Enid Blyton En Francais! by Ellie

Posted on August 27, 2014 by worldofblyton

Earlier in the summer I went to France for a week and whilst I was there, I picked up two Enid Blyton books that had been translated into French. I had previously discovered that my A-level French was sufficient to be able to read children’s literature – despite not really practising the language much in everyday life! – so I decided to give them a go

The first one was Le Club de Cinq aux sports d’hiver and the second one was La Famille Tant-Mieux en Croisière. I shall do a short review of each in turn, to avoid things becoming confusing!

Le Club de Cinq aux sports d’hiver (literally The Famous Five (do) winter sports) has been – as far as I can tell – directly translated from the English version, known as Five Get Into a Fix, which was first published in 1958. This translation was first published in 1964, so any French fans of Blyton had to wait quite a while for it! I’m not quite sure why the title is focused on the winter sports aspect of the story, rather than the adventure-y bit, but anyway. I don’t think I had actually read this particular Famous Five book in English before, so the story was entirely new to me.

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The basic plot of the story is as follows: the Five are ill for most of the holidays with flu, so for the last week of the holidays, as they’re slowly recovering, Julian’s mother (who’s looking after them all) sends them off to stay on a farm in the Welsh mountains, on the advice of the local doctor. Once there, they become embroiled in the mystery of the big house whose elderly and eccentric owner has not been seen for some time and the mysterious lights and noises that seem to come from underneath the mountain on which they are staying. Thrilling stuff!

For anyone who has not encountered the French translations before, I should point out that the names of the Five have all been changed to sound more, well, French.

Julian – Francois

Dick – Mick (short for Michel)

Anne – Annie

George – Claude (Claudine)

Timmy – Dagobert

The names of other characters in the stories are also changed – in this book, for example, Mrs Jones, who owns the farm where the Five stay, becomes Madame Joncs, which essentially sounds like a Frenchified version of Jones. But I am somewhat baffled as to why they changed Julian’s name, because I always thought Julian was a French name anyway – or at least Julien is!

I had never heard of the name “Dagobert” before (it gets shortened to “Dago” several times in the story when the Five are talking to or about him) so I googled it and apparently it means  something like “bright day” and is Germanic in origin. I couldn’t quite work out why such an unusual name would have been chosen for Timmy, but apparently it was also the name of a long-ago king of Austria, who features in a French nursery rhyme called Le bon roi Dagobert, so I guess that’s how French children would be familiar with it.

In Five Get Into A Fix, the Five are sent to the Welsh mountains, but in Le Club de Cinq aux sports d’hiver they go to the mountains of either France or Switzerland – unfortunately I can’t remember which and I don’t have the book to hand, sorry! So obviously the translator(s) decided that Le Club de Cinq live in France, which I guess makes sense, but it’s a good job they have mountains in or near France, or the first part of the story would have to have been changed a bit!

The Five make friends with a strange, half-wild, young girl called Miette (Aily in the original version) who has a pet dog and a pet goat and lives right up in the mountains with her parents. She helps them solve the mystery of the uncanny lights and weird noises, as well as unravelling the enigma of the eccentric owner of the big house. I won’t say too much more about the story, just in case there are some people who haven’t read it yet!

The second book I read, La Famille Tant-Mieux En Croisière, is a translation of The Pole Star Family. I had never heard of the English title before, so it took me a while to work out what the original version was called, because the French version of this series gives the family the surname Tant-Mieux and this then features in all the titles of that series e.g. La Famille Tant-Mieux en péniche. However, the original, English, series re-names the family in each book, based on what adventure they’re having e.g. The Pole Star Family because Pole Star is the name of their cruise ship or The Caravan Family because they end up living in two caravans. Again, the characters’ names have been changed, although apart from that, I would imagine that it is pretty much a direct translation. I think (although I’m not certain!) that Tant-Mieux means something like even better, or much better, reflecting the family’s eternal optimism in the face of whatever difficulties they might encounter – these, it has to be said, are very few in any case!

The name changes are as follows:

Mike – Nicholas

Belinda – Elisabeth

Ann – Marijo

By complete coincidence, both this book and Le Club de Cinq aux sports d’hiver start with the family having been very ill with flu and thus missing out on most of their school holidays! Once again, a trip away is recommended to help the children re-build their strength, so their grandma decides to take all of them with her on a cruise! The story follows their journey from France to Portugal, Spain, Madeira, the Canaries and Morocco. They visit a local market, see flying fish and experience a storm at sea and of course enjoy every single minute of their adventures. I liked the fact that their grandma is involved in the story, albeit in a very minor role – it’s nice to see an older relative featuring in a children’s story – and Blyton’s descriptions are vivid and colourful – my favourite bit was probably when they see the flying fish – having seen some myself, I know how spectacular they are and I can just imagine the children being absolutely entranced by them.

I found out after reading the book that Blyton herself had done exactly the same cruise on a ship called Stella Polaris, so that would explain how she was able to describe the scenes in the book so clearly. Both books were fun stories to read, although the “mystery” in the Famous Five one did seem somewhat far-fetched, even for a Famous Five story! It was also nice to be reading about people going on holiday trips, because I was on holiday myself – although thankfully I hadn’t suffered from a severe attack of flu beforehand! Added to this the fact that I was reading them in another language and it felt like it was practically educational!

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Last Monday in August

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Fiona

So this year is racing by, and we are reaching the end of August and the beginning of September. Summer seems to be leaving us behind very quickly.

This week we have a new contributor, Ellie who is examining the French editions of the Famous Five. This is a post not to be missed!

Fiona will be treating us to another chapter of the Secret Island comparison and I shall probably be doing another photo blog for my latest trip to Old Thatch and Bourne End.

I don’t think we have any blog news this week, so I shall leave you with some of my newly edited photos from the first half of my holiday to Dundee, when we were at Monike Country Park and in Dunkeld climbing over waterfalls and things!

Monike Park
A Black and White Jetty at Monike Park
Line of Boats at Monike
Panorama
Dunkeld Church
Inside Dunkeld Church
In the Beatrix Potter garden.
A poppy on a colour filter
The Beatrix Potter garden
The water falls
A newt.
Woods
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Bringing Blyton to Life: A Blyton Library Event

Posted on August 24, 2014 by pippastef

On the 12th August 2014 I took charge  of a Blyton themed event in the library where I work, for the children.

I had a word with the Children’s Librarian a few months ago about running a Blyton themed event, probably based on the Famous Five, and she agreed happily.

We chose a date in the summer holidays the 12th August to be exact, the day after Blyton’s birthday on the 11th August. So in a way it was a birthday party.

The picture of the Five with the name tags on.

The picture of the Five with the name tags on.

I got everything ready before hand, using parcel tags to create a treasure hunt. The children had to collect all the tags and work out the phrase I had created from them. Later on, I shall tell you what this phrase was.

So I began with introducing the children (I only had two) to the Famous Five. To do this I printed out a picture of the Five, one of the 1996 TV cast. I asked the children to name the Five, and I blu-tacked name tags onto the picture to make it clear.

Then, I invited the children to join us on a picnic and they were given a paper plate and asked to draw some lovely food that they would take on a picnic with the Five.

I made the session, which was an hour long, into a mini-story to string all my crafts together, and get the children involved.

When they had finished decorating their picnic plates, I ad-libbed a story where George and Julian had a row and George stormed off with Timmy, like in Five Go Off to Camp and said that George had been kidnapped, and would we help Julian, Dick and Anne find her?

The Parcel tag clue!

The parcel tag clue!

To do this involved parcel tags that I mentioned earlier, which I had placed them around the library the day before. There were quite a lot of letters for them to find, but they did really well, only missing one letter, which I hadn’t realised until they were laying out all the letters to make the phrase up.

The children really enjoyed this part of the hour, as they were up and about, and collected all the letters successfully (bar one which had got unluckily hidden behind some books).

Then with a helpful map on the table, the children and myself began to work out the clue! Now it wasn’t that hard for us seasoned Blytonites, but for children it was pretty difficult; it was a LOT of letters but soon they found out that the phrase and the clue to where George was being hidden was the Kirrin Island dungeon!

So off we went to rescue George, and soon the Five were back together again and to celebrate I asked them to collage a line picture of Timmy to take him with them. This they enjoyed as well. I think I had quite a band of happy children when they left.

Still, it was a shame that there were only two children, but it will be interesting when I get to do it again, if it is more popular!

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my description of my Enid Blyton event, and please do let me know if you have hosted similar things, or have any ideas on what I could do next time!

Some of the crafts, and the books I got together for the event.

Some of the crafts, and the books I got together for the event.

 

Posted in Enid Blyton, Personal Experiences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Five Go off to Camp: An exciting dramatised adventure

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Fiona

I’m anticipating this will be very nostalgic for me as this is the story I had on tape as a child. My sister and I had a burgundy tape/radio player which sat near the bottom of the bookcase behind the door but could be pulled around to sit in front of the wardrobe. We used to listen to lots of tapes, taking it in turns to choose between music (Spice Girls, Boyzone and Now! compilations mostly) and stories like this one or Rats! and Follow that Bus! by Pat Hutchins.

The Five Go Off to Camp tape came out in 1995 so I would have been nine and my sister six. She wasn’t such a big fan of Blyton though she did read things some books like Bimbo and Topsy. She did let me listen to this tape though so she can’t have minded all that much. I recall this actually got played rather a lot so perhaps she liked it more than the books.

Cassette tape from 1995

Cassette tape from 1995

Oh goodness yes, this is the sound of my childhood. All the voices are so familiar, especially Mr Luffy’s. I’m looking forward to Jock’s Scottish accent, my favourite line of his being “Aye, I’m a ninny!”

As a child I don’t think I recognised how bad Timmy’s barking is, it doesn’t sound like a real dog at all.

Oh dear. Jock’s accent is actually quite bad. It’s very inconsistently Scottish. It doesn’t actually say he’s Scottish in the book but it’s an obvious assumption given his name. Mrs Andrews doesn’t sound overly Scottish either though she does have a slight accent and say ‘och’ at times. Mr Andrews does’t sound at all Scottish, until the very end when he’s protesting his innocence, either.

According to my other half the shepherd must be evil as he sounds it. Then, Mr Andrews must be evil also. Now, we know he’s right about one of them but if you say every adult is evil then soon enough you’re going to get it right, surely?

George is very stroppy and almost whiny in this. “I’m going to come too!” she says. “But you will let me come next time, won’t you Julian?” is a line I remember off the top of my head as well. She manages to sound more angry and less whiny when she calls them beasts and so on though. It’s great listening to the whole argument, I can remember lots of the dialogue – a surprising amount considering it must be well over ten years since I’ve heard it.

They do retain lots of quite old fashioned phrases as well. “I dare say the boys won’t deign to!” and “oh do shut your mouth up!” It’s nice that they haven’t been made more modern and the children’s voices haven’t been made any less posh.

There are a good range of voices in the story, Mr Andrews, the shepherd, Old Wooden Leg Sam, the railway station chap all sound different enough (though there are only two men listed for voices after the four children) and add a lot of depth to things, and the children’s voices are mostly well done too. As I’ve mentioned Jock’s accent is a bit hit or miss but the Kirrins are better, despite George’s occasional whining and Anne being a touch stiff.

This isn’t one of my favourite Five stories I have to say. It’s not one of my least favourites but it’s somewhere in the middle really. It certainly has it’s strong points and this audio dramatisation is a good adaptation of it. It’s only an hour long but because the narrator sets the scenes and then all we get is the dialogue I would say the majority of the book is there and very little has been cut.

I’m glad these have been put onto CD actually, as it would have been easy for the recordings to be left to languish rather like the 90s TV series.

2008 CD edition

2008 CD edition

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

The Rosewood Mystery by Cathy, chapter 10

Posted on August 20, 2014 by worldofblyton

SAFE WITH MR KING

Mr King listened to the two boys’ story in amazement. He looked very worried.

“Well,” he said at last, puffing on his cigarette. “Boys, this sounds worrying. The fact that there is silverware missing proves that someone has been in the cottage, and the fact that no-one can work out how makes it all the more frightening.”

“Will they try again, do you think?” asked Snubby.

“Depends what they’re after,” said Mr King thoughtfully. “It depends whether they are after valuables like Miss Pepper’s silver, or whether they came to the cottage with another motive, but spotted the silver and took it as well.”

“Another motive?” said Roger. “Like what, Sir?”

“I don’t know,” said Mr King. “But I am inclined to take this seriously. Boys, what would you all say to me coming and staying at the cottage with you all? I don’t feel happy about you all being there alone with this mystery, especially Miss Pepper and Diana.”

“Oh, Sir – would you? Could you do that?” said Roger. “I know we’d all feel a lot safer, you know – Miss Pepper was terribly worried and scared I think, and I know she would feel so much safer with you around!”

“All right then,” said Mr King, getting up. “Let me go and pack a few clothes and things. You two wait here for me, I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

He set off across the village to a large, cosy-looking cottage with a ‘vacancies’ sign outside it. Snubby went back to the general store and bought three ice-creams; one each for himself and Roger, and one for Loony, who was sitting under the bench they were on, panting in the heat. They sat and enjoyed them while they waited. Not long after, Mr King appeared out of the cottage again, waving goodbye to a plump old woman with an apron on. He rejoined the boys and they set off on the long walk back to Rosewood.

It was past tea-time when they got back. Diana and Miss Pepper had decided not to have tea, but to wait for the boys so they could all have it together. Diana was watching for them at the end of the drive. She gave a squeal and ran to find Miss Pepper.

“Miss Pepper! The boys are back! They’ve got Mr King with them!”

Miss Pepper was doing some baking. She wiped her floury hands on a towel and came out to greet Mr King. He smiled.

“The boys have told me what’s happened,” he said. “And I thought it would be best for me to come and stay here with you all, if you’ll have me and it’s not too inconvenient for you. The boys seemed to think you would all feel safer with me here, especially the two ladies.”  his eyes twinkled at Diana and Miss Pepper. Diana laughed.

“Yes, we would!” she said.

“Thankyou so much, Mr King.” said Miss Pepper. “As long as you don’t mind a houseful of noisy children and pets?”

“I can cope.” grinned Mr King. “We managed alright in Rockingdown, didn’t we? Does Loony still like to leave booby traps round the house?”

“I’m afraid so, Sir.” grinned Snubby, ruffling Loony’s fur.

They all went indoors. Miss Pepper put her scones into the oven and then set about getting Mr King settled in to a room.

“Barney, you can go in with Roger and Snubby, and Mr King can have your room.” she said. “There’s a spare mattress under Roger’s bed, you’ll have to pull that out and sleep on that, I’m afraid. Diana, could you go into the cupboard in my room and fetch some fresh sheets and blankets out for Mr King’s bed?”

“Of course.” said Diana, and sped off upstairs.

The boys went up with Mr King to show him his room, and to get the mattress set up for Barney. Miranda nearly frightened the life out of Mr King – she was sat in the cupboard in his room, where there were some blankets that she found very cosy. When it had been Barney’s room she often slept in there if she got too hot cuddled in Barney’s pyjamas. Mr King had no idea that she was in the cupboard, until she suddenly took it into her head to leap out and straight onto his back while he was leaning over the bed unpacking his case. He gave a yell, and then laughed when he realised who it was. The boys came running in and Barney roared to see Miranda hanging onto Mr King’s back, chattering.

The next thing that happened was that Loony came rushing in and leapt onto the bed. He was interested in the piles of clothes that Mr King was unpacking. He looked with interest at a very nice pair of thick hiking socks, then suddenly grabbed them, jumped off the bed, and was gone. He almost tripped Diana up as they collided on the stairs. She saw that he was carrying socks and chased after him right away. She caught him in the kitchen and snatched the socks away.

“Don’t you upset Mr King, or he’ll leave!” she said tapping Loony on the nose. “Sock thief!”

She went upstairs and returned the socks.

Once Mr King was settled in, they had tea. As well as all the usual scones and cakes, Miss Pepper added buttery jacket potatoes and pork chops, and a bowl of salad. She thought she had better combine tea and supper together, as they were so much later than usual having a meal. After they had eaten, Mr King went outside to smoke, then came in and had a good poke round the cottage, looking for anything suspicious.

“We had a good look today, Sir, we couldn’t find anything.” said Barney. “Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

“Afraid not.” Mr King sighed and sat down in an armchair. “There is nothing to discover. It beats me how anyone got in. You say the silver was on this table, Miss Pepper?”

“Yes.” said Miss Pepper, coming in with a tray of cups of coffee.

They all sat and drank in silence. Mr King was puzzling over the matter. Miss Pepper was too, although feeling more relaxed now that they had Mr King in the house. Barney was wondering if they would come back. Roger and Snubby were both hoping that if there was another adventure, they would be involved this time!

They played a few games of cards together, then gave up when Miranda got bored and started taking people’s cards. Eventually she snatched all Barney’s cards out of his hand and threw them up in the air. Everyone laughed, but Barney was cross and tapped Miranda’s hand sharply.

“Naughty Miranda!” he said. “You mustn’t do that!”

“Are you going to sit downstairs tonight, Sir, in case anything happens?” asked Snubby, who had visions of Mr King sitting silently in an armchair in the dark, waiting for any would-be burglars!

“No, not tonight.” said Mr King. “I’ll leave my door open though, in case there are any other strange noises downstairs!”

“Can’t we get Loony to leave a few piles of mats about the place?” giggled Diana. “Then we’ll hear the burglars trip over them!”

Everyone laughed.

“Go on now then – off to bed.” Miss Pepper said. “You all look tired, and I certainly feel it! And poor Mr King looks all in, too!”

The four children said goodnight and went upstairs to bed.

“Well it will be a miracle if I get any sleep tonight, with Loony and Miranda both in the room together.” said Roger, going to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Almost as if he had heard him, Loony straight away dragged one of the landing rugs right outside the bathroom door and left it rumpled there, so when Roger came out onto the dark landing, he promptly fell over the rug.

“What the…?” he exclaimed, getting up and reaching for the light switch.

Diana squealed with laughter.

“That’s because you complained about Loony!” she laughed, from in her bedroom.

“Stop laughing or we’ll bring him in to you!” Roger grumbled, replacing the rug and stomping off to his room.

Miss Pepper came up to bed not long after the children. Mr King stayed downstairs reading his book for a while, then he too came up and went into his room. he left the door open a little way, so he could hear anything suspicious.

It was a peaceful night for everyone. No-one heard any noises or anything strange. Loony slept peacefully next to Snubby, and Miranda curled up with Barney and didn’t wake. Miss Pepper and Diana had closed their doors and slept very well. Even Mr King, with his door ajar, slept soundly. No-one was disturbed at all.

And yet – when Diana came down in the morning to make cups of tea for Miss Pepper and Mr King, she froze in fright as she went into the sitting room. The silver candlesticks and goblet were back on the oak table, standing there exactly if they had never disappeared.

Posted in Fan fiction | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Monday

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Fiona

This week we will be putting up the latest chapter of Cathy’s Barney Mysteries fan fiction, and I will be looking at, or rather listening to, the audio dramatisation of Five Go Off to Camp as I’ve just bought it from Amazon. I’m looking forward to it as it was one I had on cassette tape as a child. Then on Sunday Stef will be writing about her recent Famous Five event at her library.

We passed 73,000 views this week so thank you to everyone who has stopped by! We’re starting to run out of photo space here on the blog so I’ve limited myself to just a few of the ones I’ve taken in the past few weeks.

Edinburgh from a castle window
Butterfly
Flags
Knautia
Pair of ducklings
Thistle-down
Butterfly
Heron
Duckling
Charlotte street bunting
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Fairy Seeds – A poem by Enid Blyton

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Fiona

One day I bought from an elf
A packet of Teddy-Bear seeds,
They were just like little brown beads,
And I planted them all myself.

The sun shone down from the sky
And made the little seeds grow;
They all came up in a row,
And when they were just so high
They opened their buds of green
And there in a layer of down
Were Teddy-Bears, furry and brown,
The tiniest ever I’d seen!

It’s no wonder that everyone stares
When I go to school every day,
For they see, as I go on my way,
That I carry a bunch of my bears!

Originally published in Teachers World No.1506 Apr 6, 1932. Copied from The Eleventh Holiday Book published in 1956 by Sampson Low.

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The Secret Island – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 3

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Fiona

So we are on to chapters six to nine of The Secret Island. The earlier chapters can be seen here and here. The original text I’m using is from the sixth impression from October 1949 and the updated text is from an Award paperback from 2009.

By E.H. Davie
By Val Biro

CHAPTER SIX: WILLOW HOUSE IS FINISHED

There weren’t all that many changes made to this chapter. Like before granddad becomes grandad which is probably the more common spelling now.

Handfuls becomes hand-fuls, rather going against the trend of removing hyphens but this may just be an error. Also, rain- and wind-proof becomes rain and wind-proof.

Jack no longer wishes that Mike was with me when I got these hens, instead he wishes you were. Presumably he means Mike, Nora and Peggy and this is an attempt to make the book less sexist.

Originally there were three illustrations for this chapter while the paperback sticks with one.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE COW COMES TO THE ISLAND

The two uses of queer in this chapter are removed, a queer sight becomes a strange one and Daisy’s swimming in a queer sort of way becomes a funny one.

When the girls come down to the water to greet the boys after their midnight excursion originally they come with a candle, but in the paperback they come with the candle. I’m not sure why the candle suddenly becomes more important!

What’s also interesting is what they haven’t changed. The girls washed up as usual is left alone despite several alterations in previous chapters to remove the idea that the boys do the manual jobs and the girls do the housekeeping ones.

Again we have three illustrations in the hardback and one in the paperback, though we do get to see Daisy swimming behind the boat in the modern edition.

Daisy swimming behind the boat by Wynne

Daisy swimming behind the boat by Wynne

CHAPTER EIGHT: A LAZY DAY – WITH A HORRID ENDING

The only change here is that instead of hearing a gramophone on the trippers’ boat, they hear a radio playing. 

This time there were two illustrations in the hardback, and still one in the paperback.

CHAPTER NINE: THE TRIPPERS COME TO THE ISLAND

This chapter sees gramophone changed to radio three or four more times, and then instead of the gramophone blared through the air it is loud music blared through the air.

Then another hyphen is inserted and flittermice becomes flitter-mice.

Three illustrations versus one again, and as with all chapters none of the same scenes are illustrated though both artists do show us their depiction of the trippers.

The trippers leave by Davie
The trippers are scared away by Wynne

That’s only seven changes to the text (I’m not adding on each time a hyphen is removed or queer is altered.) There have been 27 up to now, so with those added it’s now 34 altogether.

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

The Magic Faraway Tree review by Laura

Posted on August 13, 2014 by worldofblyton

It’s a cold winter’s day here and going out into the freezing wind isn’t very appealing, so it seems like a good time to re-read The Magic Faraway Tree, which is the second book in the Faraway Tree series (published in 1943). This review will be a bit shorter than my last one, as I won’t have to introduce too many new characters, the Tree itself or the slippery-slip this time.

The book starts with the announcement that cousin Dick is coming to stay. The reason given is that his mother is too ill to look after him – that excuse seems to get used a bit for Blyton characters, along with them needing a change of scenery because they’ve been ill or that they need to play with children their own age and have their corners rubbed off (like another character in the Faraway Tree series, but that’s another, later story).

Dick Faraway Tree

Dick arrives and it doesn’t take too long to convince him to come to the Enchanted Woods and climb the Faraway Tree, meeting all the children’s friends and getting soaked by the Angry Pixie when he looks in his windows along the way. The children have some pop biscuits with their friends, then it’s up the ladder at the top of the Tree and into the first land.

Unlike their first rather short adventure in one of these lands in The Enchanted Wood, the children, Moon-Face, Silky and Saucepan Man immediately embark on a much longer one that starts with Jo insulting someone in the Land of Topsy Turvey and continues over several chapters and lands, including the Land of Spells and being caught by both Mr Change-About and the Enchanter.

There are some shorter adventures – like the trips to the Land of Dreams (not nearly as pleasant as it sounds) and the Land of Do-As-You-Please (which is actually a nice place to visit), but Saucepan’s visit to the Land of Toys (which he believes is the Land of Goodies) is spread over several chapters as the others soon have to rescue him from prison.

This is followed by a trip to the real Land of Goodies, which should have been fun for everyone – nearly everything there is not only edible, but delicious – but doesn’t end well for Moon-Face and Saucepan, who have to leave the tree and stay with the children for a while. So when The Old Woman Who Lives In A Shoe comes to visit the tree, she takes over Moon-Face’s house as it’s empty, and he and the children have to get it back from her.

As usual, Saucepan causes several of the problems that land them in adventures, but Dick also contributes – he’s got a bit more personality than the other children, but he’s often described as being quite greedy. This leads to problems in the Land of Goodies, as visitors are welcome to eat the currant buns and biscuits growing on the trees, but it’s considered very bad manners to eat someone’s door-knocker. And having jelly fall down onto the Angry Pixie can only end in a spanking for someone.

Then in the Land of Magic Medicines, Dick manages to first grow to an enormous size and then shrink to almost nothing… and while they’re fixing him, Saucepan makes his own nose grow Pinnochio style in the hope of producing lovely roses from his kettles.

However, they aren’t responsible for all of the problems the children and their friends face; there’s another invasion of the Faraway Tree, this time from the Land of Tempers, and several people disappear before everything is cleared up and everyone is back where they should be.

There’s another nice land for them to visit in the final chapter – the Land of Presents, which is full of Christmas Trees and everything that you could want to give someone as a present. Unlike the Land of Birthdays, there isn’t a side adventure, but Dick does learn another lesson about being greedy.

Like The Enchanted Wood, this book is still as enjoyable to read as it was when I was a kid – the Land of Goodies in particular is still guaranteed to fire anyone’s imagination, with trees that grow food and flowers that produce jelly. And, in addition to pop biscuits and toffee shocks, Moon-Face introduces the children to Google buns, which contain a currant that, when bitten, releases a delicious sherbet. I’m still hoping that someone, someday, will figure out how to make these.

magic faraway tree

Next post: The Folk of the Faraway Tree

We also have reviews of this book by Fiona

Posted in Book reviews | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Monday Monday

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Fiona

So this week, I’m off on holiday again, Scotland once more but Edinburgh this time to take part in some of the Edinburgh Festivals delights with a friend of mine from school, so its another busy week.

However before I go, I shall be running a Famous Five event at my work on Tuesday morning, which I hope to write about for my next week’s blog.

Our contributor this week is Laura, with a review on the Faraway Tree and Fiona will be blogging about the changes in the Secret Island once more.

I don’t think there is much else to say really, so I shall leave you with a few pictures from my walks about my local park.

Enjoy

Bunny
Caterpiller
Sunset over the lake
Swan
And another
Flower
Cat in park
Bunny
Snail
Wren?
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Old Thatch: Come rain, come shine

Posted on August 10, 2014 by pippastef

Ok, I know you’ve already had a Bourne End blog off me for Spring where the weather was delightfully warm and sunny, but bear with me.

Last time, I did not visit the beautiful gardens at Old Thatch because they were closed. During our last walk my good friend, Catherine, has said that she would quite like to see the gardens of Old Thatch when they were open.

Always keen to know when I can next visit Bourne End and Old Thatch, I needed no persuasion to take Catherine back to visit the gardens. We chose a Thursday afternoon – perhaps a surprising time, but a perfect time to go when there are not lots of people milling about.

When the Thursday (23rd May) dawned wet and miserable, my first thought was to check with Catherine that she wanted to still go, and she was game. So we beetled over to Bourne End in my little car and parked in the little carpark just past the Spade Oak.

We knew that we were going to get wet, with the showers sometimes being short and sharp while others were lengthy and drizzly, but nothing could put off the excitement for me. I fell in love with Bourne End and Old Thatch in 2011 when the Enid Blyton Society had an Unofficial Day out there in place of the Enid Blyton Day.

So take a look at my raining and shining photos and see what you think.

 

Posted in Nature, Personal Experiences | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Comic Strip Presents… Five Go Mad on Mescalin – A Review

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Fiona

This is the third and final episode of the Comic Strip Presents Famous Five episodes that I’ll review, though it was the second to be made and aired. I started with the most recent one (Five Go to Rehab) and then did the first one (Five Go Mad in Dorset).

Five Go Mad on Mescalin seems to have the reputation for possibly being the worst of the three episodes, or second worst depending on what you made of Rehab. It was made back in 1983 (before I was born) and I’ve never seen it before so I will try and not let any preconceived notions spoil it for me. As before I’m watching it on 40d where you can also see Five Go Mad in Dorset (but not Five Go to Rehab as that was shown on Gold.)

The synopsis on 4oD for the episode is While on their way to stay with Mrs French at Hot Turkey Farm the intrepid youngsters learn that their Uncle Quentin, a well-known scientist and homosexual, has escaped from prison.

x5xf2h

So it seems the episode picks up some time after the events of Dorset.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

It opens with the Five having a very typical picnic complete with their usual sort of banter. Dick remarks he’s eaten thirteen rounds of ham and turkey sandwiches, but he’s still hungry. That’s a bit of an exaggeration on the book but it is a running joke throughout that the Five have huge appetites.

Mrs French at the farm says she supposes they’ll want to start stuffing their faces immediately, to which they chorus rather! She also says that Aunt Fanny wrote to her to tell her about their excessive gluttony, and that she had prepared a meal that would kill an elephant. The Five celebrate that news. When we see them at the end of their meal there’s a whole pig on the table, picked clean apart from the head.

They rattle off the list of things they had at breakfast (though it never becomes a chant like in the last episode) and end it with lashings of alka seltzer. They immediately then ask what’s for dinner, and Mrs French says I thought I’d slaughter Daisy here, and a few chickens. The boys worry that won’t be enough, but George says they could have it with bags of broccoli and new potatoes, and that seems to satisfy everyone.

Another recurring joke is their upper-class attitudes, such as implying starving people are starving because they breed like rabbits. But, as Julian points out, they also die in childbirth so it evens out. I don’t really find the whole classist thing funny in the first place, and those lines are just really tasteless.

Slightly funnier is the scene in the little shop. The girl is young and pretty, and smoking a cigarette. She’s also very uninterested in serving the Five. They ask for gingerbeer and are told the only have 7up. The Five are incredulous and ask for home-made ice-creams instead. They don’t do ice cream, just ice lollies.

Lollies? George echoes in disbelief.

Unfortunately they rather spoil it by making lots of derogatory remarks about the girl, how she’s queer and cheap, mentally retarded and probably from a broken home. Or maybe she’s adopted.

A FAMILIAR FACE

Robbie Coltrane appears briefly in the scene, though only for a minute or two. I usually enjoy his appearances and find them the funniest part but his lines are fairly poor this time. Janeyyy it’s time to come and feed your illegitimate baby he calls from off-screen, and then appears as a woman again. (S)he apologises to the Five and says she’s not mine, she’s… adopted. As if that explains something huge.

Coltrane does get to explain about the farm they’re going to. Mrs French was apparently a Dear old soul until the menopause. Sometimes I feel they just try to throw in as many modern and adult themes as they can, but they’re not funny really. What’s funny about the menopause? So it’s Mrs French with that wicked son of hers with his… comings and… goings… and that strange love island across the water. 

It’s a bit like the spiel he got in the last episode but not as funny, and it doesn’t get repeated either.

They get some ice creams anyway, and are sitting to eat them (after Dick has had a good look at Janey’s bottom), when a message plays on the radio.

Uncle Quentin (not Mr Kirrin, or Quentin Kirrin!) the well-known scientist and homosexual, has escaped from prison.

Anne shows a little more feeling than they have in the past at such news. Oh it’s horrible to think of Uncle Quentin on the loose again, I do hope they catch him soon!

Dick assures her that the police will be doing everything they can to catch him, and that he will soon be in a special prison.

Oh yes, just like Rudolph Hess George replies brightly, despite the fact it’s her father they’re talking about. Nazis are another repeated ‘joke’ in this episode.

Dick later says that Nazis are preferable to Americans (and that it’s a pity the Germans didn’t win WWII) as at least they cared about racial purity and didn’t litter the country with bubblegum wrappers. Let’s just gloss over the war atrocities for a cheap laugh shall we? Not that I laughed.

Anyway, when the Five arrive at the farm they hear a loud man’s voice berating his ma, and him slapping her. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a few characters from the Famous Five books (Mrs Janes in Five Go to Billycock Hill, the old lady at Blue Pond Farmhouse in Five on a Hike Together for example) but taken much further. There’s no violence on screen but the sounds are there.

She shouts after him about falling into bad company and he roars about selling the farm.

Julian is super polite to him and introduces them (as he does a few times) as the Famous Five. When the mother appears she is younger and sexier than anyone from the books, wearing a corset top under her over-all.

She asks the boys if they want to shack up with her or share with a nice, rich American boy. Dick’s keen to share with her but Julian says he’d rather sleep in a ditch.

GEE SHUCKS, THOSE AMERICANS

It all becomes very Finniston Farm like then. Exaggerated, of course. There’s the young American boy, staying with his father at the farm. Pop is there to buy anything he can get his uncultured hands on. 

Willie (the son) is exceptionally loud and whiny so much so it’s almost painful to listen to. Gee shucks Pop, I’m hungry. Tell that woman to fix my dinner NOW. 

mescalin-3Blyton gets a bad rep for writing stereotypically about Americans, making them rather brash etc but this parody takes it much, much further than that.

Pops says in front of Mrs French that he wants to buy the farm and all the heritage crap, then sell it in the states for a profit. (His American accent is terrible by the way.)

So, as the boys decline to sleep with either Willie or Mrs French they end up sleeping in the barn. (A la Finniston Farm, sort of.)

A lorry is driven into the barn in the night and a huge consignment of secret packages (in the words of the men) is loaded onto it. They’re exceptionally obvious about the fact they’re up to no good as all criminals in the Comic Strip world always are.

The boys assume the police wouldn’t believe such a queer story, and that the wires at the farmhouse have probably been cut. They usually are in those sorts of situations! (Which is semi-true. They are cut on a few occasions). They both agree there’s absolutely no point in going to check, though and that they ought to go visit Love Island first thing in the morning.

George wants to row first, but Julian says absolutely not as there are jagged rocks and it’s much too dangerous and Dick adds that the girls might panic and get hysterical. Of course we all know that George is the best at rowing of the Five as she’s had the most experience, but the Comic Strip never misses a chance to play on the sexism of Blyton’s work.

There are no oars however, so the plan is immediately abandoned for a game of rounders. It’s cringeworthy stuff as the boys prance about and do the worst ‘moves’ for bowling and batting, not to mention the uncomfortable cricket-ball cleaning that Dick does.

Anne seemingly catches the ball by mistake and Julian tells Dick to bowl underhand for George as she’s a girl. She insists he bowl normally and she smashes the ball far across the beach.

STRANGE HAPPENINGS

The plot just gets plain strange from here on in. Dick finds a cave while looking for the ball and inside are sacks of objects. A woman appears behind him and says kiss me.

Back on the beach the Five are wondering where Dick has gone. Julian said not to worry he’s probably just meeting the Duke of Windsor or having a Jane Eyre. Maybe I’m naive but I have no idea what those jokes mean.

They go to investigate and find his underpants, and on the wall is painted love & peace. They decide this is a clue to Love Island and decide to head there, as Julian says, something will turn up to help them. That ends up being an outboard motor complete with fuel right outside the cave.

They find Dick on a rock, signing badly and playing a guitar and there’s an altercation with Julian who tries to stop him. Dick proclaims he loves him, loves everyone and gets a slap. George calls Anne something I don’t feel like I can repeat on the blog and after a ducking in the water Dick seems to be behaving normally again.

The baddies turn up again and this time they’re doing their routine of saying blah blah blah and random phrases.

Doctor Love is mentioned and the Five briefly wonder who he is (it’s fairly obvious…) and they meet Toby Thurlow again, though he has a very pointless and short scene where nothing happens apart from he spouts some nonsense as he seems to be high.

I think it might be Janey with him, and she’s wearing a really see through mesh top and implies she knows Dick rather well.

AND THE BIG REVEAL

So, Doctor Love is Uncle Quentin. No big surprise there. He has his men put the Five in a cage – Timmy (who’s barely been seen in the episode) goes in meekly beside George without even a bark. Anne tries to sell the others out for her own freedom before Uncle Q explains his dastardly plan. He wants to turn the island into a love colony and use the Five in his experiments.

mescalin-12

Not only am I an outrageous homosexual… I’m an incurable drug addict too.

I’m glad it wasn’t just me thinking there must be drugs involved.

The henchmen prepare to ?spray the Five with some sort of drugs but the police arrive in a boat before they can do so. Willie is with them as he found out his Pop was a faggot and called them. The Five suddenly like him and Uncle Q is led off with Toby.

They all comment that it’ll be the last time they see the two of them.

I think it’s fair to say it deserves to be known as the worst of the three episodes. There was very little to laugh at. The things that were funny in Dorset – Robbie Coltrane, the repetition of lines – are either underused or missing and there’s no real plot to speak of. Pop being arrested off screen for being gay is a let down, there’s no real resolution for Mrs French, and nothing really ties together.

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 19

Posted on August 6, 2014 by worldofblyton

Chapter nineteen:

Mostly about Beaky

“Lou and Jo the smugglers?” asked Jack, curiously. “But they died years ago. On the night they tried to smuggle all that treasure out of The Forester and the marsh turned from sea land to marsh land.”

“But they’re coming back to life… ‘Ave you not ‘eard them gurgles? They’re comin’ back at’ life, I tell ya’. And they’re comin’ for eld’ Alf. And, I er, thought you was them when I ‘eard you ‘ammering at that door.”

“I really came to ask you about the purple herons,” Jack said, not particularly wanting to hear a lecture about Lou and Jo.

“Ah, they too, ‘ave bin’ acting right down strange lately too,” Alf said, leaning towards Jack, “Ever since this morning’ they’ve bin flyin’ over this ‘ere ‘ill. They never leave their nests until the chicks are ready to fly, and the poor little things were dropping from the sky, like goodness knows what! ‘Ere look. This one, I managed to save, and I brought it ‘ome and meant to give it te’ yer’ friend.”

From his pocket, the old man carefully took out a tiny purple heron chick. It was very much like the adult ones, but much smaller, and it had a little tuft of hair sticking up wildly from its head. Alf handed it to Jack, who stroked it softly. Kiki looked at it with distaste and tried to peck it jealously. Jack tapped her on the beak with his spare hand.

The little purple heron nestled down in Jack’s hand and apparently went to sleep, tucking its head under its wing. “Thank you, Alf. I’ll go and give it to Philip now. Er, thanks for the interesting conversation. I’ll let you know if I see Lou or Jo.”

“You take care,” Alf said, undoing the chain. “There’s bad things out there, you just take care.”

Jack nodded, and headed back down the hill, carefully carrying the little heron in his hands. Kiki perched on his shoulder looking at the bird in dislike. She was rather jealous of the little creature, but she was used to all the animals crawling round he children, and soon, she began to talk to the little thing in a soft voice. Jack grinned. He was rather envious that the bird was meant for Philip, it was such a dear little thing. But of course, it was Philip who had a spell over animals, and it was he who knew how to look after it properly. Besides, this one looked quite weak and bony. After quite a walk, Jack got back to the spot where he had left the others. They were all sat around, talking.

Continue reading →

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Monday afternoon is still Monday

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Fiona

Oops. So I forgot about the Monday post, again. This is becoming a habit. At least this one didn’t become a Tuesday post though.

This week we’ll be putting up the latest chapter of Poppy’s Adventure series fic – The Marsh of Adventure and I intend to watch Five Go Mad on Mescalin and then write about what I thought of it. Stef isn’t sure what she’s going to do, either another review or she might bake something and put up the recipe.

I can’t say we’ve got any news on the blog this week, because we don’t!

I’ve taken a lot of photos in the past week or so, so I’ll try and just put up a small selection to show you where I’ve been and the sort of things I’ve seen.

Otter, Edinburgh Zoo
River Braan, Dunkeld
Sea eagle, Edinburgh Zoo
Cathedral, St Andrews
Grevey’s Zebra, Edinburgh Zoo
Falls of Braan, Dunkeld
Kirk’s dik dik, Edinburgh Zoo
Sandcastle, Tentsmuir Beach
Gelada Baboon, Edinburgh Zoo
Falls of Braan, Dunkeld
Penguins, Edinburgh Zoo
Koala, Edinburgh Zoo
Looking out the window, Ossian’s cave, Dunkeld
Painted hunting dog, Edinburgh Zoo
East Sands, St Andrews
Cappuchin monkeys, Edinburgh Zoo
St Rule’s Tower, St Andrews
Pygmy Marmoset, Edinburgh Zoo
Graveyard, St Andrews
Meerkat, Edinburgh Zoo

 

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The O’Sullivan Twins

Posted on August 3, 2014 by pippastef
The 2000 edition

The 2000 edition

This week I finished the second St Clare’s book, no mean feat when I have been staying with Fiona and we have had such a busy week. However, we were on the beach on Tuesday and I managed to get some reading done in the sun (and mist), so here I am, reviewing it.

The O’Sullivan Twins starts with the twins being much less whiny than they were in the beginning of the first book. Almost straight away we get introduced to their cousin Alison, who had been with them at Redroofs. Alison is the same sort of vain, silly girl as the twins had been one term earlier. After this big, long introduction to Alison she really pays very little part in the story.

Now we start with the journey to St Clare’s and meet some of the regular chums, Tessie, who invites them to a midnight feast, Janet, and some others. We also get to see more of  Mamzelle who is probably the main teacher in this book. She plays some key parts in the story as well.

There are two new girls in the form, Lucy and Margery, and rather like Belinda and Ellen in the Second Form at Malory Towers, the two new girls are liked and hated.

Margery is sullen, and closed in, but shows a talent at being good at games, hockey especially and is picked for the team at St Clare’s. However before the match, Margery gets wound up and explodes at the girls’ history teacher, which causes the whole class to send her to Coventry and when she shoots the winning goal in the hockey match, no one cheers. It really is most odd. You don’t find out why Margery is the surly until half-term but no one seems sympathetic to her position and she gets blamed unjustly for things that begin to happen to the twins later in the book.

In many ways the book is unjustly named after the O’Sullivan twins as they take quite a back seat in the plot of this book. Pat and Isabelle do join in the midnight feast, but they do not play in the hockey match, or plan any tricks with anyone, and for some quite large chunks of the book, they do not appear at all.

However when they do appear, Pat becomes the dominant twin; she is the one people think of first, she is the one who becomes the target of a hate campaign, and Pat is the one who seems to take control of the situations the twins find themselves in.

If I’m honest, I felt that there wasn’t really a lot happening in this book, and when things were happening, it seemed forced and all too familiar (I read the Malory Towers books first and it seems to me that a lot of plot points in St Clare’s were reworked into better plots for Malory Towers). The characters are almost the same as well. In this book, Erica reminds me of Gwendoline Lacey who cannot see her own wrong doings. Lucy reminds me of Belinda, as I’ve already pointed out and Margery as Ellen.

The only thing that really feels different in this book from anything in the Malory Towers books is that towards the end of the book, there is a fire at St Clare’s in the hospital section. Its hard to explain it all without giving it away, but lets just say everything sorts itself out.

Now I think I might have to end here, because I really don’t want to say too much and give it all away by explaining everything. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this book, the twins that give it the title hardly feature. I think it would have been better to have called the series something like “The Girls of St Clare’s” because then it doesn’t matter so much if things don’t always happen to the twins.

I may read the book again, and see if I enjoyed it more than the first time, but it might not be for some time yet. However if you’re a fan, or have read it and think differently to me, leave a comment below and tell me why!

I look forward to hearing from you!

 

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The Secret Island – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 2

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Fiona

Right, so on to chapters three to five of The Secret Island. The previous chapters can be seen here. The original text I’m using is from the sixth impression from October 1949 and the updated text is from an Award paperback from 2009.

By E.H. Davie
By Val Biro

CHAPTER THREE: THE ESCAPE

In this chapter, again, references to violence are removed. I’m finding the alterations a little different to what we’ve seen in the other titles I’ve looked at. In the Famous Five it was almost always a case of a word or two being removed or changed for something else, and the same in Malory Towers except for in one or two cases where a line had to be altered more substantially to make sense. This book has already had at least one line completely re-written when it didn’t need to be.

Even Nora took a slapping without tears is the first line to be changed in this chapter. It could easily have followed the pattern set by the other books mentioned, and become something like Even Nora took a scolding without tears. Instead, we get a re-write to Even Nora didn’t burst into tears when she was shouted at. I can’t think why they needed to reorder the sentence like that.

Then we have they’ll be well slapped being changed to they’ll get into big trouble. (That could easily have become well scolded if they were trying to preserve as much original text as possible.

The phrase whip us well isn’t changed as much as it just becomes punish us well.

I only spotted two other small changes, where queerest becomes strangest and lake-water becomes lake water (though sleeping-place keeps its hyphen along with a few other phrases).

Like in the past two chapters the paperback includes one illustration – a full page one while the hardback has three taking up either half or one-third of a page each.

Wynne hasn’t done his own version of Davie’s work this time, he has drawn them in their boat heading to the island while Davie illustrated Nora taking items from the larder, the children carrying their things to the boat and Peggy filling the kettle on the island.

Again Wynne’s seem heavy handed and thick-lined – Peggy seems to have a moustache almost and Nora has war paint on her cheeks it seems.

IMG_1756

You can click  on this to see it (and the girls’ faces) larger

CHAPTER FOUR: THE FIRST NIGHT ON THE ISLAND

For the first time ever I’ve found a chapter with no new changes. All there is here is a few hyphens removed from to-day and to-morrow.

There are three partial page illustrations again in the hardback compared to one in the paperback, and again none of them show the same scene. It’s interesting to see a picture of the willow root larder though, by Wynne, but it doesn’t really match my childhood imagination of it which has stuck. The children seem oddly modern yet old fashioned in his pictures. Their clothes (particularly the boys’ striped trousers) aren’t far off what Davie drew but their hair (particularly Peggy’s) is much more modern.

Peggy with short of-the-period hair
Peggy with long hair

CHAPTER FIVE: THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE

I was getting a little worried, I admit. Seeing as the last chapter had no changes I was concerned that now the children were away from the slappings there would be nothing to write about. How wrong I was! The crusade in this chapter is all about gender equality. Never mind that up until now the girls have done the cooking, sewing, ironing etc while the boys have been farm-hands – now’s the time for them all to be equals, except then they’re perhaps not quite.

Jack’s the captain of the group so it’s all his speeches that get altered. First he says Now Peggy, wash up and Nora, too. This becomes Now let’s all wash up. 

Likewise Hurry up and get the supper, girls becomes Let’s hurry up and get the supper. 

Also, You two girls  clear up as usual, and Mike and I will get back to the house is changed to We’ve got to clear up as usual and then we must get back to the house. This little change has a big knock-on effect for the next few paragraphs.

Originally they read (with other text in between of course) Nora and Peggy washed up in the lake… Then they ran off to join the boys in the willow thicket… Jack had been busy. He had chopped down some willow saplings… and had cut off the long branches. 

But because in the update the boys stay to help with the dishes it all becomes They washed up in the lake… Then they all ran off to the willow thicket… Jack made himself busy. He chopped down some willow saplings… and cut off the long branches.

And finally, gender wise, Jack originally says of skinning rabbits: It’s a man’s job, that, so you two girls can leave it to Mike and me. This becomes if it makes you squeamish, you two girls can leave it to Mike and me. To be honest, I don’t think that’s much less sexist as he’s now assuming Nora is squeamish (and Peggy too) simply because Nora says she doesn’t want him to catch rabbits as she likes them. Perhaps it would have been better changed to if you’d rather, you can leave it to me. That way it doesn’t imply Mike is up for skinning rabbits while the girls aren’t.

I don’t have a problem with the original, I’ll just say that now, as I respect that Jack represents a child of the 1930s who had a different upbringing and different attitudes to what we have now. It’s especially not any less sexist when you consider the next line  – So long as you can cook the rabbits for dinner that’s all you need worry about, is left intact.

That’s one of my bigger problems with the updates – so many things are changed but it’s so pointless as they leave an equal number of things that seem just as outdated/sexist/violent and what have you.

Anyway, before I get too involved in my rant. A few more hyphens are lost from willow-trees and willow-boughs which both become separate words, and a small discrepancy is corrected. The original text has grandad in earlier chapters and then granddad in this one. The paperback sticks with grandad in each instance.

There are four illustrations in the hardback this time, and still just one in the paperback though this time it’s of the same scene, the building of the willow house.

E. H. Davie
Dudley Wynne

Very similar, I think.

 

I make that eleven changes to the text (I’m not adding on each time a hyphen is removed.) Add that to the sixteen from chapters one and two and we get twenty seven in total.

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

Secret Seven books at McDonald’s by Su, part 3

Posted on July 31, 2014 by worldofblyton

Adventure on the Way Home

This story comes from Enid Blyton’s Magazine Annual No. 2 first published 1955. Again there have been a few little interchanges on words such as lighted becomes lit, cautiously becomes carefully (happening twice in the text), scared becomes nervous and awful faces is changed to cross faces.  One change that I do not understand is that in the 1955 edition when Scamper hears a noise he is described as having his tail down, but this has been changed to tail up.  When a dog hears something and tenses up, maybe starts to growl, what position is his tail in?

In both editions Colin brings some rope along and Jack climbs up to a window.  This has been chosen as a scene by both illustrators to show in the book and gives a good comparison between 1955 and 2014.

Bruno Kay
Tony Ross
Bruno Kay
Tony Ross

There are also some instances of what may be considered old-fashioned words being left in the book. Thanks awfully for a jolly nice time, Colin remains untouched as does all subsequent uses of the word jolly. Chuck it up stays in the new text as does the description of the policeman walking; policeman had rubber soled shoes and went quietly.  In a lot of Enid Blyton books if you wish to remain unheard you have to wear rubber soled shoes, does this mean that this phrase has been kept in other modern editions and the editors are confident that the young children of today are used to it?

One major change through the book is the reference to violence.  At first the children are alerted to danger when they hear a scream but his has been changed to a noise.  When they hear this they have a little cold shiver of fright which has been changed to cold shiver.  When they eventually see through the window it is described as hand up, he was going to hit someone. Oh there’s another scream. Peter what… This is now hand up. Peter what… Also a most bloodcurdling howl becomes a really loud noise.

When this becomes too much and Peter decides to go to the police, it has been changed on three occasions to go for help but the phrase fetching the police has remained in the new one. Not particularly consistent but then Peter does come back with two policemen so maybe they felt they had to leave one mention of the police in the text  to try to make the story flow.

When we see the “baddies” they’ve got knives has been cut as has the phrase Where’s my knife, Peter saw that he had a knife in his hands, and just you put that knife down. When the girl is explaining what is going on though she states I have to scream like anything! This has not been cut from the new book yet there has been no mention previously of any screams being heard, just a lot of loud noises.

Bruno Kay
Tony Ross

Also in the book the policeman chastises the Seven a little and suggests that if they get into any more adventures their parents would be after them with a cane.  Needless to say this has been cut.  Peter’s father also calls them little idiots when he has heard what they have been getting up to and guess what, yes, it is not a good thing to call your children idiots, even in jest.

There is another minor change in the story where it states he said in the text but it has been changed to Jack said.  It does seem obvious that it is Jack speaking but as the new sentence containing Jack said is at the start of a new chapter, it is probably better that the speaker’s name is mentioned.  A child may have finished the chapter and only be continuing with the story a day later.  In the original story none of the story is split into chapters so this change makes sense in the context of the new editions.

aotwh

Next post: Secret Seven books at Mcdonald’s part 4

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

Back to Work Monday

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Fiona

As you well know, I was visiting Fiona up in Dundee this week, and we had a very nice, sunny, busy time. So apart from failing to blog yesterday, because the train was late, we’ve been pretty good in blogging. We’ve been walking, exploring waterfalls, going to the zoo and wandering around St Andrews.

Anyway this week, we have the next part of the McDonald’s Secret Seven books from Su, and Fiona will be marking the changes to The Secret Island.  And hopefully I shall get around to reviewing The O’Sullivan Twins.

Well with all that out of the way, only the blog news and pictures to go. This week, we have managed to hit 70,000 views on the blog. Its a wonderful achievement, and our blog goes from strength to strength. Can’t wait until we get 100,000 views.

So, just to leave off, here are some of my instagram pictures from this week to tide you over until I’ve edited my proper pictures.

St Andrews from the East Sands pier
Dundee Train Station
Bye bye Dundee
The island in the middle of the Forth River
Berwick Upon Tweed
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A Beckenham day out

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Fiona

Stef had a three hour delay on the train heading home yesterday so she wasn’t able to finish her St Clare’s review. So while checking to see what we had in the drafts I stumbled across this. The day out was over a year ago now and neither of us managed to find a format or layout that really seemed good enough for writing about it. I figure, though, it’s better to publish it as it is than to let it languish for the rest of eternity. So, a year late, here’s what Stef had to say about the Beckenham day out (with some editing and additions from me) – Fiona.

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About a month ago, on the 15th June 2013, some members of the Enid Blyton Society decided to take a trip to Beckenham where Enid Blyton spent her childhood, moving from house to house.

With great thanks to Cliff Watkins, our tour guide and Tony Summerfield of the Enid Blyton Society, for organising the day it was most enjoyable. We have copied the schedule for the day onto our blog and added a picture to show you which house is which.

You will be able to match the numbers on the schedule to the pictures below so you can put the names to the houses.

  1. Meet outside Clock House Station: cross Beckenham Road by pedestrian lights, turn left.
  2. Turn right into Chaffinch Road.
  3.  Arrive at 95 Chaffinch Road, Enid Blyton’s first Beckenham Home from 1897 to 1903.
  4.  Return along Chaffinch Road, until path and steps to Beckenham Road bridge over railway. Cross pedestrian lights, meet late arrivals at the station; turn left and then right into Clock House Road.
  5. Keep on pavement veering to right to reach Malory Close.
  6. Return to Clock House Road which turns right; reach 35 and 31 Clock House Road.
  7. Cross over the road and turn left, and then right into Cedars Road to Tresco.
  8. Continue along Cedars Road to see the Chaffinch Brook then continue to Queens Road; cross over, continue along Cedars Road to reach Elm Road. Turn left to reach 14 Elm Road.
  9. Continue to the Baptist Church
  10. Cross over Hayne Road and turn left into Westfield Road with no 13 on right. Continue to the end of road and turn left in Croydon Road to reach the War Memorial roundabout with (left to right), Beckenham Road, Rectory Road, the Cinema and Beckenham High Street. Pause to note the 227 bus stop on the opposite side of Beckenham High Street.
    Lunch Break!
  11. Meet at the bus stop to take 227 bus to Oakhill and start of Oakwood Avenue. Alight bus, cross Westgate Road and continue 30 yards to use pedestrian crossing to the other side of Bromley Road. After 50 yards, cross Crescent Road. Turn left into Oakwood Avenue and proceed up the hill, passing on the opposite of the road the entrances to Perth Road and Overbury Road.
  12. Reach the entrance to White Oak Drive, which is opposite 34 Oakwood Avenue
  13. Proceed to the top of Oakwood Avenue which is the summit of what used to be called Clay Hill. Carry on to reach the T junction of Scott’s Lane. Turn right and cross over Scott’s lane to pass Stanley Avenue and Ferguson Close to reach a busy interchange of five roads.  Turn left into Shortlands Road, pass the Library and Enid’s last Beckenham home –  83 Shortlands Road – is opposite.

 

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My seventh Noddy book: Do Look Out Noddy!

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Fiona

My seventh Noddy book is Do Look Out Noddy!, number fifteen in the series. I should have reviewed this last time but I accidentally took the wrong one away on holiday with me a few weeks ago. This is the last one I have actually, so I will have to start looking for some more so I can carry on reviewing them.

Dust jacket by Robert Lee and Robert Tyndall

Cover by Robert Lee and Robert Tyndall

Like most of my other Noddy books I got this in Alton, and as it’s very tatty it only cost me a pound.

This title was illustrated by Robert Lee and Robert Tyndall.

THE STORY

The story starts with Noddy being very cheerful as he has been taking lots of people to the station and earning himself lots of sixpences. However, as the milkman points out to him, all these people are staying by the seaside or elsewhere or holiday and there will be no-one left to hire his little car.

Noddy’s great idea is to go off to the sea-side himself, with Big-Ears, but his friend thinks it would be silly to spend his money on a holiday when he won’t be able to earn any more. They even have a little argument about it and Big-Ears slams his toadstool house’s door on Noddy!

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Noddy heads off to his next job then, after slamming his car door of course, and takes Sally Skittle  and three of her little skittles to the train station for their holiday. They’re in quite the rush so he has a few near run-ins with Mr Plod along the way, and then when they do get to the station Sally Skittle says she’ll pay him on the return leg of her journey.

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Toy Town is alarmingly empty on his way back home, and worse, when he gets there he finds a note from the policeman demanding he go to the station to see him. (A scary prospect, rather like when your teacher used to write SEE ME at the bottom of your work.)

Noddy decides not to go but the note makes him too anxious to even eat his lunch so he decides to head over to see Big-Ears and tell him about it. On his way he sees a well-dressed monkey who hails his car. He introduces himself as Mr Marvel Monkey and tells Noddy he is a salesman but his bicycle is in for repairs. He asks Noddy to drive him around in the mean-time.

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Noddy wants to run this by Big-Ears who, as it turns out, isn’t altogether impressed with Mr Marvel(lous) Monkey. Mr Monkey sides with Noddy about not going to see Mr Plod despite the more sensible Big-Ears saying he should go. I think Noddy might get himself into a lot of trouble as this monkey seems likely to lead him rather astray.

They head to Rocking Horse town to sell some horse tails, but all the horses there have fine tails and say ‘nay’ to him, which Noddy translates as no. They camp overnight as Mr Monkey says they will try again in the morning. He also tells Noddy (who has to sleep in his car) to just look out and see his tail poking out of his tent if he gets lonely in the night.

Come morning the Rocking Horses come to them to buy tails as they’ve lost theirs. I think I can see where this is going (I wonder how long it will take Noddy to catch on?). Noddy points out they have been cut off, and Mr Monkey remarks it was awfully lucky they were there with new tails to sell that day. Yes, very lucky indeed!

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Next they are off to Clockwork Clown Village, where all the clowns already have keys to wind themselves up and don’t want to buy new ones. Again they camp out and in the morning lots of the clowns come to them in need of new keys as ones belonging to their friends or family were stolen in the night. Mr Monkey sells them new ones at two shillings each as they must have new keys or their clown friends can’t be wound up again.

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At this point, Alice might say curiouser and curiouser but Noddy doesn’t seem to have noticed anything odd yet.

The next thing to sell is whiskers so they head off to Toy-Dog Town. There, none of the dogs want new whiskers apart from one little puppy Noddy stumbled across who has had theirs bitten off by another little dog. Noddy goes to fetch some of their whiskers from sale but instead stumbles across old cut off rocking horse tails and a pair of scissors as well as a monkey’s tail.

He confronts Mr Monkey about it and in his anger ties him up with his phony old tail and drags him to his car to take him to Mr Plod.

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Everything is rounded up very neatly in the end as Mr Plod had only wanted to see Noddy to warn him about Mr Monkey in the first place! Plus Noddy gets a reward for handing him in so that he and Big-Ears can go on a bit of a holiday after all!

It was good to see Noddy be so bold and brave in this story, even if he was rather slow on the uptake about what Mr Monkey was up to. Had he not found all the evidence in the bag I doubt he would have made the leap of logic himself.

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