangely like reading them for the first time. It is like being in a time machine. So as I sit on the train, a middle-aged man, reading Le Club des Cinq I am almost like the ten year old boy I was when I first read The Famous Five. When I re-read The Famous Five in English I feel a cosy nostalgia; when I read Le Club des Cinq I feel the excitement of when I first read them.

There seem to be nearly as many French covers as there are English ones, you can see a great selection at the French site Book Node (which as far as I can tell seems to be a bit like Goodreads but without the ratings) – Fiona

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First Monday of February

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Fiona

That’s the first month of a new year already gone, I’m not quite sure I believe it. It has been very, very cold though and we’ve seen the odd bit of snow lately so I hope February is a little kinder to us, even if I don’t hold out too much hope.

Our pleas for a contributor post were answered this week and so on Wednesday we will have Chris who has written about reading some Blyton books in French. I will be comparing the next chapters of The Island of Adventure on Friday then on Sunday Stef is going to review The Mountain of Adventure.

We hit a big milestone this week when we reached 100,000 views. That may be tiny to some people (there are sites who can get that in a day, easily, if not an hour) but it’s huge for us. To think that our little blog has been seen a hundred thousand times in a little over two years is just amazing. So thank you if you’ve read us, written for us, shared our links, commented or had any part in our success.

As always I’ll end on a few photos, this week from walks in Angus.

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Adventures with George and Timmy 2: Timmy The Fearless Puppy

Posted on February 1, 2015 by pippastef
Adventures with George and Timmy containing the first three Just George stories.

Adventures with George and Timmy containing the first three Just George stories.

Now, in September (September!) I started (started!) reading The Adventures with George and Timmy by Sue Welford, and I think as you might be able to remember (and see here) I didn’t get very far and I wasn’t really a fan. Well, as it is a new year I thought I would give the book another go!

And… I’m really sorry to say that I just couldn’t get on with the story. I mean Sue Welford, who has done an interview for us in the past and commented on my last blog, does a good job, but the story is too young for me I’m afraid. Even though I would like to think I am young at heart!

The story, Timmy the Fearless Puppy, or to give it its other title, George, Timmy and the Haunted Cave if you’re reading it as a separate book rather than in its omnibus form, is the story of how George came across Timmy on the moor, how she decided to become a boy and their first adventure together. George is about nine in this book, and I think that is reflected in the writing.

The main body of the story is about a robbery that takes place on the day that George finds Timmy. Robbers break into the local post office and steal an awful of money, a thousand pounds to be exact. This doesn’t bother George too much, however, because she’s not a Famous Five adventurer yet, and her biggest excitement is finding a cave she’s never spotted before and taking Timmy to explore it.

After Timmy gets himself into trouble by chewing on Quentin’s favourite slipper, and is banished to the garden, George decides to run away from home with Timmy (something I’m sure you’ll agree mirrors what happens in Five on a Secret trail except that Timmy is in disgrace rather than being laughed at), and they go and hide in the cave. That is where her adventure with Timmy really starts.

First of all, it didn’t really hold my attention, I wasn’t really excited about the story, and what was going to happen, unlike when I read a Blyton. The mystery and the adventure were very basic, but if you’re writing for younger children I do suppose that is what it needs to be. I think the only thing I didn’t work out was how the ghostly noises were being made, that was a nice twist to the plot.

Secondly, some of the language riled me. I don’t know if its to do with appealing to the younger generation, but the inclusion of the word ‘jeans’ made me want to stop reading (sorry Sue), because to me that just doesn’t feel Blytonian enough! Another small niggle is that when Timmy communicates, he says “Wurf” not “Woof”. It is just a small thing, and I think more my problem than a problem with the story.

Overall I wouldn’t have bought this book, I don’t think. If it hadn’t have been on the shelf at work I wouldn’t have ended up reading it. I also believe that my opinions are seen through the eyes of a Blyton fan who maybe prefers the original author rather than those who try and write by her. I have had the same experience when trying to read some of Pamela Cox’s Malory Tower books.

This shouldn’t put you off reading these stories however, they are certainly quite light and fluffy, good for lazy afternoon reading and probably better enjoyed if you have a child, niece, nephew, god son, god daughter, or grandchild you can read them to. They will probably help bring to life the characters on the page in a way I couldn’t achieve.

Anyway, I’m sorry for such a miserable review, once again, I’m sorry Sue. I shall try and read the other two books in the omnibus and review those at some point but in the mean time I would  very much like to know if you’ve read these books, and what you thought about them!

Don’t be shy! I look forward to hearing other people’s experiences of the books!

Adventures with George and Timmy part 3

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Five Go Down to the Sea: An exciting dramatised adventure

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Fiona

I’m being bad this week and listening to CD2 from the set before CD1. I can’t help that though as I promised to do Five Go Down to the Sea and I much prefer that to the alternative which is Five Have a Mystery to Solve.

I’ve only just noticed lately that to get the cover illustration to fit, they’ve used a mirror image of the right hand edge to add extra width on each CD.

The voice cast is my favourite group, which always adds to my enjoyment though I noticed from the start that Dick sounded a little older than in some of the other recordings. I’m not sure what order the recordings were made and it’s to be expected if they were done over a period of months that the cast would grow up and their voices would alter especially for the boys!

There is a solid cast beyond the Five as well – perhaps the best yet. We hear the Station Guard at Kirrin, Mr and Mrs Penruthlan, Yan, Old Grandad, Sid (but not Mr Binks) and the Guv’nor.

The Station Guard reminded me suddenly of Robbie Coltrane from the Comic Strip series. His voice a little, but more his speech about how down in Cornwall there is a fierce coast and hungry sea. It’s wild and lonely, not much place for a holiday. No pier, no concert parties, no cinemas no nothing. I had to go check whether or not that was in the book as I couldn’t recall, and it is. It’s even a bit longer – with no ice-cream barrows in the middle.

I was going to say it was funny how hearing it aloud sparked the recognition but I’m sure I haven’t read the book since watching the Comic Strip episodes anyway. Perhaps I would have gotten the same spark from reading it. I’m now wondering if those lines from the Comic Strip were deliberately copying that little speech.

Anyway, while I had the book out I noticed that the references to furriners (foreigners) are removed but we still get the charming line By Tre, Pol and Pen, you may know the Cornishmen from Julian. I usually try not to compare exactly what’s in the audio to the original book as I could be there all day – one hour is nowhere near long enough to cover every detail of a book. However, having the book there I did skim a little and from the opening chapter there are a few small scenes cut – Timmy getting a smut in his eye on the train and the Five nearly missing their stop as they didn’t realise they were at the halt.

I think it’s a mark of the quality of these audios that you don’t instantly notice all these little omissions. I know I’ve read this book dozens of times and I didn’t notice until I looked at the book as I had got so caught up in the story. I’m sure you might notice the odd bit, if a little piece was a favourite of yours but on the whole they do a very skilful job of cutting down and stitching together the scenes.

Mr and Mrs Penruthlan are quite big characters in both the book and the audio. Mr Penruthlan, true to form, doesn’t say a coherent word for the majority of the audio (as we know, he’s not got his teeth in!) He comes away with plenty of dialogue though, Oo-ee-oo-arr, being his first ‘words’, and then Meemukeyock, or, Buttercup as Mrs Penruthlan translates. His sounds are a bit more varied than in the book – where he mostly says just ah, ooh or ock. 

Mrs Penruthlan calls him Mr Penruthlan just like in the book and it’s quite funny to hear. She gets very upset later, when they accuse Mr P of being a smuggler and although she doesn’t box his ears (darned updates!) she does gives a good performance of being near tears and of defending her husband’s honour.

Mr P, when he finally gets a proper voice, is quite marvellous. He’s hysterical when he’s laughing at the end and can barely get his words out to tell them all about Julian and Dick in Clopper’s costume.

Yan is good as well, with his own distinct voice. Oi want to stay, he tells them from the start. His signature word – frit – is missing though.

Old Great Grandad is another great voice, he sounds just perfectly old and quavery. There was a level of menace and darkness to his story of the wreckers too.

Only Sid and the Guv’nor from the Barnies get voiced, the Guv’nor only getting a few lines while Sid has a very strong (and almost caricature-ish) Irish accent.

I would say the Five are better acted in this audio than in some of the others (despite being the same cast as some of those). Julian is particularly good at the end, sounding so very uncertain and apprehensive as he talks to Mrs P. We um, we think, that he must be oneofthesmugglers… Perhaps the actors were all a little older and more experienced by the time they recorded this story.

There are plenty of background sounds to add depth as usual, chickens, dogs, birdsong, waves on the beach, sheep, the Barnies’ wagons, the storm, horses… Timmy’s got a decent bark in this one and the Barnies music plays for a brief time. They even include footsteps and creaking doors in the dead of night and the sound of Clopper’s zipper being done up and undone.

One last observation – although a few things may have been “updated” (though you could argue they were just cut with the rest of the scenes that wouldn’t fit) – it’s still cigarettes and not sweets that fall out of Clopper’s head.

I really enjoyed listening to this audio tonight, it helps that it was of one of my favourites from the series I suppose but I really recommend this especially if you’ve not listened to one before.

 

 

Posted in Audio Books and Audio Dramatisations | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Our 500th Post!

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Fiona

So, this is our 500th post! In just over two years we’ve managed to bring you 500 blogs. How amazing is that?

I hope you’re all still enjoying the blog, having fun reading the stories and reviews. We hope we’ll be able to keep bringing you new blogs every week, but we do need some help as well! As you know every Wednesday we try and post a blog from someone else, a reader of ours or a passing fan, but we’re slowly running out of blogs. We know its been busy over Christmas, but now, as we’re at the end of January, I hope things have settled down enough for some blogs to come our way! You can email us on worldofblytonblog@hotmail.com, and sound us out for ideas and send us your blogs. Anything is most welcome!

Given that we have five hundred blogs to choose from, can you tell me any of your favourite ones? Mine was certainly our very exclusive interview with Jemima Rooper , that was just a dream come true!

Fiona tells me that her blog, Comparing Hollow Tree House and The Secret Island was one of her favourite ones to write, and also enjoyed my blog reviewing The Adventures of George and Timmy more because of the comments and discussion it generated.

Our top five viewed blogs have been:

  1. Firework Night- A Poem by Enid Blyton
  2. Dead Leaves – A Poem by Enid Blyton
  3. Series Synopsis: Famous Five, the short stories review part one
  4. Series Synopsis: Famous Five Books 1-3
  5. The Ladybird – A poem by Enid Blyton

Our top commenters have been:

  1. Chrissie with 242 comments
  2. Francis with 170 comments
  3. Pete with 44 comments
  4. Cathy with 30 comments
  5. Michael with 28 comments

So thank you all who have commented, it means a lot to us that so many of our blogs have provoked responses. Please, please keep commenting, we enjoy reading your views and opinions on our blogs!

I suppose I ought to get on with the week’s schedule now. So this week we have a reblog on its way to you, but you’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out who it is! Fiona will be reviewing an audio book for us this week, and I will hopefully be finishing and reviewing The Adventures of George and Timmy. Will I enjoy it? Who knows! Come back Sunday to find out!

I shall leave you with some gorgeous pictures I managed to get on Friday from Bushy Park, near Hampton Court Palace in Surrey. If you head over to Two Points of View, over the coming week I shall be posting some of my favourites for closer inspection.

Enjoy!

 

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Claudine at St Clare’s

Posted on January 25, 2015 by pippastef
2005 Egmont, not illustrated, cover by David Roberts

2005 Egmont, not illustrated, cover by David Roberts

This is the fifth Blyton written St Clare’s novel (it’s sixth if you include the Pamela Cox books) and it’s certainly a roller coaster of a read. There are several new girls in this novel, a  higher number than before I would guess.

There is the honourable Angela Favorleigh, Eileen Paterson (the new matron’s daughter), Pauline Bingham-Jones and then Claudine, who is Mam’zelle’s niece.  None of the girls sell themselves very well – there are plenty of corners that need to be rubbed off, and this is difficult for the old girls to deal with as they’re in the fourth form now and are supposed to be a little more dignified. This does not seem to apply to tricks however, as the girls break their unspoken code about being dignified to play a smelly trick on Mam’zelle.

The Claudine of the title is Mam’zelle’s niece, and we see an affectionate side of Mam’zelle as she tries to look after the girl, who turns out to be quite a mischievous character. She is quite happy to go against the sensible English girls and do daring things to impress them. Claudine is rather like Carlotta in a way, she is happy to do as she pleases within reason, be fierce, and even go as far as to lock the new matron away in a cupboard.

I do find that Claudine and Carlotta are incredibly similar, personality wise. They also share similar temperaments, mannerisms, and a certain disregard for English ways. If I’m honest, although Claudine is an amusing and merry character to have in the form, I feel she is unnecessary as you already have Carlotta.

One of my small points about St Clare’s, a niggle if you like, is that  we never seem to see the girls we spend each book getting to know again. They all fade into the background. In fact I can’t even remember some of the characters I thought were really brilliant and well written, they make an impression but because you hardly ever see them again, or follow their development you forget about them. You only get glimpses into their school life as  the odd point to make the story stick.

I think this is one of the reasons I do enjoy the Malory Towers stories more, and that would be because you get to follow their journey up the school in much more detail.

Anyway, given the comings and goings that seem to be going on this term at St Clare’s, and so many new girls, I do feel a bit overwhelmed about it all. There’s another pretty airhead, Angela, who is Alison’s favourite, there’s matron’s daughter Eileen, and Pauline, a plain but supposedly rich girl. All have their own cross to bear and problems to over come.

Eileen’s is an over domineering mother, which makes her unpopular with the girls, especially when they suspect her of sneaking to matron every time one of them is rude to her. The begin to shun her, making her lonely and without a friend. At Malory Towers, Eileen wouldn’t have been left alone in such a way, I feel the girls were more mature and would have made more of an effort with her.

Pauline is another mystery to add to the long line of mystery girls that Miss Theobald seems to take on at St Clares. People don’t like her much because of her boastful attitude and soon her boasts unravel as the truth slips out, and Pauline finds herself having to face some unfortunate home truths.

Angela, the last girl is… well, there is no other way to describe her, but as a complete and utter snob. Unlike Alison’s former pretty friend, Sadie, who at least was good natured, Angela’s beauty only serves as a façade to her sly and devious nature. She thinks everyone below her, and won’t even talk to Eileen,  Claudine or Carlotta because she believes the former two should not be at St Clare’s because they have relatives working there and shouldn’t be allowed to mix with her class of people, and the latter because of her roots in the circus. Out of all the new girls I found the Honourable Angela the most tedious! If she’d been at Malory Towers, Alicia would have cut her down to size with her sharp tongue in an instant, Darrell would have lost her temper and shaken her silly and the girls would just not have ignored her, but put her in her place! If you ask me, Angela and Gwendoline Lacey are made for each other. I wonder if they met at finishing school?

Well this St Clare’s novel, although interesting, covered a lot of the same ground as previous books, stolen property, deceitfulness, midnight feasts, and much more. There wasn’t anything new, there wasn’t anything really that I felt I could connect to. I liked Claudine, but then I liked Carlotta as well, and they really do feel like similar characters to me. I don’t know, perhaps I’m too old for St Clare’s, all I can seem to do is find fault in it. I don’t mean to, I can’t help myself. Perhaps if I reread them, some of the Blytonian magic will engulf me, what do you think?

Next review: Fifth Formers of St Clare’s

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My eleventh Noddy book: Noddy Goes to School

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Fiona

This was one I bought in a big lot of Noddy books and unfortunately when it came I discovered it was a reprint, one of the ones with the different sort of lettering on the front. The dustjacket still has the same lettering on it as the earlier copies and there are still gollies everywhere so I hope it hasn’t suffered any updating.

The dustjacket
The actual cover

Noddy Goes to School is the sixth in the series even if it’s the 11th one I will have read.

THE STORY

So as the title suggests, Noddy goes to school in this story. For me this makes me wonder if he’s a child or a grown-up. He lives alone and drives a car which suggests ‘grown up’ but much of his behaviour certainly says ‘child’!

It’s Big Ears that puts the idea into his very swollen head (more on that in a moment) when he points out that Noddy can’t count past twenty or read many big words. I suppose because he was made by an individual and arrived in toy town at least partly grown means he never learned a lot of things. Other Toy Village inhabitants seem to be born? Or at least start as children. Or maybe they’re made as children and never grow up? It’s very confusing trying to work it all out.

The reason Big Ears brings this up is because he’s very cross with Noddy for singing such boastful songs about his intelligence. In fact Noddy has become so big-headed he has actually gotten, well, big-headed. His hat no longer fits him because of it (though the illustrations don’t seem to show his head looking all that big.)

Noddy and his "big" head

Noddy and his “big” head

So Noddy dutifully goes to school the very next day (apparently it’s very easy for a toy of indeterminate age to enrol in Toy Village).

Unsurprisingly, he does not make the best first impression. When asked if he knows his tables he immediately launches into a speech about the table in his living room at home. Also, he’s sitting next to a young golly who’s already been cheeky to him so he’s bound to have some trouble there.

It would seem Noddy’s not as clever as he thought, either. His teacher doesn’t want to hear songs he’s made up himself and he doesn’t know Jack and Jill. The only thing he can write is his name, and not even very well at that! He can’t dance without kicking people and offers to bring the teacher her slipper without understanding that it means someone is to be spanked. (It seems my fear of updates is unfounded.)

Noddy answers the question "what is your favourite thing to eat?" by writing his own name.

Noddy answers the question “what is your favourite thing to eat?” by writing his own name.

He’s so disheartened by it all that he goes straight to Big Ears who sets him some homework. Noddy’s a bit too literal about the answers though – for example if there were three cats in Big Ear’s garden and a dog joined them, how many animals would they see out of his window? Noddy answers one dog, as the cats would have run away, which is quite clever in its own way!

He then spoils that idea by thinking he can take a shilling and go buy himself some brains.

Things get a little better for him at school and he creeps up from the bottom of the class. What a horrible idea that is though, having a list produced weekly to tell you how you did in relation to your classmates. No matter how hard people try, someone has to be at the bottom. Anyway, Noddy’s happy about that and struggles not to do any boasting as his hat still doesn’t fit him.

The school is to give a concert near the end of the book, but Noddy doesn’t have a talent for it. He can’t sing, or dance, or recite poetry, or quack or growl! So he doesn’t take part in the concert though he claps very hard for everyone who does. The clockwork mouse is supposed to present their teacher with flowers at the end of the show but he has a fit of stage fright and Noddy takes over. He doesn’t know the prepared speech but comes up with one of his own songs for her instead and impresses everyone.

He has become so modest by now that he doesn’t believe he shall win a prize at all, and watches all his classmates going up for theirs until, lo and behold, his name is called. He has won a prize for being such a dear little fellow. He’s thrilled by that, and, later, he’s even more thrilled that his hat fits on his head again.

Noddy gets his prize

Noddy gets his prize

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite this not being my favourite type of Noddy plot (I prefer the ones with some sort of mystery) it was enjoyable enough. I haven’t covered every detail of the story here, but there are plenty of other amusing bits and pieces like Noddy practising his writing on his (washable) walls and a scene involving Gilbert Golly and a borrowed lampshade. It’s a nice, simple tale of Noddy getting too big for his boots and then learning how to be a bit more humble, so we shall see how humble he remains in the next books!

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 25

Posted on January 21, 2015 by worldofblyton

Chapter twenty-five:

A thrilling night

All eight of the men stood waiting, apparently for their helicopter to arrive. They had finished up their job, the marsh was fully drained where they needed it to be. They had drained quite a wide space around where they assumed the ship had sunk so that, when the surrounding marsh land crept in towards the ship, they would have enough time to get to it before it was completely covered again. Bill and his other colleagues had planned to give the men a few moments to settle down, and then they would run out and arrest them quickly and pack them off into one of the cars. Bill nodded to the five new men and to Howard. Raymond didn’t come into any of these things. He studied machinery and he was here because of that, though if any help was needed, he would give it. And Sammy was trained to be disguised and act as another person, he too was not involved in any action. To the children’s astonishment, Bill and five others leapt out from beneath the canopy and raced towards the men. The enemies were so surprised they couldn’t move!

Bill managed to grab two men, roughly by the arms. One wriggled away and was caught deftly by Howard who had already caught one of the men, Mr Dickens, who was scowling most unpleasantly. The four men that the children didn’t know had caught five between them. All the men were caught! It had all happened in a split second, and the children felt quite dazed! The children watched the men be escorted down the hill two large cars, which they were all shoved into. The cars raced off down the hill. Bill, Howard, and two others returned. Two of the men were driving eight criminals off to prison! When the men got back Bill hissed to the children. “We’ll need your help children, I’m afraid. I never thought this out too well. There were eight men waiting and there are only four of us. We need four more to wait with us, so when the helicopter flies over, the men driving it, don’t figure out something’s up when they only see four of us.” The children were thrilled! Help Bill out and solve this case! Who could resist?

The children clamoured out from the willow tree and followed Bill to the exact spot where the men had waited. They felt rather giddy! Kiki kept silent, remaining on Jack’s shoulder. All eight waited, looking up into the sky now and again. Bill explained what was going to happen. “When the helicopter lands, we’ll all step on board and Howard, John, Fred, and I should be able to handle this one. If we are struggling, Raymond I want you to step in. We’ll then take them off down the hill and put them into the cars. I don’t know how many there will be this time, so you children are to be careful and keep as far back as you can. I dare say this could be more dangerous than it sounds.”

Continue reading →

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Monday

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Fiona

Well it’s Monday all over again. We’ve had snow in Scotland over the past week, and it’s been very very cold. The best thing about the cold weather though is it gives you a good excuse to stay home and read!

We’ll have Poppy’s latest chapter for you on Wednesday, I’ll be reviewing my next Noddy on Friday and Stef will hopefully have finished reviewing Claudine at St Clare’s for Sunday.

We’re still in need of some contributions for the coming weeks and would be very happy to receive anything you feel like writing. It doesn’t have to be a review as we welcome fan fiction, personal experiences, art, poetry, and opinion pieces as long as they are Blyton related.

Despite the cold my camera and I did make it out over the weekend, both days in fact. (I still can’t quite believe I had all weekend off work, but there you have it.) Saturday I walked from Anstruther to Pittenweem (both are fishing villages in Fife) and Sunday I stayed nearer to home and had a wander along a snowy and rather frozen section of the old Dundee-Newtyle Railway.

Limpets
Robin
War Memorial
Sheep
Numbered stones at the Pittenweem harbour
Cormorants
Great tit
Coastline
Signpost
Shells
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The Blackbird is Singing – A poem by Enid Blyton

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Fiona

Something to cheer us up in the post Christmas and New Year slump.

Here’s the New Year – now what will it bring?
Apples in autumn, bluebells in spring,
Pussy-palm soft as a grey kitten’s fur,
Poppies a-dancing then summer winds stir,
Yellow-clad fields where the butter-cups gleam,
New little ducks on the chattering stream,
Eggs in the hedgerows, lambs skipping by,
Woods full of primroses, little and shy.
Yellow bees droning in summery heat,
Early nuts ripening, blackberries sweet;
All these and more the New Year is bringing –
Really, no wonder the blackbird is singing!

(Write out this poem and then underline the first letter of each line. Read them downwards and you will find there is a message for you from the blackbird.)

Taken from Enid Blyton’s Book of the Year (1950).

DSCN0067

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So You Think You Know Enid Blyton’s Famous Five? a review

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Fiona

I chose to do the quiz book this week rather than the annual as reviewing the annual would require having read it. And I haven’t, yet. I actually haven’t read all the quiz book yet but I don’t think you need to have read every single question to give a review.

SO, THE BOOK

I like the cover as it has Eileen Soper’s Five on the front, and a nice font. Even though it’s a shiny yellow paperback it still sort of fits with series, and especially with the two annuals that have come out in the past two years. Inside credit is given to Clive Gifford thought his name isn’t mentioned on the outside.

6I got this for my birthday last month and as soon as the other presents had been opened I was into it, and ended up going through the first 50 questions – the “easy” ones – with my family.

THE FUN OF THE QUESTIONS

I think all quiz books are best enjoyed with others really, even if they haven’t read a Blyton book in a very long time. For example we had a very good laugh, or at least I did, when I asked question #23What animals do the Five see first on Kirrin Island? I was deliberating between rabbits and jackdaws. My family answered sheep. And then proceeded to try and defend their answer.

Maybe it’s just my family that can make fun out of everything but we even found it hilarious when a question gave you three or more options, such as #35 Was Mr Luffy a teacher at Dick and Julian’s school, a lodger at Kirrin Cottage or one of Uncle Quentin’s scientist friends?, and then each person tries an answer until eventually someone gets it right (almost every time this happened they gave the wrong answers first.)

On the whole the easy questions were quite easy, or they should have been for anyone who’s read the books reasonably recently. There were only a few I wasn’t sure on or had to guess at. Most were very easy, like #2 How many of the Famous Five are animals? and others are made easier by the fact that in answering #2 someone will have no doubt said Timmy, making #12 What is the name of the dog in the Famous Five? somewhat redundant, but none of that matters too much as it’s just a bit of fun.

The majority of the questions in the book fall into the medium difficulty category, and these are split into 19 quizzes of 50 questions each. Then there is one 50 question set of tough questions.

Somehow it bothers me that there are 19 quizzes in the middle (rather than a nice even number), though in total it makes 21 quizzes which is quite apt. I’m a little surprised that the medium questions are so much more numerous than the easy or hard – usually quiz books have a more even distribution, but again it’s not really important.

Despite the title, there are actually quite a few questions that aren’t directly related to the Famous Five. I suppose that they might have struggled to fill nearly 150 pages of just Famous Five questions, so there are some on Noddy, Blyton’s family and life and her books in general to pad it out.

As with many quizzes getting the answer right depends on how good your memory is (assuming you’ve read the books of course!) There’s nothing that relies on logic or working anything out (unless you count the odd question where they seem to have forgotten to give  detail, such as quiz 10, question #21 is the elephant handler at the circus called Larry, Lou, Rossy or Lucilla? Ok so I know that it’s Rossy and they’re referring to Five Go Off in a Caravan, but I feel like it should specify the book. Even if that’s the only circus to feature an elephant in the series, it’s only fair.)

Flicking through the medium questions at random there are plenty I can answer off the top of my head and others I really don’t know, for example I couldn’t recall which infectious disease Wilfrid’s sister had though at a guess measles and it turned out to be right.

So, all in all this is a fun quiz book that I think any fan of the Famous Five would enjoy. Like I’ve mentioned I think it’s probably best enjoyed with others but you could easily test your knowledge alone (and thankfully answers are provided at the back.)

A FINAL WARNING

Unfortunately it does feature the dreaded updatings. So you might give an answer in shillings and be told the answer is in fact 50p, to which you absolutely may roar at the book in your best Uncle Quentin voice to tell it that it’s wrong. And then go check your copy of the book to check the right answer and end all arguments. Best of luck with that!

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The Book of Brownies reviewed by Laura

Posted on January 14, 2015 by worldofblyton

This tale of three naughty brownies was one of the Blyton books I owned as a child and somehow went missing. I remembered enjoying their adventures and the fact it was more of a saga than a collection of short stories, so when I saw a copy in one of the local secondhand bookshops I grabbed it immediately.

the-enid-blyton-book-of-brownies-1

The Book of Brownies was first published in 1926 and follows the adventures of Hop, Skip and Jump, who live in Brownietown and haven’t been invited the King of Fairyland’s Grand Party. Apparently brownies who play tricks like painting pigs green and putting fireworks down a chimney aren’t on the guest list.

These three sneak into the party by pretending, with the help of a ‘friendly’ witch, to be a conjuror and his two assistants. But it all goes horribly wrong when the trick the witch, who turns out to be wicked Witch Green-eyes, gave them results in the kidnapping of little Princess Peronel. Hop, Skip and Jump keep exclaiming ‘oh my goodness’ and enrage the King, who says that they should be saying ‘oh your badness’. He then tells them that they are banished until they can find their goodness.

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The three brownies decide to rescue poor Peronel and set out on their journey, only to end up in a cottage without a door. This is only the first of their adventures, as they rescue a mermaid without her tail from the Red Goblin, attend a tea-party given by giants and try to drive a train on the Green Railway, landing themselves in a pond and then in prison!

One of my favourite adventures is when they are stuck in the Land of Clever People for a long time. While they’re stuck there, they have to speak in a rhyme all the time (resulting in some odd statements), not giggle and answer riddles similar to those asked by a nasty character in the Faraway Tree books (‘why is a toasting fork’?). If they break any of these rules, they’ll be sent to the Spanker’s. The only way to escape this miserable place is to come up with something the Very Wise Man, the one asking the ridiculous riddles (which may seem somewhat familiar in style), can’t do.

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There’s also an appearance by a man who’s covered in pots and pans and has a lot of trouble hearing them. Yes, Saucepan Man predates the Faraway Tree books by more than a decade. He acts as the brownie’s guide for part of their journey and has to be rescued by the brownies from a castle made of toffee and the Golden Dwarf.

It turns out that all these adventures (and their sometimes surprising solutions) have actually been useful, when the brownies meet the Labeller and his brother the Bottler, who bottles up all the goodness in the world. There are three of these little bottles with their names on them, corresponding to three particular good deeds, and the brownies think they’ll be their tickets back home.

However, they still have to rescue the princess and start by creeping into Witch Green-eyes cellar. They are caught immediately – I’m not sure they even had a plan – but they are at least taken to Peronel who is able to think of another way out, with the help of a friend the brownies made on the way. I won’t give too much away, but there are a couple of small surprises and the brownies don’t have the bottles of goodness to show the king at the end.

I enjoyed reading this book again. Some of the solutions to the various problems Hop, Skip and Jump encounter on their journey seem a bit simple or convenient to me now, except for the task they set the Very Wise Man – it seemed simple but he couldn’t do it. It’s also hard to tell one brownie from another – Hop is a bit more daring, but I can’t think of any major differences between Skip and Jump. But the odd situations they found themselves in were still funny and I still loved the ending.

Editor’s note – This was originally titled The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies. It has also been known as Brownie Tales and A Book of Brownies depending on which edition you have.

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Monday

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Fiona

We’re back in the swing of things now, the new year seems a long time ago, doesn’t it?

So this week we have a post from Laura on Enid Blyton’s Book of Brownies to look forward to, and Fiona will be reviewing the Famous Five 2015 Annual or her Famous Five quiz book! I guess we shall have to wait and see which she chooses.

I’ll be hoping to write up my St Clare’s review, going over Claudine at St Clare’s for Sunday.

I think that’s all to say really, so I hope you like the frosty pictures, and the blogs for this week!

Frost touched tiles
Crystallized flower
Fence
Dusted with ice
Fallen leaf
Pine cone
Row of houses
Ivy leaf frosty outline
Rising sun
Frozen flower
Iced mirror
Frozen cobweb
Delicate ice crystals on lavender.
Another frozen web
More frozen webs
Sunrise
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New Year’s Dip: A St Andrews Story, chapter 9

Posted on January 11, 2015 by worldofblyton

“Anyone think it would be funny to hide Toly’s clothes?” David asked with a smirk.

“Oooh blimey, yes, but please can we get dressed first?” Darrell asked shivering a little as they jogged up the beach.

“Really, Darrell?” I’m surprised at you!” David said with a grin. “Julian and I would absolutely do something like that, of course, but aren’t you supposed to be on his side?”

“Not when he’s showing off like that I’m not,” Darrell said as they wrapped their towels around them and began to dry themselves down, huddling down to avoid as much as possible of the wind. As quickly as possible they stripped off their soaking shirts and costumes, replacing them with layers of dry things. “Quick!” Darrell hissed, looking over her shoulder, “he’s just about swum back!”

Julian and David smirked at each other and grabbed Anatoly’s stuff and made a quick dash to hide their friend’s clothes behind a biggish rock a few yards away. They came back and sat down with the girls. Sally was pulling out her thermos of coffee and the little trophy whiskies she and Darrell had got for the boys.

“Show off!” David told Anatoly as he jogged up the beach. Darrell’s eyes hadn’t left Anatoly since he left the water. She bit her lip and her cheeks were flaming dark red as she looked at his toned chest.

“Well, that was bracing,” Anatoly said with a shiver, pushing his wet hair back from his face, his curls having almost straightened out with the weight of the water. He looked around and then at their faces, seeing the joke immediately. “All right. Very funny. Where are my clothes?”

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