Monday, Monday, Monday

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Fiona

Monday again, in fact it’s already the second week in September, this year seems to be slipping by at such a rate.

I don’t think we have any blog news this week, so I shall just get on with telling you which blogs we will be bringing you this week.

Fiona will be doing the next chapter of her Secret Island comparison, so we all have that to look forward to, and we shall be putting up the next chapter of Cathy’s Rosewood Mystery fic on Wednesday.

So that just leaves me, and I think its now well established that I’m not very good at keeping to what I say I will write for you. It could be anything is truth be told, either another recipe or a TV series comparison, or even an audio book review (I have a few that Fiona doesn’t have and she has kindly said I’m allowed to review them occasionally).

So you’ll hopefully be surprised next Sunday!

Anyway, just to remind you all, that Fiona and I are doing a 30 Day Photo Challenge over on our other blog Two Points of View, so don’t forget to drop in and have a look at our pictures (click on the pictures on the main page to get a better look). We shall be adding a photo every day in September, so come and tell us what you think!

I shall leave you with some of my pictures from more recent times.

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Adventures with George and Timmy by Sue Welford

Posted on September 7, 2014 by pippastef

adventures-with-george-and-timmyI know I’m supposed to be reviewing this prequel to Blyton’s beloved Famous Five, and honestly, I would, however…

I’ve not really managed to read much, though I am going to try and give you my feelings towards the book in this blog, at least in relation to how far I have gotten with it, and maybe you’ll see why I haven’t sat down and speed read it in time to review today.

I started the book, and I have to admit my expectations weren’t high; George and Timmy written by someone other than Enid Blyton? They need careful handling (Timmy bites and George explodes) and this book just doesn’t seem to have that gentle touch.

Unfortunately I was proved right. The feel of the book was wrong, it started off with George cutting her hair, but you don’t have a sense of her doing it because she feels its right for her. I mean the scene isn’t set, you don’t see her acting like a boy and working up to her cutting her hair. Its all rather abrupt.

Anyway the first story in the book is all about George cutting her hair, setting up the home scene, and finding Timmy. Now this is fine, it would be a nice way to start these stories off by writing about how George found Timmy, but it just doesn’t feel natural.

I’m sorry to say that I can’t find anything good about these stories. They may appeal more to the children than an adult who loves Blyton’s work, but it feels like it’s been updated. The changes are silly, there is no mention of Aunt Fanny’s name, but the name Quentin is mentioned, also George refers to her parents as Mummy and Daddy. ALL THE TIME. I can’t recall more than twice when George referred to her mother as Mummy, and more than five where she refers to Uncle Quentin as Daddy.

It just seems like one big mess, like someone hasn’t done their research. It doesn’t help that Joanna the cook, who only turns up in Five Go Adventuring Again, is the Kirrin’s current house keeper.

Now I may be nit picking, but, well, that’s never mentioned before, and in Blyton’s original stories you never get the feeling that Joanna has  been  part of the Kirrin household before. Mostly because Quentin and Fanny wouldn’t be able to afford help in the house before George finds the treasure in Five on a Treasure Island. As Fiona has just pointed out, Joanna would be one of the things that Quentin could finally afford to give to George and Fanny.

Anyway, I have only got as far as George finding Timmy and asking Quentin and Fanny if she can keep him. I have doubts whether I shall finish the book, as my attention isn’t completely focused on it, but I shall try and finish it, and see if it gets any better.

Fingers crossed, eh?

Adventures with George and Timmy part 2

Posted in Book reviews, Other Authors | Tagged , , , , | 23 Comments

Five Go to Billycock Hill: An exciting dramatised adventure

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Fiona

Unfortunately, Five Go to Billycock Hill is one of my least favourite Famous Five books. (It’s right down at the bottom with Five Are Together Again and Five Have a Mystery to Solve.) But life isn’t fair and so that’s the story that came with the one I really wanted (Five Go Off to Camp.) Still, I’ll make the best of it as even my least favourite Five books are still a decent read.

2008 CD edition

2008 CD edition

The early part of the book is very quickly covered, most of it is narrated with very little dialogue. The narrator even quotes some of the Five’s dialogue at times. In fact, listening further, it seems a lot more of this tale is narrated rather than acted compared to the others.

The scene with the fake spider is quite funny, though I can’t remember it from the book. Perhaps that’s just because I’ve read it less often than the others.

While most of the dialogue and language remains true to the original, there has been at least one update. Mr Gringle buys a butterfly from the boys for fifty pence, which the boys then give to poor old Mrs Janes. Even in 2008 fifty pence wouldn’t have bought her much.

Some of the sound effects during the story are better than others. Timmy’s as bad as ever, he sounds like a very small dog at best and a poor imitation by a person at worst. The planes sound fine though, and the Five splashing in the pool as well. Also good are the news reports from the radio, as they come complete with static!

I wasn’t very convinced by the ‘whistling’ in the caves though I suppose it would be frightening when you were down there. Benny’s pigling doesn’t get to squeal during the story, it’s only referred to by the narrator so obviously they didn’t have either a recording of piglet sounds or a person capable of imitating them!

There’s some nice creepy and dramatic music later on, at one or two of the more critical parts of the story while the boys are prowling about the butterfly farm at night. We know it’s night as we can hear owls hooting every few seconds.

Mrs Janes’ voice isn’t very good really. It’s clearly a young woman affecting a quavering old-lady voice expect it comes off more like she’s impersonating a sheep at times. The other voices are good enough though, Benny, Toby, Jeff, the butterfly men etc.

I’ve found it difficult to write any sort of conclusion to this post tonight. The audio dramatisation was a good one, it adapted the book well but as it’s not a favourite of mine I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as some of the other ones. If you like Billycock Hill, though, and I’m sure plenty of people do, then I’m sure you’ll like the CD.

 

Posted in Audio Books and Audio Dramatisations | Tagged , | 13 Comments

The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 20

Posted on September 3, 2014 by worldofblyton

Chapter twenty:

Prisoners in the hill

Philip too, was waiting quietly, for goodness knows who to come along. Beaky was now safely in his pocket so that he would not need to bother about him when the enemies arrived. He lay, unmoving under the canopy. A few moments later, there was a slight noise. If it hadn’t been so silent, Philip would never have heard it. He listened. There it came again. It was the sound of low voices, the same noise they had heard for a few nights now. It was ever so slight, and for a moment, Philip wondered if it was actually a noise. And then it got slightly louder, and Philip nodded. It was definitely voices.

He looked to see if he could see anyone, but there was no-one in sight yet. A few minutes later, Philip could see the figures quite clearly, clambering up the hill. It was strange for there was only two of them, now. As they came closer, Philip saw that one of them held a torch. By the light of this, he could see quite clearly the faces of the men. One of them was Mr Dickens, the inn handy man, and the other was the man with the scar down his cheek. Philip was all ready. He would slip quietly out of the canopy, and throw it into the willow tree, as soon as the men were by. The moment was close now. The men, talking in low, cautious voices walked past, shining their torches ahead of them. They didn’t even glance towards the canopy.

‘What a waste of hiding place,’ thought Philip, carefully taking off the canopy and shoving it the willow tree. ‘I might have just stood here, and waiting for them to pass and they wouldn’t have even noticed me.’

The men were walking rather quickly and Philip ran towards them, being as light on his feet as he could. He didn’t want to get too close and be caught, but he did rather want to hear a word or two. So, Philip quietly walked as close to the men as he dared, sticking to the shadows. The men were talking quite low and quickly, so Philip couldn’t make a thing out at first. They passed the camp, all silent and still, he caught a few words here.

“There’s them kids’ camp. Wonder when they’re going to budge? We can’t go and ask them, that would be too obvious. They’d think someit’ was up straight away. I know em’ kind of kids’. Right down meddlers’.”

‘I suppose we are,’ thought Philip, grinning. On they went, through the shadows and darkness, heading downhill now. He overhead a few more words, but not many, something to do with someone called Phil, it sounded. And then the marsh. Philip could hear them talking quite well about the marsh, because apparently the men had a disagreement over something and they began to talk, or rather argue, quite loudly.

Philip could only hear their muffled voices at first. “I wonder if Curtis has began his job yet, I’ve heard quite a few gurgles today,” said the first man who was presumably the one with the scar down his face.

Mr Dickens talked in a spiteful way, with a Scottish accent. The other man was American. “I still don’t think we’ll get much on this one. I tell you, the treasure is only a myth from years ago,” Mr Dickens said sulkily.

“Hey, you shut up. If we don’t find the long lost Forester treasure, my name is not Stanley Black,” said Stanley.

“Well, it probably isn’t. You’ve changed your name hundreds of times to disguise yourself, Stan. You hold your tongue!” Mr Dickens retorted.

“Don’t you tell me to hold my tongue!” said Stanley in a much louder voice now.

“Hush, you idiot!” said Mr Dickens, in a fierce whisper. “Do you want the whole village after us? Look, we’re here. Help we get this rock up.”

Philip slipped behind a bush quickly and put his thumbs to his mouth. “Twit… twit…twooo…” Philip watched the men, waiting for an answer from Jack. Continue reading →

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First Monday in September

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Fiona

It’s officially autumn now, and we have to say good-bye to summer for another year. September has brought us to more than 75,000 views on the blog and I’m sure it will also bring us our thousandth comment (seeing as we’re only two off it!)

This week we will have the next chapter of Poppy’s Adventure Series fan fic and I will be listening to the audio dramatisation of Five Go to Billycock Hill, while Stef is going to read The Famous Five Adventures With George and Timmy (Stories and Facts for Adventurers).

I’ll just leave you with a few photos from my walk yesterday now, have a nice week!

 

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End of the Season, Old Thatch

Posted on August 31, 2014 by pippastef

Old Thatch Gardens, Bucks, have their last open day today before they close for another year and with this in mind, I have been back to Old Thatch twice in the past month to get a selection of photos to tide me through until May 2015 rolls around again and the gardens are once more open for the delight of perusing.

I have picked some of my favourite photos from the last couple of visits for you check out, and hopefully will keep you going until Old Thatch opens next year!

Hope you like them!

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

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Fiona

This week we start on chapter ten of The Secret Island, and continue until chapter thirteen. 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. There weren’t many changes in the last few chapters, I wonder if that trend will continue? (The earlier posts can be read here and here.)

By E.H. Davie
By Val Biro

 

CHAPTER TEN: A STORMY NIGHT IN WILLOW HOUSE

It looks like the trend of very few changes will continue as there are only two in this chapter. Firstly, the old milking-pail becomes the old milk pail, and secondly he’s dropping with sleep is altered to he’s dropping asleep.

Both are very minor changes that you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for them but to me they join the list of pointless changes. Neither makes any meanings clearer or removes potential offence. The milking-pail one is particularly ridiculous as it is called a milking-pail at least two or three times in subsequent chapters.

As usual we get one illustration from Dudley Wynne in the paperback (of Peggy looking at the trippers’ rubbish) We actually get four in the hardback this time, of varying different scenes from the chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: NORA GETS INTO TROUBLE

There is only one little change in this chapter. The children tell Nora that it is all right after the hens return, then the original reads and it was all right. The italics are removed from was in the paperback, doing away with the emphasis it provides. Again, italics remain in several paragraphs after that so I can’t see why they couldn’t be left alone here.

This time Wynne illustrates Nora hiding in the bracken after losing the hens, and Jack (presumably) looking for her on the opposite page. Davie drew Nora before the hens escaped and then crying when the other scold her, and also the girls washing up when Nora is reunited with them.

CHAPTER TWELVE: THE CAVES IN THE HILLSIDE

And just one alteration to talk about again. This time it’s where the caves get called queer by Nora, and instead they become eerie.

Both Wynne and Davie draw the children inside the caves in this chapter, and Davie also has the boys on one of their night-time trips across to the farm and them sitting discussing their plans.

Davies
Wynne

I don’t think Wynne quite gets the scale of the caves right. In the text they have to look right up at the high roof to work out where the sunlight comes from – in the picture there’s a great obvious hole right above their heads. Davies is much better to me, as the caves look big – at least to the children.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE SUMMER GOES BY

There’s more to discuss in this chapter but I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad. It’s bad as it means there has been more meddling but it’s good as it gives me something to write about!

The children were described as being just as dark as gypsies, which becomes just as dark as could be instead. Gypsies have become a bit of a sensitive issue at some point during the books’ publishing history and I’m now wondering how many alterations are made to books featuring gypsy characters like Jo and her father in the Famous Five.

Queer, this time in relation to their food, is changed to odd.

The yellow-hammer’s song gets updated too (no-one is safe!) it is originally given as little bit of bread and no cheese! (though in at least one Famous Five title it is a little bit of bread and no cheese!) Award have made it little bits of bread and no cheese! I can’t for the life of me see why.

[Nora] and Peggy had to practice every day in the lake till Jack said they were as good as he and Mike were is what is written in the hardback and I see nothing wrong with that. It has already been established that Peggy can swim a little and Nora not very much. I’ve always assumed that Jack wanted them to be able to swim well for their own safety seeing as they live on an island and use a rickety old boat. However it is altered to [Nora] and Peggy practised every day till Jack said they were as good as he and Mike were. This only a small change but it removes the fact it was on Jack’s orders and I’m not sure why that is necessary. He is fairly bossy throughout all the chapters as he has been elected their captain and always delegates the tasks.

Finally more italics and emphasis are lost in the line she would make quite certain it was a boat next time. 

The caves are illustrated again by Wynne in this chapter, with Jack leading Daisy inside (he has an old fashioned lantern in his hand which is nice!) The same scene is also drawn by Davie, as well as the girls swimming and Peggy binding up Jack’s ankle.

Davies
Wynne

This is one of the better illustrations by Wynne I think. Jack is probably the best drawn character throughout and he can draw cows quit well too, somehow!

That’s only another seven changes to the text (as I’m not adding on each time queer is altered.) Add that to the thirty four I’ve already found and we get forty one. I’ve not checked but I’m fairly certain that’s a lot less than the other books I’ve compared before.

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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.

5106FN1ZVKL._

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.

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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.

Posted in Blyton on Screen | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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.

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