The Island of Adventure – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 4

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Fiona

This week we’re on to chapters seven and eight (there are 29 altogether so this book could take me a while!) The earlier chapters were covered here, here and here.

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

Island of Adventure Millennium edition by Larry Ronstant

CHAPTER SEVEN: A QUEER DISCOVERY

As mentioned in part one, the title of this chapter has been changed to An odd discovery. 

The changes in this chapter can almost all be sorted into two categories – removal of queer and removal of black.

So the queers first, queer holes (in the caves) become just holes, no adjective given. How queer becomes how strange and mysterious and queer changes to mysterious and strange.

Sometimes black was just cut, and not replaced, so the black man was just the man, or the big black man was just the big man. One occasion has his black face turning into his sour face.

Sour also gets used instead of daft, when one of the children says that Jo-Jo/Joe is so daft and bad tempered. 

CHAPTER EIGHT: IN THE CELLARS

I’m beginning to agree that Blyton might have referred to Jo-Jo’s colour a little too often. I’d say the same if he was very tall and she mentioned his height as often, though. It’s not something I can honestly say I’ve noticed on previous reads though, not when I’ve been reading purely for pleasure rather than for any sort of review or comparison. 

Twice in this chapter the black man becomes just the man, and once he ends up being the jumpy man.

I rather think that they sometimes try too hard to keep the original wording in places, when they’ve made alterations. It happens twice in this chapter – first with Jo-Jo’s  black face looking as pale as it ever could look getting changed to Joe’s face looking as scared as it ever could look. Then again when Jo-Jo is rolling his eyes till nothing but the dazzling whites could be seen. This becomes Joe closing his eyes until nothing but the thinnest slits could be seen. 

Neither phrase works as well with the edits. Why would an agitated man close his eyes? It might have been better to just cut the references altogether.

Jo-Jo is usually changed to Joe in the text but on one instance here, his name is removed and replaced with he. 

Despite the cellars being referred to as cellars throughout the chapter in both books, in one use it becomes the other part of the cellar in the modern edition.

And lastly the boys become rather too nice when they head down to the caves, or at least Jack does. Originally he says to Philip: come on – let’s give [the girls] an awful fright, shall we? Now he says let’s give them a surprise. Not even an awful surprise, just a surprise. How goody-two shoes of him!

They still give them an awful fright, Dinah in particular and the paragraphs where she threatens to pull all his hair out, then proceeds to actually pull some of his hair out and hit him are left alone.

I’m going to count those as just nine changes. Although there are a lot of small edits, they’re all the same thing or close to it over and over. Sometimes I wonder if I should go back and count every edit just to see how many they made in total. Perhaps I’ll do that at the end of this book.

That takes us up to thirty-five individual changes now.

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 24

Posted on January 7, 2015 by worldofblyton

Chapter twenty-four:

Hiding places again

“The men were discussing the happenings of tonight, in I’m afraid for them, much too loud a voice for us to not hear. The marsh will be fully drained by tonight at two o’clock sharp, when all the men will have to do is take a helicopter out over the land to look for the ship. They will land, search for the treasure and anything else of value, and fly off to America where they will sell all their goods! We seemed to have speeded up their process, for they had not planned to do this until tomorrow night, but they have been working all day and have asked some more men in on this trick to fly the helicopter over tonight. It will land on the top of the hill, and fly off. A good plan, but not good enough for us!” Bill said. The boys felt rather ashamed. All that going on and they never heard a word of it!

Bill hadn’t meant to embarrass the two boys and thumped them on the backs. “You both did a great job down there, though.”

“So what are we going to do tonight, Bill?” asked Dinah, suddenly.

“We’re planning to lie in wait for the helicopter and when the men all arrive, we’ll arrest them, and the men in the helicopter, too. Something tells me it wont be as easy as all that though, so things might get a bit dangerous. You are to stay right back, see? You can watch the fun, but that’s all. We’ll need a few more of my work colleagues, so I’m off to get them now. Coming?”

The children were, and of course Kiki the parrot. They walked down the hill, talking nineteen to the dozen about the exciting night which lay ahead of them. They reached the village of Lowfell at last, and stopped at the little garage there. The garage keeper was there. The children hadn’t seen him before. He was a short fellow, who wore rather dirty overalls and had all sorts of tools in his pockets. He wore a red cap on one side of his head. The children thought he would be hardly able to walk with all the weight in his pockets! Bill said a few words to the man, who ran lightly over to a black, sleek car and handed Bill the keys. Bill nodded to him, and told the children to hop in. Raymond and Howard had stayed behind and were sitting in the little dairy.

Jack, Philip and Dinah piled in the back of the car, and Lucy-Ann slipped in the front, next to Bill. Bill reversed the car out of the garage and headed out of the little village. Off they drove, along a quiet, narrow, country lane. When they reached the village where Bill’s base was, he told them to go to the little dairy and get five large ice creams and he would join them in a minute.

The children slipped over the road and walked into the dairy. A woman was cleaning up the little tables, and she smiled at them. She was a plump little woman, and wore an apron that hardly fitted her. Her hair was bundled up in neat buns on top of her head, and her face was round and jolly. “Now what would four hungry children like on this very hot afternoon?” she said, beaming at them. “Four extra big glasses of lemonade…or perhaps ginger beer? The biggest ice creams in the shop, or how abouts a frozen lolly?” she asked in a sing song voice.

“We’ll have five ginger beers, and five ice creams please!” the children said, after much discussion.

“Now I haven’t seen your faces ‘ere before, ‘ave I? You just visiting?” she asked, as she brought the little tray of ginger beers and ice cream over.

Continue reading →

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First Monday of 2015

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Fiona

Happy New Year to all our lovely readers! Thank you all for visiting and reading the blog over the past year and thank you again if you took the time to comment or send us something to publish. We had an excellent year in 2014 and the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for us again.

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 54,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 20 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

And you can see more random facts (and maybe your name if you commented a lot) here.

We’re going to kick off the new year with the next chapter of Poppy’s Adventure Series fan fiction, which is drawing to a close. I’m going to get back to what I’ve been promising for a few weeks and compare another few chapters of The Island of Adventure before I start digging into my birthday and Christmas presents to review them. And Stef is planning to review the next St Clare’s book for us.

Just as a side note, apart from Poppy’s fic which only has a few chapters to go we don’t have anything else in our arsenal for our upcoming Wednesday slots. If you’ve ever thought about sitting down and penning (or indeed keying) something for us, now would be an excellent time!

Begging over (for now) I’ll leave you with a few photos from Christmas and New Year.

I had this all written and scheduled nice and early for once, but I’m back editing it now as we’ve had a nice surprise to start the year with. We’ve just beaten our record for daily page views! It had been sitting at 319 since last January when we published our interview with Jemima Rooper, but today we’ve hit 322 (and counting?)

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New Year’s Dip: A St Andrews Story, chapter 8

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Fiona

Darrell rolled over as the alarm went off at half-past six and shut it off with a yawn. She chucked a pillow at Sally. “Wake up! Dipping time.”

Sally cuddled deeper into her bed and groaned. “Darrell you’re mean. We only just went to bed!”

“Well the cold water will wake you up nicely,” Darrell retorted, rubbing her eyes as she forced herself to sit up, shivering a little at the cool air in the room.

Sally cuddled deeper into her blankets. “Why did I agree to do this? I mean even at Malory Towers we wouldn’t have been so fool hardy!”

Darrell, stubborn and determined as always, threw off her covers and got up, grabbing Sally’s and hauling them off the bed. “Miss Grayling wouldn’t have let us take a dip at this time of year even if we had been at school on New Year’s Day,” she pointed out. “Now, are you going to let the boys show us up?”

“You and your competitive streak!” Sally said, sitting up bleary eyed. She got up and shivered in the cold room and hurried around, dressing with her swimsuit under her clothes. She pulled on a pair of nylon trousers to keep herself a little warmer in the snow, and then pulled on Julian’s rugby shirt. She pulled a couple of jumpers on over the top, and packed her spare rugby shirt, brush, towel and swim hat into her rucksack. “Shall I go and make the coffee Darrell?”

“Yes please,” Darrell replied, grinning at Sally’s efficiency. She had her costume on, and Anatoly’s rugby shirt, but she’d gotten rather distracted by the way it smelled of him and was only now pulling on her thick tights, planning to tuck the top into a warm skirt.

Sally nodded and hurried outside. She stood waiting for the kettle with their thermos and wrapped her arms around herself and buried her face in the collar of Julian’s shirt, smelling the sweet soapy smell of him and the smell of his aftershave. She bit her lip and made up her mind to find out what his aftershave was so that she could get him some for his birthday.

She made the coffee in the flask and slipped back into the room. “Have you got the whisky bottles Darrell? Shame we didn’t get two small ones for us as well isn’t it?”

“They’re in my bedside drawer,” she said, nodding her head in that direction. She stood, her boots tightly laced on her feet and gave Sally a little twirl. “New fashion, do you think?” she asked teasingly.

“Very fetching,” Sally said with a smile. “No wonder Anatoly’s smitten!”

Darrell stuck her tongue out at Sally and pulled on a thick cardigan and then wrapped a scarf around her neck. She shoved a jumper, towel, comb and her bathing cap into a tote bag and reached for her coat. “All ready?”

“I am if you are,” Sally said with a smile. “Got your keys?”

Darrell looked around and then snatched them up triumphantly from the dressing table. “I do now!”

Sally shook her head and laughed, following Darrell out. They hurried down the stairs and along the road to St Salvator’s. They waited outside for a while for the boys, stamping their feet in their snow boots to keep warm. “There’s no way to get hold of them if they’ve not woken up, this is the only thing,” Sally mused.

“You’d think at least one of them would have woken up by now,” Darrell grumbled, wrapping her arms around herself.

Just as she grumbled, David stuck his head out of his window. “Sorry girls!” he called as Sally carefully began gathering some snow. “Alarms weren’t set and things, and Julian and Pilks are still getting ready. I’ll come down and let you in if you’ll let me have a moment?”

“I suppose we could allow you that,” Darrell called back. “But don’t be long, it’s freezing out here!”

“Otherwise you’ll get a snowball in the face!” Sally called, standing up with her snowball.

“I said I was coming didn’t I?” David called back, disappearing from the window in a hurry.

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2014 birthday and Christmas present round up

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Fiona

As with last year I got spoiled on my birthday and at Christmas and managed to amass a pile of Blyton-themed gifts. Most of these will end up having blogs of their own as I read/listen and review them later but for now here’s a quick look at what I got.

1
2
3
6
I’ve only 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.
8

1. The Famous Five Story Collection on CD

2. Pea’s Book of Holidays by Susie Day

3. Five Fall Into Adventure & Five Get Into Trouble on CD

4. The Famous Five Annual 2015

5. Enid Blyton’s Christmas Stories

6. So You Think You Know the Famous Five? by Clive Gifford

7. Five Have a Mystery to Solve & Five Go Down to the Sea on CD

8. The Amelia Jane Bumper Book

I asked for all of these things with the exception of the Christmas Story collection which my Mum spotted and asked if I’d like. I’m looking forward to having a proper read or listen to all of these but I suspect I will try and spread them out so I can use them for the blog as well.

The Amelia Jane book should be particularly interesting as there’s really nothing online about what it contains or how it came about.

There was some confusion on Christmas day though, as I opened the first of the CDs from my parents. My sister looked terribly worried and pretty much let on that she’d bought me a CD and worried it was the same one. I then opened another CD from my partner (who had been equally but more quietly worried.) The Story Collection and the Mystery to Solve/Down to the Sea covers are reasonably similar and have a blueish band across the top so I can understand the worry, and then I opened my sister’s CD which has the red band across the top and a non-sea background. She was relieved.

You might be wondering about number two, and how that is connected to Blyton, but it does have reason to be there.

Pea can’t wait for the summer holidays to start! Clover’s spending the summer at Theatre Camp, Mum’s staying home to write – and Pea and Tink are heading off on an Enid Blytonish camping trip.

There was one last Blyton gift I got, but as it wasn’t a book or CD I thought I should have it separately here.

Yes, those are earring books. Or book earrings. They even have (blank) pages. I should have taken a picture of the back as they have the full dustjacket reproduced in miniature.

I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas, Blyton goodies included of course.

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New Year’s Dip: A St Andrews Story, chapter 7

Posted on December 31, 2014 by worldofblyton

Last time the girls did some shopping and the New Years bells sounded.

Darrell had sat down on Anatoly’s other side after saying goodnight to David, and she noticed his slight wince as he put his arm around her again. “Is your shoulder bothering you still Toly?” she asked quietly.

Anatoly nodded sheepishly. “It seems to have been aggravated by the swing boat ride earlier. Julian does not look like he is fairing too well with his shoulder, are you Ju?”

Sally turned to look at Julian who was trying to roll his shoulder without her noticing.  She sat up from his embrace and faced him. “Did you want me to rub some arnica into it like I promised dear?”

Julian thought that sounded nice, but he felt it might be a little improper, so he shrugged and immediately regretted it. “You wouldn’t mind?” he asked her.

“I wouldn’t offer if I minded, and I promised I would earlier,” Sally said with a smile. “Now my next question is, do you have an arnica?”

“I do… somewhere,” Julian admitted. “My mother insisted I bring some in case of further rugby injuries.”

Sally smiled and pulled away from him, “You better go and get it then!”

Anatoly sat back, trying to look nonchalant with his aching shoulder as Julian and Sally agreed that Sally could rub his shoulder. He didn’t want to suggest it to Darrell, in case it put her off, but he would have quite liked to as for something similar. A shoulder massage from his lovely girlfriend would be just the thing to ease his shoulder, here in the fire light. Stupidly enough however he found himself too nervous to ask her, in case she would be appalled.

“Aye aye,” Julian said, getting up and loping off. He was glad he was fit, as otherwise it would be a pain to have to climb to the fourth floor every time he had to go to his room. He let himself into his room and raked about a bit, finding the glass bottle after a few minutes and heading down to the common room again. “Here you go,” he said, handing the bottle to Sally who had moved to sit on the chair, the ottoman in front of her.

Continue reading →

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Last Week of 2014, Last Monday Post

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Fiona

This is our last Monday post of 2014, as the year ends on Wednesday! All I can say is that this year has gone very quickly and it all seems to have flown past. We have gone from strength to strength this year and I just want to do a quick shout out to everyone who has read what we’ve posted, everyone who’s sent us something to publish and everyone’s continued support.

Long may it all continue well into 2015 and beyond.

Our plans this week are to either bring you the next section of Poppy’s Marsh of Adventure or a poem on Wednesday. Fiona is down to do a ‘presents round up’ in which no doubt she will tell us what Blyton/bookish goodies she got for her birthday and Christmas this year (I unfortunately was rather lacking in Blyton goodies this year! I had a Doctor Who theme however…)

I am at a loose end however, and should really be bringing you the next St Clare’s book, but we’ll have to see how it goes! Anyway! See you in 2015 Blytonites!

 

Winters Morning Frost

Winters Morning Frost

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The First Christmas

Posted on December 28, 2014 by pippastef

Until I came across this book in Alton a few weeks ago, when I was book shopping with Francis, I don’t think I was aware of it. I knew of course that Blyton had some retellings of Bible stories under her name, but for some reason this singular story didn’t occur to me.

I brought it for the sole purpose of blogging about it today, reviewing the story and the pictures and admiring her retelling.

The story is a simple one, meant for children. As we know, Blyton taught in a Sunday school before she became a teacher and would often have to pass on these stories to the children, so you get the feeling that it is a story she knows well, and has tried to be as true to the Bible’s telling of it as possible.

At 64 pages it is a short book for an adult but maybe long for a child of the age, 3 to 7 perhaps, that it’s aimed at. However when you start reading the book, its clear that it is only this long because the words are big, which would obviously encourage children to read.

The retelling of the first Christmas is nothing new to me, and the story here is as I would imagine to find any other retelling. There are not too many of Blyton’s usual quirks in the script and it reads as a preacher would tell it to children. It would be hard for there to be any, as there is no doubt there could be little to add to such a story without taking away the simpleness and goodness, and joy of the new King, Jesus.

There are colour plates in this book, to help illustrate the story, by a chap called Paul Henning, who I’m not sure I’ve come across before. At first glance his pictures seem very artistic, simple lines and bold colours, but as I read on, I became more aware that the pictures seemed to be puppet characters, set up and moved around to make the scene up. This rather took some of the magic from it.

Anyway it is a nice little book, good for explaining where Christmas came from to a child, and helping them engage in the magic of the season. I do hope that I will get a chance someday to read it to  someone and help them understand Christmas. Fiona, you have been warned!

First Edition 1945
One of the colour plates
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New Year’s Dip: A St Andrews Story, chapter 6

Posted on December 26, 2014 by worldofblyton

Last time Julian and Anatoly competed on the swing boats and the group tried haggis.

“Honestly,” Darrell said to Sally, “you’d think they were all five years old the way they carry on sometimes.”

“Aren’t they?” Sally asked with a smirk. “They’re such… such… boys!” she finished with a laugh. She squeezed Darrell’s arm as they walked. “I’m glad we’re here,” she said as the snow began to fall faster. “And I’m glad the boys are here,” she added. “I’ve been dying to see Ju since we broke up for Christmas!”

“They are such boys,” Darrell agreed, “but we wouldn’t be without them. I was the same with Toly, I was so disappointed when he said he might not make it, I couldn’t bear the thought of having to wait until the start of term to see him again.”

“I know you were darling, but he’s here, and what an entrance!” Sally said with a giggle. She spotted a stall and pulled Darrell over. “I saw a scarf on here earlier that I thought I wanted to buy Ju,” she said embarrassed, picking out a dark blue, green and purple tartan scarf with the town’s coat of arms on it. She paid for it, blushing. “Do you think it’s a bad idea?” she asked Darrell.

“I know, Darrell giggled, “my boyfriend, the elderly man. It’s really nice Sally, I’m sure he’ll love it,” she said encouragingly.

Sally smiled and tucked it in the pocket of her coat. “I’ll give it to him tomorrow after the swim,” she told Darrell. “Are you going to get something for Toly?”

“I’d like to,” Darrell said, “but I have no idea what! It took me forever to pick his Christmas present.”

“That’s true, you almost drove me to distraction trying to find that good luck charm,” Sally teased her friend.

“He’s difficult to buy for,” Darrell defended herself. “I mean have you any suggestions on what I could get him tonight?”

“Not one, sorry Darrell,” she said with a giggle. “How about a bottle of whisky?” she suggested looking at a few stalls a little further down. “You said he was getting a taste for it before Christmas.”

Darrell smiled. “He is, which is nice as he says he can’t find decent vodka here. But it’s so expensive for a bottle, I’m not sure I’ve got enough money with me.”

“Look they’ve got small ones,” Sally pointed out. “And I can lend you any if you need it? You could get him a small one as a prize for doing the swim, but if we’re going to do that, shouldn’t we get a pack of three one for each of the boys? We can’t possibly leave David out can we?”

Darrell had a closer look at the little set of whiskies, three small bottles on a wooden tray. “I’ve got enough to share that with you,” she said, “they can warm up with one each after they come out of the water. I’d like to get him something, well, personal though. Something just for him.”

Sally looked around. “I’ll get the whiskies and you can owe me. You go and have a quick look for something for Toly. We ought to be getting back to them soon.”

“Do you think they’ve even noticed we’re gone yet?” she asked absently as she looked at a stall full of trinkety gifts, searching for something Anatoly might like.

Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Fiona

Merry Christmas!

We here at World of Blyton wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Here’s to looking forward to the next year on the blog! 

From 

Stef and Fiona

christmasbanner

 

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Christmas Gifts – a poem by Enid Blyton

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Fiona

If I had lived long years ago
And seen, on Christmas night,
The strange star in the sky aglow,
I think perhaps I might
Have followed close the Wise Men Three,
The little Holy Child to see.

They brought Him presents rich and rare-
I would have brought one too,
And laid it with the treasures there;
Perhaps a ball of blue,
Or else a rabbit, soft and small,
For Him to cuddle in the stall.

I was not there, and so you see
I could not bring Him joy,
He had no birthday gift from me,
No ball or other toy,
And so at Christmas time I take
A gift to others – for His sake.

Taken from the Enid Blyton Poetry Book (1934) and originally written for The Teachers’ World (1933).

DSCN0328 christmas presents gifts

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Last Monday Before Christmas

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Fiona

I’m still not sure where the last twenty or so days have gone, or how we got so close to Christmas so quickly. Instead of a contributor post on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) I think we’ll just pop a Christmassy poem or something similar on, I expect most of you will be too busy with last minute preparations to have time to be reading much else anyway.

Friday I will put up a chapter of New Year’s Dip, nothing too taxing while you are all recovering from all the food and fun of the day before. And to stretch the Christmassy feeling a little further Stef’s going to read and review The First Christmas, Blyton’s own telling of the nativity story.

I’ve got a few mostly Christmassy photos to add this week, and in case I forget later, have a merry Christmas!

The Scott Monument in Edinburgh
Read & green presents
Star flyer in Edinburgh
Carousel and helter skelter in Edinburgh
Christmas decorations
Christmas tree
big wheel in Edinburgh
Decoration atop a Christmas market stall in Edinburgh
Green ribbons
Edinburgh’s Christmas market
The Dome in Edinburgh
The Nelson Monument viewed through a cannon hole in Edinburgh Castle

 

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The Sea of Adventure

Posted on December 21, 2014 by pippastef

After realising that I had been extremely lax in getting The Sea of Adventure read for this week’s blog,  I started reading it on Friday but I didn’t get very far, so on my breaks at work today and after work, before dinner, I read quickly through my 320 first edition reprint in order to bring you a review this week.

The book starts off with quite a traditional Blyton beginning; all the children have measles and Mrs Mannering, under Doctor’s orders wants to send them somewhere to get their strength back before they go back to school. She tries to engage a governess, but unfortunately the children soon put an end to that idea when she meets the animals, and Kiki in particular.

Anyway after a very suspicious phone call from Bill, a misunderstanding, and Mrs Mannering getting measles, the children go with Bill on a holiday up to Scotland to the Hebrides for a bird watching holiday. This holiday is also a ruse for helping Bill disappear after his current mission went awry. They travel up to Scotland without problem and when they’re on the boat out to sea, Bill is sure he hasn’t been followed and loses his beard.

Soon they’re speeding along, coming to islands filled with birds, which send Jack and Philip into seventh heaven and before long the five of them and Bill have set up a base on an island filled with puffins! Philip, naturally, attracts two Puffins to them, a mating couple it would appear who get called Huffin and Puffin- named by Kiki, if you couldn’t already guess.

This first part takes up most of the book if I’m honest, but the setting is so beautiful that I’m more than happy to read these much of a set up to the main adventure. In fact it helps remind me, that one day I will need to travel to the west coast of Scotland and explore the vast number of islands and their beauty spots before I get too old.

However, just before halfway through the book, we get to really see the full extent of the adventure creeping up on us, when Bill is mysteriously kidnapped in the night and the children are left without him, and their boat. The fear of being stranded doesn’t really appear to overwhelm the children like it would do me, but they continue to make the best of a bad situation and do their best to send signals and such not.

It is rather hard to really review this book as in doing so I would give away a lot more than I meant. All I know is that it is one of my favourite books, the scenery, the storyline, and the heroism of the children really makes me wish I had read it as a child, because I do believe I would have easily been utterly captivated by the thrilling and daringness of the situation the children find themselves in.

However alls well that ends well and soon the children are reunited with Bill and are on their way home after a few false starts. If you haven’t read The Sea of Adventure yet, you really should! It’ll have you wishing you were with the children and gasping at their adventure yet again as Jack, Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann come out on top!

Next review: The Mountain of Adventure

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A review of Father Christmas and Belinda

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Fiona

I decided today that I wanted to do something more appropriate to the season instead of what I had originally planned for this week.

Over a year ago I reviewed Humpty Dumpty and Belinda one of two Collins Colour Camera Books with a story written by Blyton. I then received the other one, Father Christmas and Belinda for my Christmas last year. I only usually like reading Christmas stories in the lead up to Christmas, and not after, which is why I haven’t read it until now.

I won’t repeat the explanation of how the books came about as I went into all that when I reviewed Humpty Dumpty and Belinda.

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THE STORY

This story begins with Jane taking her two favourite dolls, Belinda and Tod, out for a tricycle ride. The dolls fall off the handlebars and get mucky, Tod muckier than Belinda, and so only Belinda accompanies Jane to a party later. Presumably it is a Christmas party (though it isn’t specified) and Jane is given a lovely golliwog as a present.

This worries Belinda who thinks that Jane will forget about her and Tod and play with her new toy instead.

Unfortunately for her Belinda’s vision unfortunately comes true and she and Tod are relegated to the sidelines when Jane returns from the party. Jane even bans them from her bed at night as they are so old and dirty and she says she shan’t like them again until they have clean clothes again.

Her mother is a bit kinder it would seem and takes pity on the dolls but Jane won’t listen to her and leaves them on the window ledge on Christmas Eve while the golliwog comes to bed with her.

Belinda and Tod muse over whether or not Jane deserves to get her stocking filled with toys after her treatment of them, and watch out for Father Christmas arriving. Instead they see a light in Jane’s father’s workshop and go to investigate. They discover Father Christmas himself, searching for something and that something turns out to be them!

I had though Jane was rather cruel to her dolls, considering she is supposed to love them so much but it’s necessary for the advancement of the plot. If they weren’t on the window-sill they wouldn’t have seen the light on, and in fact, if she hadn’t been so cruel Father Christmas wouldn’t have come to find them.

A MAGICAL SLEIGH RIDE

They soon find themselves riding on Father Christmas’ sleigh, though not before he has magicked them to the size of a small child. There are only four reindeer pulling his sleigh curiously enough. Traditionally there have been eight (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen  which are based on those used in the 1823 poem The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore. Rudolph was added in a story from 1939, so still before this was written.

The plan is to visit three or four unhappy children and give them presents before they go to Father Christmas’ home. In fact they visit five children in total.

First is Oolooloo, an Eskimo girl from the Land of Ice and Snow. There’s a bit of geography thrown in as Father Christmas explains that the sun never rises in winter there, and never properly sets in summer. Oolooloo’s mother has been ill and she has had to look after her brothers and sisters and so Father Christmas gives her a doll just like Belinda. It’s not all straightforward though as Father Christmas nearly gets stuck in the igloo and then Tod nearly gets eaten by polar bears.

Next they head off to Norway to see Sigurd who has been ill, and leave some ice skates hanging outside his window. (A Scandinavian tradition?) There is a lych gate into the garden of Sigurd’s house, which of course made me think of Old Thatch.

France is the next destination, to see Pierre whose mother has also been ill. Pierre is from a poor family and so he gets a pair of shoes! There are also flowers for his mother, but I wonder that they couldn’t produce a small toy for him as well.

Then they’re off to a South Sea Island to visit Rosamund who is afraid that Father Christmas won’t bring her a present as she isn’t at home in Australia. Looking rather out of place on a tropical island Father Christmas leaves her a teddy bear in her stocking, which is strung over a campfire by her tent.

DSCN0322Lastly they make a trip to see Junior (Henning?) in New York. They land on a skyscraper where of course there is no chimney, leaving Father Christmas to take a ride down in the lift to deliver a present to the 50th room on the 50th floor. Junior gets a toy aeroplane as his mother is out at a party and he is worried Father Christmas can’t visit him without a chimney.

THE CASTLE OF FATHER CHRISTMAS

With all their visits complete they’re then off to Father Christmas’ castle to get new clothes for Belinda and Tod. While they’re there they get shown around some of the many rooms. They start with the Room of Dolls and pick up a friend, a sailor doll. They ride some rocking horses in the Room of Rocking Horses and make the teddies in the Room of Teddy Bears growl by pressing their tummies. Then they visit the Golliwog Room and Tod asks them if they ever wash. Of course we don’t, they say. Our faces have to be black. Hmm, perhaps not the best of conversations to feature.

Moving on and they visit the Hall of Trains before Father Christmas shows them his magic mirror. Sort of like the one in Snow White it can be used to show him other people and places, though he chooses to use it to see unhappy children so he can visit them with presents. This time it shows them Jane who is crying as she has realised Belinda and Tod have gone. She throws her new golliwog down and says she doesn’t want him any more, just her old dolls back.

DSCN0323Despite her poor treatment of them before there seem to be no hard feelings and Belinda and Tod are desperate to return to her. They tell Father Christmas not to bother with new clothes for them so they can hurry back. The reindeer aren’t quite ready to take them so there’s time for a look at the toy animals, the Humming Top Room and the Ball Room (not to be confused with a ball room which is for dancing).

At last Father Christmas takes them back to Jane’s house and makes them small again. They find Jane’s mother sitting making new clothes for Belinda and Tod and she talks quite happily to Father Christmas, not seeming surprised in the slightest to see him.

Father Christmas fills Jane’s stocking with toys and pops Belinda and Tod in on the top for her. He then rescues her golliwog and says he will give it to another child who will want him more. I rather feel sorry for the golliwog actually!

Jane is overjoyed to find Belinda and Tod back in the morning and vows she will love them from then on, no matter what.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this as much as I did Humpty Dumpty and Belinda. Although it is quite charming at times, with lovely illustrations and photographs I can’t like Jane and her fickle behaviour. Nor can I work out just what role Father Christmas is supposed to play in the world. Does he only take toys (one each) to sad children on Christmas Eve, and if so why does Jane get a whole stocking full? I’m sure young children – who this is aimed at! – won’t question any of this but I spent so much time wondering about it that it prevented me from really losing myself in the story.

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It’s Almost Christmas!

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Fiona

Can you believe how quickly this year is going? Isn’t it just mad!

And can I just take a moment to wish Fiona a happy birthday today! Happy Birthday Fiona!

Anyway, this week, our contributing blog will be a re-blog from Poppy (I believe, given what is written on our schedule!)

From Fiona she will be looking at the next chapters of the Island of Adventure for their differences, and I shall hopefully bring you the review of Sea of Adventure that I promised you last week but was unable to provide.

I shall leave you with a few pictures from my visit to Edinburgh from the summer which I have only just gotten around to editing. Enjoy!

The national gallery
The Old Town
The new town from Edinburgh Castke
Princes Street
The Saltire
The National monument from the Castle
Robert the Bruce
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New Year’s Dip: A St Andrews Story, chapter 5

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Fiona

Last time the five continued their exploration of the Llammas market and some of them tried mulled wine.

 

David laughed at Julian and shook his head. “That was fun though,” he said, propping himself up on the fountain. “What are we going on next?”

Darrell winked at Sally. “Nothing that spins, please,” she said, despite it giving her the perfect excuse to cling to Anatoly.

“How about the… swing, things,” Anatoly said, not sure what they were called, pointing them out. “They go back and forth, not round and round?”

“The swing boat?” Sally suggested.

“Yes, those,” he said, “or is that still too much movement for people?”

“I’m game!” David said with a smile.

“Definitely!” Sally said with a grin

“Me too!” added Darrell. They all looked at Julian.

“They’re for pairs,” Julian pointed out slightly awkwardly, “you go on with David, Sally, and I’ll watch for now. I can always have a go in a bit if anyone else wants another turn.”

“Well,” David said practically. “Pretty much everything here is for pairs,” he said sticking his hands in his pockets. “And I’m a big boy, I don’t mind sitting in my own, it’s just when you decide to pair off without me is when I don’t like it,” he grinned. He nudged Sally playfully and whispered loudly; “Chivalrous isn’t he?”

“Well, all right,” Julian said easily, “don’t say I didn’t offer. I’ll go on with Sally then, and you can have a turn after if anyone’s having a second go.”

“It’s a lot of work for a ride,” Sally said with a grin. “Are you sure you’re up to it Ju?” she teased.

“Of course I am,” Julian said a little indignantly as the others laughed.

Sally laughed and patted his arm, where she could feel the muscle under it. “I was teasing darling,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.

“I’d be more than happy to take your place if you weren’t feeling up to it, Ju,” David added with a grin.

“Too late Morton, you said no already,” Julian said with a wink.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t change my mind,” David said airily. He chuckled. “Go on then lovebirds, I’ll just stand around looking lonely!”

Darrell giggled at him, as Sally gave him a kiss on the cheek. Darrell took Anatoly’s hand and smiled up at him. “Ready?”

“It is a woman’s prerogative, I believe, to change her mind,” Anatoly said wickedly. He lifted Darrell’s hand and kissed the back of it. “After you, dorogoy.”

Continue reading →

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My tenth Noddy book: Well Done Noddy!

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Fiona

Not the book I was expecting to be reviewing this week due to various rescheduling issues over the past few weeks but never mind. Well Done Noddy! is the fifth book in the series, and for a brief time I will actually be reviewing the titles in order. Last time I reviewed book 4, and I have books 6 and 7 to do later.

Cover, illustrated by Beek.

Cover, illustrated by Beek.

FINAL THOUGHTS FIRST?

Usually I save my opinions until the end but today I will open with them – this is the weakest title in the series so far for me. I’m not sure quite why so I will leave those musings for the end.

THE STORY

Given that, I was very unsurprised that Big Ears should immediately suffer a catastrophe when Mr Jumbo sits on his bike and destroys it completely. I was a bit surprised however that Mr Jumbo accused Big Ears of riding dangerously fast around the corner with no warning, that doesn’t seem like the sensible brownie to me. Then again, Mr Jumbo was picking bicycle parts off himself and ringing every time he moved so perhaps he was exaggerating in his distress.

DSCN0115

Noddy immediately decides this is his chance to help Big Ears (and inflame the easily offended sorts who object to him and Big Ears sharing a bed,) and takes him and his bandaged head home to look after him. The doctor comes and says he must not worry about anything.

Naturally then Big Ears has some worries. He initially worries about his house being empty so Noddy arranges for Sally Skittle and her little skittles to go and stay there. Then Big Ears starts to worry about his cat, and so Noddy brings her to stay with them.

I was sort of anticipating Big Ears coming up with worry after worry and running Noddy ragged trying to resolve them, but that wasn’t to be. Big Ears final and biggest worry is about not having a bike to ride any more.

The only solution to that, Noddy feels (as neither of them have any savings) is to raise money to buy him a new one. His car barely gets a mention but it is said that his usual wages from car rides isn’t enough to support Noddy and Big Ears and save for a bike, so he starts thinking of other ways to make money.

He sees the Wobbly-Man planting beans with some difficulty and has an idea. I thought he would offer to do the planting and get paid for it, but that’s a bit too sensible for the little wooden man. Instead he heads to the sweet shop and spends his last half-penny on a toffee, a peppermint drop and a bull’s-eye. Uh-oh, I can see where this is going, can’t you?

Yes, he goes home and plants them, complete with labels. It’s a very funny and very Noddy-ish plot and I don’t think enough is made of it really. I would have liked to have seen Noddy watering the seeds every day etc.

DSCN0116

Anyway, as he waits for his toffee tree, peppermint drop bush and bull’s-eye tree he decides his other talent lies in his songs ans starts selling them for sixpence. He writes one for Mr Tubby Bear first, carefully not calling him fat as he doesn’t like that, a short one for Miss Bunny who hasn’t got the memory for a long one, a big one for Mr Jumbo as he is so enormous and several more for others as well.

The plot shifts all of a sudden here, when Mrs Tubby Bear gives Noddy a message from Mr Sailor Soll who wants some sacks moved from his shed to under a bush. Noddy jumps at the chance to earn seven sixpences and does it right away, under the watchful eye of the sailor doll’s neighbour.

The fact that the neighbour watched him was enough to set alarm bells ringing with me at this point, and sure enough the policeman (now names Mr Plod) shows up that evening to accuse Noddy of stealing the sacks which contained vegetables to sell.

Big Ears is incensed and rages quite impressively but in the end it comes down to the fact that the Mr Sailor Doll sent no such message and Noddy has to give up all his savings to pay for the vegetables.

It’s not quite Noddy’s fault as he received the message in good faith and, well, he’s proven he’s not always the brightest spark. Mrs Tubby Bear on the other hand, well, she took a message from a goblin regarding the sailor doll and the sacks and passed it on to Noddy which was even more stupid of her!

Anyway, Noddy decides to go and see who collects the sacks which he left under a bush (hint to Noddy – if someone asks you to hide sacks of produce under some bushes it’s probably not a good idea to do it…) and he catches Sly the Goblin.

DSCN0118

Being magical Sly is persuaded into restoring Big Ear’s bicycle for him, as a sort of repayment for getting Noddy into trouble. Big Ears doesn’t think that’s enough though and threatens to give the goblin one or two spanks for luck.

So all’s well that ends well.

FINAL, FINAL THOUGHTS

There are some good parts to the story – Mr Jumbo picking bike parts off himself is funny, as is Noddy trying to grow sweeties into trees. I think I just felt that none of it was really connected as much as it could have been. Noddy could have been raising money for any reason in the book and then the last part with the police, the goblin etc was a very abrupt change of direction that also had nothing to do with the main plot until the end.

Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood for Noddy last night but it didn’t seem as clever as some of the others I’ve read in the series.

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 23

Posted on December 10, 2014 by worldofblyton

Chapter twenty-three:

A clever piece of machinery

“What do we do now?” asked Jack, who couldn’t bear the thought of the enemies below escaping before they had chance to catch them.

“We’re going back underground to try and overhear any conversation,” said Bill after conversation with Raymond, Howard and Sammy. “The girls are to stay here though, with Sammy. Only the boys and I shall go back underground now.” Dinah was not very pleased about this, but secretly she didn’t want to go back underground! The boys were thrilled to be going back underground, and hurried to pull up the length of rope, so the men wouldn’t guess how they got out. Jack wrapped it round his stomach again and Bill had a word with Sammy.

“Where’s this second hole, you were talking about?” asked Raymond, while they were waiting.

“Not far from here,” said Jack looking round, “A little bit further down this way, I think.” he said, heading towards the stream.

“Remember Lucy-Ann tripped over when she was bringing a jug of water to us. We stuffed it with heather and bracken, didn’t we?” Philip said.

“Here it is!” cried Jack. Bill ran over to where they were all crowded.

“Found it?” he asked. “It looks just big enough to fit us all through. Jack, we’ll have your piece of rope again please!” Jack handed over his length of rope, and the men tied it securely up. Continue reading →

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Monday

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Fiona

Well last week was a bit of a disaster all-round and the schedule rather went to pot. Hopefully we will do a bit better this week. On Wednesday it should be another chapter of Poppy’s fic, which we’re nearing the end of. Then on Friday I’m hoping to have read and reviewed my next Noddy book for you all, and Stef’s aiming to have done the same for the Sea of Adventure for Sunday. So we’ll see how all that goes.

Not much else to say this week so I’ll just add a couple of photos and leave it at that. The two photos with the baubles are ones I took when trying to do my picture for yesterday’s photo challenge over on Two Points of View.

Blackbird
Baubles
Balloon in the sky
Baubles
Sun through the tunnel
Tunnel wall

 

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Five Go to Mystery Moor: An exciting dramatised adventure

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Fiona

Admittedly this isn’t one of my favourite Famous Five books. Which is odd as I love the tale of the Bartles. Some combination of all the horses, moors and gypsies just don’t do it for me. I don’t hate it it’s just one of my lower-ranked titles. Before I listened I had the thought that Sniffer could turn out to be an unpleasant character to hear on a CD.

500high+3557336As with all my audio reviews I’ll stick to what’s unique to the audio as I don’t see much point in reviewing the over-all story again.

The casts change a lot for these recordings and this group are not my favourites apart from Anne. It’s not necessarily that these actors are bad they are just different and not what I’m used to. Anne’s the same actress, the best one in my opinion, but George, Julian and Dick are definitely played by different people. On saying that George does do a very good going-off-in-a-huff sound in this story.

I do love Julian but he sounds terribly pompous and bossy in this one, even to me!

The additional voices are generally provided by only two or three people but as usual they create a wide range of accents and classes to act out all the different parts. Sniffer is given a fair bit of attitude – perhaps more than I’ve noticed in the book – and what sounds like a Cockney accent but it works.

Captain and Mrs Johnson sound very well-to-do, Mrs Johnson even more so than her husband. She sounds more like a very wealthy woman who spends her time at parties than a down-to-earth riding stable owner, but she manages to be kind at the same time.

Henry doesn’t sound too much like a boy to me, but then neither does George that much. It’s not really a problem though as neither are overly girly and they do sound suitably different from each other.

We also get to hear Sniffer’s dad, Ben the blacksmith and lots of nice horsey noises as well as some plane sounds. Sniffer doesn’t do that much sniffing in the first half of the story but later on, particularly in the caves, he does! As I suspected it is rather unpleasant really. Obviously they can’t fit everything into the audio but George’s attempts to make him use a hanky get missed out.

Unlike the books this doesn’t seem to be so heavily updated. Sniffer still tells the Five how his father cuffed him and knocked him over, and the father makes threats to him later.

I did like listening to this one, even if it’s not a favourite. Even the worst Five book is still a half-decent one.

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