The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 15

Posted on March 16, 2014 by pippastef

Chapter 15

As the boys headed down to their lecture, hoping that their plan would work, the girls settled down on their beds once more for a quick chat.

“I suppose we don’t need to do anything major,” Darrell said, after a moment. “But maybe we should do as Julian says and go and walk along the coast to see if there’s a place anyone can signal from?”

Sally agreed and soon the girls were walking briskly towards the coast with their big winter coats and scarves wrapped around them to keep the chill out. The wind was cold and bracing, with none of the warmth that they were used to down in Cornwall at this time of year. Cornwall seemed such a different world up in the Scottish highlands.  They talked about Malory Towers and their beloved coast as they walked to the rugged, less forgiving coast looking out into the North Sea.

“Let’s start from behind the golf club, shall we? That’s a good place to send a signal,” Sally suggested as they walked through the town. “Then we can work our way down the coast, though mind you, I don’t fancy walking on all those slippery rocks in this wind.”

The wind was very strong, buffeting around the girls, making their hair whip around their faces as they walked. Darrell had already had to stop her scarf from flying away.

They reached the golf club and headed around the back of the building, and stopped there for a moment to take in the view. Up this end of the coast, behind the golf club and just after the coast curved inland was beautiful white sand, soft and fine like they girls were used to seeing on a beach. Then further down the coast, the town built on the cliff top, the soft sand gave way to rock, some huge formations rising out of the eroding coastline, others smaller and more worn away by the sea. From where Sally and Darrell stood, they could see the coast curve behind a cliff slightly, but could see down the rocky beach until a large cliff cut off their view.

Sally turned on the spot on the edge of the cliff, her hands kept trying to smooth down her hair in the wind.

“Well I don’t see a likely spot,” Sally said after a moment. She fixed her eyes on Darrell who was staring at the golf club house and hotel in frustration.

“What is it?” Sally asked, almost shouting due to the roar of the waves and the wind. Darrell pointed at the building in front of her.

“We were idiots to start here,” she called back. “No one could signal out here without someone noticing from the golf club! Someone would have been bound to have noticed something like that! Also, unless you’re signalling up the coast then there’s nowhere to signal to, the ground isn’t high enough and the proximity of the club house could easily mean that you get spotted.”

Darrell turned away from Sally to look up and down the coast from the point they were standing. She bit her lip in thought as she considered the geography.  From where they stood she could see that the golf course was far too inland for any signalling. Her eyes followed the line of the coast, she could see that the rocks where they usually ended up, extended out more into the sea. She pointed at them to Sally.

“I think we need to try further down the coast,” Darrell called above the wind. “I don’t think there’s anything up the coast that could work.”

All Sally could do in reply was nod as the wind buffeted around them so violently that they struggled to stand.

They made their way towards the rocky part of the coast. Progress was slow because of the rain.

“I think we’re crackers,” Sally muttered to Darrell as they reached the steps down to the rocks. “Absolutely crackers,” she confirmed as the watched the sea swirl and send up spray.

“Why couldn’t we have just looked at a map?” Sally added as she followed Darrell down on to the damp sand. “At least that way we could have saved ourselves a journey up to the golf course.”

Continue reading →

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Five on a Treasure Island – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 8

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Fiona

So at long last I have finished reading and comparing the two copies of the book! The last two chapters were actually quite light on alterations so it means I have time and words for a summary of sorts. First, the changes though.

All the other parts are here: part one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.

The 1997 paperback, with the illustration from the first edition
The dustjacket of the 1965 edition (which differs from the first edition)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A PLAN – AND A NARROW ESCAPE

My more action = more changes theory pretty much crumbles here as there is one measly change in this entire chapter.

Julian originally suggests they should hide over yonder, which becomes just over there in the 1997 edition.

Just imagine Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet given the same treatment.

But, soft! what light through that window over there breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Not quite the same is it? (Not to mention they’d have changed the first words to But oh! or maybe hey there!)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE END OF A GREAT ADVENTURE

Uncle Quentin’s nice little speech at the end is shorted for the modern edition. And I’m proud of you too George. You’re as good as a boy any day, is what he said first, something that would make George very happy. The last line has been edited out in the paperback, presumably to remove the idea that boys are in any way better than girls.

One last hyphen removal for you: note-book is altered to notebook, though there are countless hyphenated words left such as motor-boat.

A sensible change, possibly, is the addition of be to this line from George – I know I’ve never been lonely, but now I will. I keep reading and re-reading that and thinking it might just about be all right the way it was, but with ‘be’ on the end it’s just a little clearer.

To balance that out, a pointless addition. Oh, thank you, thank you! becomes Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Now George is quite grateful there, (I think it’s when her mother says Timmy can sleep in her room,) but two thank yous conveyed that well enough without adding a third I think.

And finally, the end. Or not the end, as those two classic words have been omitted from the paperback.

So, only six changes there. That makes a hundred and seventeen in total (very roughly!)

I marked every queer in the list in my excel file (yes, I made an excel file for this!), and there were thirty two queers over the sixteen chapters, making a neat average of two a chapter. Is that too many? Just out of interest I’ve tallied up their replacements. Strange was used thirteen times, odd six, peculiar five, funny four, weird two, and amazing and uneasy once each. (Sound like spoof mystery solving groups there – the Odd Six? The Funny Four?)

I would say for the most part the changes have, in my opinion, been unnecessary. A few I can approve of and understand, such as the odd correction or clarification, but for the most part I’m left baffled and a bit saddened that apparently modern children can’t understand the original text. Or is it that the publishers and parents just think that?

To be fair though, most of the alterations have been quite minor, very few lines have been cut or drastically changed. I think a good number of them wouldn’t even be noticed if you read it without really thinking about the precise wording.

A final thing, a last comparison if you like. My hardback is almost fifty years old and I have no idea how many times it has been read in that time. My paperback is six years old, and has only been read once. It looks like it’s the other way around though!

DSCN3958

The paperback had honestly been sitting on my shelf untouched since I got it, so it was near enough new condition when I started these blogs. Now look at it! Whereas the hardback looks exactly as it did when I bought it, and not all that different to when it was new. I do have a facsimile dustjacket for it, but I usually take it off when I’m reading as I find dustjackets slip up and down and annoy me too much.

And there you have it. I suppose I should answer the question I’ve set in the title for the blogs. How well has the original text faired in this modern edition? I think I’d have to say “not too badly, considering.” Other books will have come off worse, I’m sure, like Island of Adventure perhaps with Jo-Jo playing such a large role, but on the whole Five on a Treasure Island hasn’t been truly butchered, at least, not in this edition.

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Getting children to read classic books – or not!

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Fiona

Just to make a change from alternating chapters of fan fic, this week I stumbled across this via twitter, one Mum’s struggle to get her kids to read Blyton books. Thought it was quite funny, and got me wondering if my future children would be Blyton fans or not, I know a couple of mums personally who have struggled – mostly because their children stop every two lines to ask what strange words mean. Anyway, here’s the post for you, so enjoy!

indreamworld's avatarWendy's World

If you wanted to find me as a child, all you had to do was look in the nearest corner and I’d be more than likely sat in it with my nose buried in a book.

I had loads of favourites, from Enid to Blyton, to Roald Dahl, to Judy Blume.

Which is why, when on having kids of my own, I suddenly had an excuse to re-buy all my favourites from my childhood. Not for me, you understand.

For the KIDS.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar were added to the already bulging bookcase, among others.

It’s easy to introduce the classics when the children are small, and to incorporate them into the bedtime routine so that they become firm favourites of theirs as well.

What about when they become older though, and decide to choose their own books? It’s not so easy then.

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March Monday

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Fiona

We’re back to Monday again!

I must say our most popular post last week was Fiona’s captions! They certainly brightened my day! Hopefully she’ll come up with some more soon, but for this week she shall be treating us to her last Five on a Treasure Island comparison.

This week we shall either bring you the next chapter of Cathy’s Rosewood Mystery or if we find a good blog from elsewhere on the web, we shall share it with you.

However, I think I might be depressingly boring and give you another chapter of my Missing Papers Fan fiction. If I come up with any other idea, I shall hopefully be able to present that to you in blog form.

In other news this week, we have been alerted to this wonderful Malory Towers Quiz by one of our lovely Twitter followers. Fiona and I both got Sally Hope. You can find out who you are here. Please do let us know who you turn out to be!

Another interesting link that I found on Twitter this morning, in honour of World Book Day on the 6th March, was a list on the site Buzzfeed called 35 Signs You Read Enid Blyton As A Child (And Quite Possibly As An Adult), in which six of the pictures are sourced from our own blog! You can view the list here!

Back to blog news now, this week we reached 50,000 views!  That’s amazing! Thank you so much to everyone who comes to visit, and keeps on coming back!

And I think that is all for today. I hope you’re looking forward to this weeks selections as much as I am. I shall leave you with some pictures I took on a walk a few weeks ago when the weather brightened. I hope you like them!

Ivy leaves
The lake
A swan
Two ducks
Lone tree
A wooden walkway
Reed
Fluffy cloud over lake
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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 14

Posted on March 9, 2014 by pippastef

Chapter 14

Inside the office, Julian had been offered the spare seat and was sitting down in front of the professor as he rambled on. In fact the man hadn’t said anything in the least bit interesting or related to the project that he was working on. All he’d asked Julian was how much he knew from his uncle.

“Well this project,” Doaty said eventually, taking off his spectacles and cleaning them vigorously on his coat. “I suspect your uncle won’t mind me telling you a little, but it’s about creating lots of heat and energy without effecting the environment. The environment is becoming a key issue; though I’m not sure how much it matters should the United States and the USSR decide to blow us all up with their nuclear weapons.”

Julian listened carefully. His uncle had been involved in something similar once before and one of his colleague’s daughter had been under threat of being kidnapped[1].  Doaty rambled on.

“Now you see Kirrin, this experiment is supposed to be top secret. No one was supposed to know we were working on it. But somehow the secret is out and my papers have been stolen. And of course your uncle has had someone try and get into his house. The police informed me this morning that you discovered a page of my equations on the beach yesterday morning,” Doaty said finally seeming to get to the point. “I wanted to thank you and ask you a very misplaced favour.”

“Of course professor,” Julian said, leaning forward slightly, interested in what the old man had to say. He was a rather nice old fool really, Julian reasoned, just a bit of a genius that’s all and if his uncle was anything to go by then it was certainly enough to make anyone a little strange.

“As your reputation seems to be flourishing here, I was wondering if you could do me a very simple favour and just keep an eye out for anything strange,” Doaty said simply. “It would be a great help to know that someone is doing some covert observation.”

Julian raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t sure that he had heard correctly.

“Professor, I’m not entirely sure that that is a good idea,” Julian said slowly. “I mean surely they have police officers for that sort of thing?”

Doaty dismissed this suggestion with a wave of his hand and a ‘phff’ noise.

“Your uncle in fact suggested I asked you this,” Doaty said carefully. “Of course he thinks highly of you. And with all this business going on, along with that those two English men disappearing over the summer, one is entitled to take steps one finds appropriate, Kirrin,” Doaty said raising an eyebrow.  Julian looked carefully at his professor. He felt that he was asking too much of him.

“Sir, I’m not sure I that I am the best person for the job. I’m only an amateur really, whatever my uncle has said to you. I really don’t think I’d do a good job sir,” Julian said honestly. He watched the professor’s face as he told him this.

Professor Doaty eyed Julian up as he spoke, his face looking less than amused. He sighed eventually and nodded.

“I suspect you are right young man,” Professor Doaty said waving Julian away. “Such a shame however, your uncle assured me you were quite gifted in that area!”

“My uncle is not wrong sir, but I think it may be a bad idea for me to dabble in something so big and out of my depth,” Julian said firmly. Sally’s words were still ringing in his head from yesterday as well which was why he was reluctant to agree to his professors words, even though he was very nearly doing what the professor wanted him to do in the first place.

The professor made a non-committal noise at Julian’s words.

“Yes yes, yes,” he said a moment later, waving his hand at Julian as if to tell him to leave. “Mind you do keep an eye out however Kirrin. Against my better judgement, I suggest you inform the police if you see or hear anything suspicious,” Doaty said now a little more like his old self. He began muttering to himself.

“I wonder who really is looking after this project. No one seems to care any more,” Doaty glanced up at Julian and realised that he hadn’t dismissed the lad.

“All right boy, off you go,” Doaty waved Julian out of the room with the flap of his hand rather like Quentin Kirrin did when he wanted people out of the way.

Julian got out of his seat and headed out of the door to the tune of Doaty muttering to himself;

“Well the minster concerned certainly doesn’t seem to care; I mean who’ll look after Sahara. I swear all this has just proved that until you have a breakthrough you’re chicken feed…”

Julian closed the door thankfully and leant on it for a second. He looked up and down the corridor and spotted no one around. That meant that either David hadn’t made it up here for whatever reason or had already headed back down to the library. He sighed a little, and pushed away from the door. He swung himself down the corridor and headed down the stairs on his way down to the library.

David waited a few heartbeats before trying to follow Julian out of the building and back to the library like they had agreed earlier. With the girls in the corridor below, keeping an eye on the stair cases, they would run straight into Julian about now. David was just about to follow when he heard the door at the other end of the corridor open and quick footsteps head towards Doaty’s door.

David only just had time to dive back behind the curtain as the person drew nearer. David took a chance to peek through the gap between the curtain and the wall to see the back of the person opposite Doaty’s door.

There was a sharp knock from the person and then the face looked over both shoulders as if expecting to see people crowding around the door.  Continue reading →

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The Famous Five TV Series: Even More (Funny) Captions

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Fiona

The captions I put on a fortnight ago seemed to go down well so I thought I would put some more on this week (as I couldn’t think of anything else to do!)

Firstly, carrying on from last week’s leaning theme, a caption featuring the one moment in the 90s series that never fails to make Stef and I cringe. I watch it from between my fingers if I can even look at all. (It’s in Five Go to Billycock Hill part one, in case you need advanced warning – ta Stef for reminding me which ep it was.)

StarjumpsoneAnd also related to that awful, un-Julian-like moment:

star jumps

I know Dick is braver than this, but hey, it’s captioning, doesn’t have to be true to life.

thumbpain

All the captions I’ve put up so far have been old ones, some slightly edited, but this one I did tonight especially for this blog. Aren’t you just so honoured?

beach - Copy

The clothes give us endless joy, particularly Dick’s range of patterned pull-overs. Stef and I even have a ‘favourite’, a very dubious honour. It’s this one:

Not sure why, but this one's our favourite. Or at least it's mine!

Not sure why, but this one’s our favourite. Or at least it’s mine! Stunning.

And talking of Famous Five fashion, a treat for the 70s series fans, (eagle eyed readers may have noticed I dropped the ’90s’ from the blog title, this is why!) Julian’s lovely jacket. (Dick has one too, I prefer the black to the brown actually, but Julian wears his more.) I don’t know why I like this jacket so much as I’m no fan of the updated 70s fashions in the series, but I do. Seeing it makes me happy.

jacketjuSo, hope you liked these captions too (though I know I’ve drifted from true captions in a couple of place. And used far too many brackets probably. Sorry.) And maybe some day there will be more, as I have a host of screen shots just waiting to be made even funnier.

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The Marsh of Adventure By Poppy, chapter 14

Posted on March 5, 2014 by worldofblyton

Chapter fourteen:

Back at Lowfell Inn

The children awoke early that next morning, all lying outside their tents in their clothes! The children themselves were indeed very surprised but then remembered and grinned. “We must have fallen asleep just after dinner and not woken back up! My goodness we are up early!” Lucy-Ann exclaimed. “It’s only half five, but we’ve had plenty of sleep so don’t let’s go back to sleep.” The children got changed into clean clothes and had some breakfast. They then took all the pots down to the stream and washed them and then found the deeper spot and began splashing about again. There was nothing like an early morning swim.

“What time shall we set off to the inn?” called Jack, as they splashed about, Kiki keeping a distance away again.

“About half six I should think. We’ll have plenty of time before lunch, we can go and get your batteries and then perhaps we can join lunch at the inn, today?” Philip replied.

So at half past six the children set off down the other side of Lowfell Hill, carrying two large baskets to put the food in. The stream turned rather suddenly not far down and made off down the hill in a different direction. The children could just see the back of Lowfell Inn from where they were walking. The sun blazed down onto the children’s heads, and Kiki began to feel uncomfortable. She turned round to face the other way on Jack’s shoulder, and found it was just as hot. She turned round again and began pecking Jack’s ear, trying to get his attention. She listened to the children and suddenly Lucy-Ann shouted Jack and pointed to a bird up in the sky. It was only a blue-tit but she didn’t really know much about birds and couldn’t tell the difference between a common one and a rare one. She knew the names of a few, but only the rare ones that Jack talked about for hours on end.

Jack laughed as he looked up at the blue-tit. They all laughed at the little bird. Kiki listened to all this, desperate for some water. How could she get Jack’s attention? He usually ignored her silly remarks.

“JACK!” she screeched, imitating Lucy-Ann, “JACK!” Jack looked at her at once. Kiki had learnt all sorts of phrases and strange words but she had never tried to make a conversation before! Kiki had heard the children say ‘water’ many times before and she had picked it up, usually eyeing the water in dislike, but now she could really do with a bit to cool her down. “Water!” she screeched much to the children’s amazement. Jack laughed at her and produced a bottle of water he took from the basket, Dinah was carrying. Kiki stuck her beak down it and lapped up the water, thirstily. Ah that was better! The children carried on, and very soon, they reached Lowfell Inn, the place they had all started their holiday.

The children went in the back door, through the kitchen and past the cook, who was busily making some delicious looking cakes for lunch. They went on into the sitting room, where a few guests were sat, knitting or reading. No Mrs Jordans. They wanted to ask her if there had been any news about Bill, before they asked Jane the cook to get them some more food. They soon found her cleaning the tables in the dining room, preparing them for lunch.

“Hallo children!” she cried in delight when she saw them. “Now, you’re just in time for a delicious lunch, would you stay for lunch?” she asked in her sing-song voice, wiping her big hands on her apron.

“Yes, of course, Mrs Jordans, we’ll stay, but have you any news on Bill?” Lucy-Ann asked, hoping dearly that she had.

“Now don’t you worry yourself about Mr Bill, no more, missus. E’s safe, see? You just enjoy yourself, young Lucy-Ann.” she said, tickling Lucy-Ann under the chin. “You take my word for it, eh,” she said.

Lucy-Ann beamed. She felt sure Mrs Jordans was right.

“We’re just going to pop out to get some batteries for Jack’s torch, Mrs Jordans. We’ll be back soon for lunch. Oh, and could you ask Jane to pack us up some more food, please? Plenty, for it does seem the warmer the weather is, the hungrier we get,” Philip said politely.

Continue reading →

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First Monday in March

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Fiona

I can hardly believe it’s March already! We’re nearly at 50,000 views on the blog so hopefully by next week’s post we’ll be celebrating that.

To earn those views we’ll be putting up another chapter of Poppy’s Adventure Series fanfic on Wednesday, and most likely the next chapter of Stef’s St Andrews Mystery on Sunday. I hope so as despite having read it already, and having the whole thing on my laptop I’m reading it a chapter at a time as I tidy it up for publishing and it’s hotting up nicely at the moment. I resisted the urge to read ahead today after chapter thirteen went up.

From me? I’m not really sure yet. I have a long list of ideas but nothing is really jumping out at me saying “write me, write me!” Might be a little bit worrying if it did though, so maybe that’s just as well. I will most likely decide on Thursday night at about ten o’clock after putting it off/forgetting about it all evening.

I’ll sign off now with some pictures (mostly of birds – I’ve gone all Jack Trentish again.)

Swan, Trottick Ponds
Pigeons on the aqueduct, Fin
Buzzard, Finlathen Park
Swan, Trottick Ponds
Pegs on the line
Goosander ducks, Trottick Ponds
Great tit
Tufted duck, Trottick Ponds
Aqueduct, Finlathen Park
Snowdrops
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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 13

Posted on March 2, 2014 by pippastef

Chapter 13

Sally awoke the next morning, having had a restless night. Her harshness towards Julian had plagued her thoughts the previous evening and had troubled her in her sleep causing her to wake every few hours. She didn’t like the person she had become yesterday and made up her mind that even though she believed that she had been right in telling Julian that he should give up on this mystery as it was too far out of his reach, she felt that she could have maybe handled things better. Darrell hadn’t said as much yesterday but Sally knew her friend would think it best that she apologised.

Sally didn’t like the idea of making a special trip to St Salvator’s just to apologise to Julian as she thought that it touched a little too heavily on the feelings she was beginning to have for him, and would make things all too obvious. However the idea of waiting was torturous.

She took a deep breath and reached across the room to poke Darrell on the shoulder as she slept in her bed not three feet away.

“Darrell!” Sally called gently. “Darrell wake up! Oh do wake up! I need to talk to you about something rather important!”

Darrell rolled on to her back, groaning in protest against being woken up so early. She yawned and when she finally opened her eyes, the first thing she did was reach for her alarm clock.

“Sally its half past five in the morning! Whatever is so urgent? Why aren’t you asleep?” she yawned propping herself up in bed on her elbows and peering bleary eyed at her best friend.

“I’m very tempted to say that if the building is not on fire then I’m going back to bed,” she added sulkily. She hadn’t spent the night worried about how her words yesterday had affected anybody and had been quite blissfully asleep until her friend had poked her, but Darrell guessing that Sally wouldn’t have woken her without good reason and did her best to be awake and listen to her.

As Sally poured out her conundrum, Darrell began to wish that Sally could have held on a little long before asking her these questions.

“So what do you think I should do?” Sally asked Darrell, feeling bad for waking her, but at the same time desperate for an answer. “Should I go over before breakfast or wait until we see him later today?”

Darrell yawned again, burrowing under her blankets so her head was the only part of her that could be seen.

“Before breakfast might not be a good idea,” Darrell conceded after a moment’s thought. “Maybe you should try and catch him and David as they go to their morning lecture. You don’t start until ten today, so you’ll have plenty of time to meet them at their lab and then go on to your lecture,” she said carefully, hoping that this would be a sensible idea. It was usually Sally who had sensible ideas not her; Darrell was usually the one who needed a sensible word and help to solve a problem, not Sally. Darrell wasn’t all too sure that she liked this new role reversal.

Sally nodded with understanding.

“I think you’re right,” she said with a small smile. “That would be the best way. I just hope that I can find him… them before their first lecture.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem, but now, if you don’t mind, there is still a good two hours before we actually need to be up, and I would like to get a bit more sleep. Do try not to fuss until then and get a rest, there’s a good sport,” Darrell said turning over on her side again, her face away from Sally.

“Yes, alright, I shall try,” Sally said, turning over with a slightly easier mind now and pulled her blankets up over her shoulders.

With her back to Sally and her covers pulled almost over her head, Darrell grinned to herself. Sally had slipped up a little bit. Julian seemed to be playing on her mind more than she would care to admit. Darrell had to stop herself from chuckling, it was slightly amusing to see Julian and Sally dance around each other even if it was something that would quickly become tedious. Darrell was still amused as she dosed off again until the alarm woke her two hours later.

Sally was rather quiet and serious as they got ready for breakfast and got their books together for their first lecture, she was thinking about what she would say to Julian if she could catch him before his lecture. Darrell kept sending her little encouraging smiles as they got ready to go down to breakfast.

The girls went down rather quietly, Sally clearly being slightly nervous at her task ahead. Darrell chattered a little about the weather and the work they had left to do. Sally responded as naturally as she could but her mind wasn’t really paying attention to what Darrell was saying as much as she would have liked. Darrell relented over breakfast and dug out one the novels she had to read for English literature, while Sally tried not to worry herself silly over Julian’s reaction. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him exactly.

As soon as she had finished her breakfast Sally began to make a move, but stopped half way through her preparations to leave. Darrell looked up at her inquiringly.

“What’s up?” she asked marking her place in her book with her finger. “You look scared. Julian’s not going to bite your head off,” she grinned.

Continue reading →

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Five on a Treasure Island – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 7

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Fiona

The book is getting to some of its most exiting scenes now, so I wonder what effect that will have had on the editor’s pen? [I’ll admit to one of my grammar problems now, I really struggle with affect and effect. Someone, please correct me if I’ve got it wrong just now!]

A reminder of earlier posts: part one, two, three, four, five and six.

The 1997 paperback, with the illustration from the first edition
The dustjacket of the 1965 edition (which differs from the first edition)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DOWN IN THE DUNGEONS

Well, a disappointing moment for my theory. Hardly anything got edited in this chapter. Maybe the editor got swept up in the story.

What was changed was the usual stuff, queer becoming weird and then strange, whilst being altered to while twice, and a bit of de-hyphening if that’s a real word. The modern edition has is a little more consistent here, Blyton uses key-hole twice and keyhole once, whereas this is altered to read keyhole in all three instances for the paperback.

On the plus side, I was able to enjoy more of this chapter instead of constantly putting the book down to make notes! Anyway, onwards.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: PRISONERS!

Well, we seem back on form already. By the second line of the chapter we’ve got a silly change. In the original, George is dumbly staring at the ingots, and holding one in her hand. This has been changed to in her hands. The previous chapter tells us they walked in, flashing their torches, so I wonder if George has a third hand secretly, so she’s got two on the ingot and one on her torch. I can’t think why this has been changed, unless they think George (who’s just been smashing a heavy door with an axe) is too weak to hold an ingot with one hand.

Next, capitalised words are made lower-case. Julian is yelling down the passage; WE’VE FOUND THEM! HURRY! HURRY! the capitals adding volume and drama. In lower-case, it lacks the same punch. I’m not advocating using capitals every time someone raises their voice, but sparingly they do add to the story.

Another baffling alteration, George originally tells the men that The island and the castle belong to my mother. It gets changed to This island… I’m sure both are perfectly correct but I’m not sure why they went to the effort of changing it.

There were two queers in this chapter, but of course they are now strange and odd. And finally, worth while is altered to worthwhile which is a more common way of saying it these days.

So still not many changes for quite an action-packed chapter.

We were at 95 changes by my rough count, now it’s 107 as there were only 12 changes between these two chapters. I think that’s the least yet, and as someone who loves to come up with theories, may I suggest the editor got bored and/or tired by this stage?

In fact, this post is so short I’m going to treat you to a third chapter. (Also, there’s an odd number in the book so it’s this or a whole post on a single chapter later!)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DICK TO THE RESCUE!

Another barely-touched chapter here. We’ve got two whilsts to whiles, which is consistent anyway.

Also, Dick thinks it’s lucky that he’s good at gym, in the original this has a full stop after it to signify it’s short for something, and that’s been removed in the paperback, presumably as gym has been adopted into normal usage. It actually made me stop and wonder exactly what it was short for. Gymnasium, the room you would do gym in doesn’t make sense in the context, so I’m left thinking gymnastics. He’s talking about climbing ropes so that makes sense, though at school when we said gym we meant any sort of physical lesson – what was known as PE (physical education) at high school, or games if you went to a posher school, and it covered everything from swimming and running to tennis, hockey, volleyball, badminton, basketball and so on.

And last but not least, something that’s happened a few times, hie becomes hi. This time Dick is speaking, calling for Julian and George, Hie, Julian! Hie, George! who are locked in the room with the ingots. He’s not saying hello, and if he was he wouldn’t say hi, he would say hallo most likely.

Another four changes takes us to 111 then, and a good place to stop. Only two more chapters to go, so that’ll go on in about two weeks, and then… well, I’m tempted to do another book, but looking at the 2010 (I think) editions where they become Mum and Dad. But I don’t know, I might have a fit of apoplexy and never write again if I did that.

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The Rosewood Mystery by Cathy, chapter 4

Posted on February 26, 2014 by worldofblyton

SETTLING IN!

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the little cottage. There was a kitchen and larder at the back, which looked out over part of the garden, and a pretty sitting room which had lovely big wooden-framed glass doors that opened out onto the other part of the garden. Miss Pepper told the children that she would always have the doors open in the hot weather, which they loved the idea of as they could wander in and out as they pleased, and feel the nice breeze coming in when they were sat in the sitting room.

At the other end of the sitting room was a lovely big window seat covered with soft cushions, and Loony claimed this at once, looking most cosy snuggled up there. Miranda wanted to sit there too but Loony was right in the middle, so the little monkey picked up a cushion and started to hit Loony with it, to try and get him to move up.

On the other side of the hall there was a small dining room with table and chairs.

The rooms upstairs were just as quaint. All the bedroom ceilings sloped in one direction or the other, and were full of dark old beams. As the pretty garden surrounded most of the cottage, everyone’s rooms looked out onto the bright green lawn. Diana’s room was closest to Miss Pepper’s, Barney’s was next to Diana’s, and Roger and Snubby’s was farthest away on the other side of the cottage. Miss Pepper had put them there in the hope that she would get a bit of peace from Loony.

Diana also discovered that her bedroom window gave her a view of the manor up on the hill. It looked a most exciting place.

The little bathroom was done out in pale blue and white, with matching towels. Everyone was thrilled with the cottage, and Miss Pepper felt pleased and proud that they all loved her little second home. She meant to spend a lot of time there. The village was prettier than the one where she currently lived.

After supper that evening, Barney kindly noticed that Miss Pepper looked very tired, so he politely suggested that they should all go to bed. He nudged Roger and Roger understood at once, feeling sorry for Miss Pepper who had done a lot of driving that day and had made them a fine supper with Diana’s help. Miss Pepper usually liked to go to bed early anyway, so the children said goodnight and went up to their pretty little rooms. Miss Pepper read a bit more of her book and then went up to bed too.

Diana was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her little bed was very comfortable and she had her bedroom window open so she could hear the owls hooting in the trees. As it happened she didn’t hear any at all – she was asleep too quickly!

Barney kept awake while Miranda explored their room, then when she grew accustomed to where everything was, she leapt onto Barney and snuggled down against him, putting her arms round his neck.

Roger and Snubby took longer to go to sleep, mostly because Loony was racing about the room, wide awake.

“Oh, Loony, settle down!” protested Snubby, who was actually quite sleepy. Loony leapt onto the bed, and Snubby thought he was about to settle, but then he took a flying leap over onto Roger’s bed and gave a delighted bark. Then he shot off round the room yapping excitedly, before leaping onto both beds again and then proceeding to lick Snubby’s face.

“Oh get off, dog!” Snubby pushed him away from his face. “I’ve already had a wash thanks, I don’t need another one!”

Roger gave a loud roar of laughter.

“Snubby! You’ve got another dirty mark on your chin! Loony is trying to wash it off!”

“How can I have a dirty mark?” protested Snubby. “I’ve just washed!”

“No idea,” said Roger, snuggling down. “It beats me how you always seem to get filthy all the time.”

“Well I’m not getting up again,” Snubby said decidedly, arranging his pillow and giving Loony a pat as he settled in the crook of his knees. “Dirty mark or not.”

Roger didn’t answer. He was asleep! Snubby lay awake for about fifteen minutes, then he fell asleep too. The household was quiet save for the owls in the garden. But Diana missed them all!

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Monday

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Fiona

I hate to speak too soon but I think it might have stopped raining?

I hope so, we had some really nice springy weather yesterday, in which I went for a walk in, with my dear friend Catherine (and managed to seriously twist my ankle something rotten) but never the less it was  nice change to be able to go for a walk and not have to worry about the rain.

Anyway this week, we have another chapter of Cathy’s Rosewood Mystery, catch up with the latest here. Fiona is doing her last part of her Five on a Treasure Island Updates.

Now from me, well that’s a bit tricky, does anyone mind if we play pot luck? Sorry I’m so lax at the moment, but at least we’ve had no complaints about how many chapters of The Missing Papers you’ve been getting from me! Anyway, we shall see what I can manage to give you!

In other news we reached 102 followers over on our Twitter Page  if you have twitter, please check us out and give us a follow! We do tweet some very interesting Blyton stuff I promise! You can even read about Fiona’s book  nightmares!

Right so a bit of a change to end things on this week, I thought I would share a poem I have written with you about the Long Mynd in Shropshire, titled Silence in the Hills.

Silence in the Hills

At the end of Summer,
When all the walkers have gone home,
The hills stand silent and lonely,
Except for the cries of the birds
and the bleats of the sheep.
The hills fall silent through the absence of people
The wind rushes through the bracken
So the hills begin to whisper

At night the hills are cold,
and only wildlife should roam their slopes
As the stars sparkle in the velvet dark sky,
the silence takes control
Sometimes a mist descends,
coating the hills in swirling white
covering them like a woolen blanket
making the hills more silent then before

When it lifts, the silence stays,
and the buzzing of life returns,
but all in all, the silence stays
sometimes more silent than before
rich, and textured and wild.
The silent hills call to all,
wanting to team with life.

 
Cardingmill Valley, The Long Mynd, Shropshire June 2013 by Stephanie Woods

Cardingmill Valley, The Long Mynd, Shropshire June 2013 by Stephanie Woods

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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 12

Posted on February 23, 2014 by pippastef

Not read any so far? Catch up on the other chapters by clicking here.

Chapter 12

Sally was sitting in the library, trying to get some of her work done. Her books were stacked up in a neat pile in front of her as her pen flew across her paper.  She was trying to clear her mind of what she had said to Julian earlier in the day. She wasn’t sure if she really meant it, or had just said it because she was just being her usual sensible self.

Sally tried to push it all out of her mind to try and focus on what she was trying to write, but she couldn’t concentrate. She found herself gazing out of the window by the desks, looking at out at the quadrangle. She spotted Thomas with one of his friends walking about outside. They seemed to be pacing back and forth, discussing something, and sharing a cigarette.   She recognised the second boy as the one she’d seen trying to calm Thomas down a week or so ago.

Sally watched them for a while, the boys didn’t seem to realise that they were being observed, they were discussing something that gave the appearance of being urgent. Sally saw the boy she didn’t know the name of, hand a brown envelope to Thomas and head off a second later.

Thomas, assuming that no one could see him, put the brown envelope inside his jacket before stubbing out the last of the cigarette and walking off. Sally frowned.

That was the second time she’d seen Thomas acting peculiar; and last time she’d told Julian what she suspected. She wasn’t sure how this episode would be received so she made a promise to herself that she wouldn’t mention it to anyone unless it was a policeman. She really wasn’t sure if it was important or not.

Sally tried to get on with her work, but her thoughts kept leading back to Julian. She sighed inwardly and was just checking the time to see if she could pack up and go and get dinner yet when she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up and out between the gap in the shelves that allowed people to get to the desks where she was sitting and saw Ainsworth. He must have sense she was there and looking at him, because he dragged his gaze to meet hers and smiled. It was a charming smile, one filled with politeness, safety and was quite capable of making a girl blush because it made her feel like the only girl in the room. To her horror, Sally felt herself blushing as she smiled back at him, maybe a little less enthusiastically than she normally would have done.

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The Famous Five 90s Series: Some More (Funny) Captions

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Fiona

A while back I posted these, and so for today I thought I’d post a few more funnies to do with the 90s Famous Five series.

First up is a lengthy one entitled A study of Famous Five covers. I really can’t remember how this started but it’s me alone you should blame, because I’ve never seen such a lengthy joke revolving purely around leaning.

five1

It made me laugh anyway. And following on from that:

deephole

And to finish off, one of my earliest captions (on the theme of photo-shoots rather than leaning,)

buffetpaulI apologise to all four actors, I don’t believe for a second any of them were quite so silly even at that age. I’m just having a bit of fun at their expense.

I’ve probably got enough captions still to do a third post (yes I spent far too long coming up with so many,) I just had to edit out a bit of bad language on one or two of them before they’re fit for general audiences.

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 13

Posted on February 19, 2014 by worldofblyton

Chapter thirteen:

Very peculiar

The children waved goodbye to Alf and began to walk back in the direction of their camp. Lucy-Ann looked at the boys with scared eyes. “What do you suppose Alf meant about those men, are they dangerous?” she asked.

“Oh, he was most probably dreaming, Lucy-Ann. Don’t worry, you’ve got me and Philip to look after you,” Jack said.

Lucy-Ann seemed content with this and skipped along, picking raspberries off the bushes she passed and popping them into her mouth. Dinah ran ahead to grab her torch which she had forgotten and left at the camp. Philip had tied the rope round his waist a few times, for when they were to explore the cave in the hill. Everyone had their torches in their pocket. When the boys were alone, Lucy-An skipping in front and Dinah running over to the tent, the boys discussed what Alf had said. “How can old Alf have seen two figures if we saw four?” Philip asked Jack, in a low voice.

“Easy,” Jack replied grinning. “Remember Alf said he saw two men, walking up the hill, when we saw them going down. Well we both must have seen the men at different times.”

“What do you mean?” asked Philip impatiently.

“What I mean is, we saw four men going down the hill, two of them captive. Well, the other two must have hidden the captives somewhere and locked them up, and then made their way back up the hill, only two of them now,” Jack explained.

Philip nodded. “It’s the only explanation, and a very good and believable one too, good work Jack!” he said.

“But there’s still lots of question we can’t yet, answer, like who the captives were, why they were being held captive, where they are being held prisoner, and where on earth is Bill?” Jack moaned.

“You know, I think we’ve dived head-first into another hair-raising adventure,” said Philip slowly.

“And we’re going to solve it,” Jack laughed.

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Monday

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Fiona

Well it’s Monday again, so it’s time for another Monday post.

There’s not much news this week, but I have added a link to our Pinterest to the blogroll. We’ve got boards on every Blytony topic possible from Blytony places, fashions and crafts to the books and TV series, and best of all you don’t have to have an account to take a look around.

Our contributor this week is Poppy, and the latest chapter of her Adventure Series fan fiction. Stef hopes to look at The Castle of Adventure and I’ve not quite decided what I’m going to do.

And as always I’ll leave you with some photos. I felt quite Jack-Trentish this week as I got quite a few bird pictures.

Snow and sun in the Sidlaw Hills
Buzzard by the Dichty
Mushrooms in Bridgefoot
Swan on Trottick Mill Ponds
Snowy track up Balkello Hill
Snowdrops in Bridgefoot cemetery
Heron in Bridgefoot
Ducks on the Dichty
1770 gravestone in Mains Cemetery
Buzzard by the Dichty
Rabbit in Bridgefoot
Outside of Mains Castle
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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 11

Posted on February 16, 2014 by pippastef

Hope you don’t mind a double helping of fan fiction this week! Hope you enjoy!

Previous chapters:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten

Chapter 11

“Nothing,” Darrell sighed as they flopped down into the comfortable seats in the little cafe in the high street they favoured. “Not one thing; and I thought you were supposed to be good at this Julian!” she added in a teasing fashion sitting back up as David brought the tray full of cups and a tea-pot to the table.

Julian, who hadn’t flopped down quite as vigorously as the others thanks to his shoulder, was leaning forward-looking despondently at the floor.

“I’m sorry,” he said apologetically. “I really thought that would make sense as a place for someone to hide something. I clearly didn’t think things through,” he added as Darrell played mother with the tea-pot.

“Maybe we should just leave it for now,” Sally suggested as Darrell handed her a cup of tea. “I mean you are still on medication for your shoulder Julian. You can’t do everything and maybe this is one mystery you don’t need to solve. There are special people who can sort this out, that are government trained.”

There was silence once Sally had spoken. Julian wasn’t sure what to say; he wanted to act like a boy much younger and throw a tantrum. He knew he could solve this, like he had before.

Sally seemed to pick up on the quiet mutiny that was going through Julian’s head at the moment. She put her tea cup down calmly before swallowing her mouthful of tea and saying;

“Julian, you’re not fifteen anymore. This is very nearly the real world, we’re not trained to do any mystery solving and you can’t afford to miss any of your lectures to work twenty-four hours on sorting this out. It really has nothing to do with us.”

Julian stared at Sally, a little astonished at what she had just said. He fought for control over his temper. He wasn’t the one in the family to have fits of temper, his cousin George was certainly one for that, but that didn’t mean that Julian didn’t have a temper. His jaw locked as he looked at Sally, wrestling with himself over the problem.

Part of him knew that she was right, this wasn’t a problem he should be concerning himself with, and there were professionals who would be able to do a better job than him, but the younger version of himself was telling him that he was capable of solving this like he had done some many times before. The sensible part of his brain then reminded him that he had not been alone in solving those other mysteries, his brother, sister and cousin had been invaluable.

Julian very slowly put down his cup, gave one short curse nod at Sally, got up and headed out of the cafe.

“I think you just gave him one big reality check there, Sally,” Darrell said lifting her cup to her lips and raising an eyebrow at her friend.

Sally slumped back in her seat and sighed. She craned her neck around to see if she could spot Julian from where they sat. She put her cup down and went to stand up, but David’s hand was on her arm before she could even stand, pulling her back down into her seat.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” David said kindly. “I think he needs some time alone.”

Julian wandered away from the cafe and back towards the beach. He needed some time to think about what Sally had said, take it in, run over it all in his mind. In all his years leading the Famous Five, not even Dick, his brother, had called him out on this level before.

Maybe he was just pretending that things were the same and that he could fix things like always, or maybe Sally was right, it just wasn’t feasible in the long run. He was in the adult world now.

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Five on a Treasure Island – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 6

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Fiona

So as promised here is the next two chapters of Five on a Treasure Island, compared to note any textual changes between them. (In case you’re just joining us, I’m comparing a 1965 17th impression to a 1997 paperback.)

Earlier posts can be found here, here, here, here and here.

The 1997 paperback, with the illustration from the first edition
The dustjacket of the 1965 edition (which differs from the first edition)

CHAPTER ELEVEN: OFF TO KIRRIN ISLAND

I’ll start with the sort of changes we’ve seen a lot of already.

There’s only one use of queer in this chapter and it becomes odd instead. Three whilsts become whiles, and Julian’s clean shorts become clean jeans. Also, hie Tim! is now hi Tim! (last time it was changed to hey Tim!)

The first new alteration I spotted is in George’s long internal monologue. She thinks I wish I was like them. Or in the modern copy, she wishes she were like them. Quite a petty little change, I’m not sure if one is technically more correct than the other but I didn’t see much wrong with was in the first place.

Another petty change is made later to one of Julian’s pieces of dialogue. Originally he says we must find out exactly under what spot the entrances to the dungeons are, but by 1997 it has become under which spot. Again it seems pointless to change one little word in the sentence like that when it still says the same thing.

The last change I spotted is clearly a typing error (at least I hope so.) I can’t imagine what that is, said Julian, puzzled, has become I can imagine, which makes no sense.

CHAPTER TWELVE: EXCITING DISCOVERIES

Again, starting with familiar alterations the three queers become funny, strange and peculiar in that order, and queerest becomes strangest.

After three hours hard work gets an apostrophe added, so it becomes three hours’. I see that written a lot – in fact if you write it in Word without the apostrophe you get the blue squiggly line under it that implies it might be a grammatical error (on that note, how does the blue differentiate from the green in Word? Red is misspellings, green is grammar, so what’s blue exactly?) Not that I trust Word implicitly, it keeps wanting me to write “Its fine,” in dialogue and other foolish things. Anyway, I actually don’t like the apostrophe in those uses. It implies the work belongs to the three hours, when really it’s saying three hours of work. Unless it signifies the missing of, as it would signify the missing o in don’t.Either way it seems to be grammatically correct these days so I probably should just accept it.

I’m not sure about the next alteration. Rings are only let into stones that need to be moved seems like an all right sentence to me. You let a bucket down into water, so in the same way you could probably let a ring into a stone. Anyway, it’s now been changed to set into stones which might make more sense. Maybe.

Tim no longer loses his foot-hold, instead he loses his footing. Foot-hold seems fine and quite clear in meaning to me.

Finally, there’s a bit of editing to the various echoes that occur in the dungeons. I’m not going to type the whole lines out but essentially Blyton uses a mix of capitals and small letters in her echoes (along the lines of “it’s an echo, it’s an ECHO, IT’S AN ECHO etc) but in the paperback all echoes are all in caps. I think Blyton gives a better impression of an echo, as they do change slightly as they bounce around.

On a side note, referring back to the last post (I think) I made where I commented on weird being used, it’s actually in this chapter. And it still looks odd and distinctly un-Blytonish to me despite the fact I’ve read this book countless times. I suppose before I’ve always gotten so swept away in the excitement of reading that I haven’t taken the time to notice every little word.

So that’s another seventeen changes, and if my counting is about right, we’re up to 95 alterations. Nearly at the one hundred mark! (I’m aware my count is in not very accurate as I’ve counted every instance of queer being changed but only the first time to-morrow became tomorrow etc.)

The story’s getting to a quite thrilling part now, and I’ll have chapters 13 and 14 done over the next two weeks.

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The Rosewood Mystery by Cathy, chapter 3

Posted on February 12, 2014 by worldofblyton

OFF TO ROSEWOOD!

Miss Pepper came to collect the children two days later. Mrs Lynton was pleased to see her old governess, and gave her a hug and kiss when she came up the front path.

“It’s so kind of you to invite the children to stay with you,” she said. “They’re all looking forward to it, I know.”

“They’ll enjoy it I think,” Miss Pepper smiled. “It’s a beautiful place, and there will be plenty for them to do.”

The two women then disappeared to have some tea and talk about the holiday.

“Mummy – shall we put the trunks into the car?” called Diana.

“Yes, you can do!” called back her mother.

The four children proceeded to load their cases and trunks into Miss Pepper’s car. Soon they were ready to go, and when Miss Pepper had finished having tea and cake with Mrs Lynton, everyone assembled in the drive to say their goodbyes.

“Goodbye Mummy, we’ll see you soon!” Diana called.

“Enjoy your peace and quiet!” called Roger.

“Goodbye Cookie, I’m going to miss your cakes!” Snubby grabbed Cook round the waist.

“Go on with you!” Cook pushed him away. “Shoo!”

“Goodbye Mrs Lynton.” Barney shook hands, and then gave Mrs Lynton an unexpected hug. She was surprised, and smiled.

“Bye Daddy!” Roger and Diana yelled.

“Goodbye Uncle Richard.” Snubby held out his hand most politely. Mr Lynton looked sharply at him, as if wondering what mischief he was planning now. He had learnt by now that the more innocent Snubby looked, the more likely it was that he had done, or was about to do, something he shouldn’t.

“Goodbye,” he shook Snubby’s hand. “Behave yourself for Miss Pepper.”

“Oh, Uncle Richard!” Snubby looked most put-out. “Of course we will!”

“I meant you,” Mr Lynton said, his eyes twinkling a little. “I know the others will. Go on – be off with you!”

It was a fun car journey to Rosewood. The countryside was beautiful, and they passed through many pretty little villages on their way. They stopped at one that had a couple of shops, and had ice creams.

“These are jolly good ices,” said Snubby approvingly. “Makes me want to order a second lot.”

“No you don’t!” said Miss Pepper, her eyes twinkling. “Back in the car with you all – we’ve got to get going.”

Barney had sat in front so far, but Miranda had been so fidgety that Miss Pepper insisted they go in the back and that Diana should sit in the front. So poor Roger was squashed in the middle of Barney and Miranda on one side, and Snubby and Loony on the other.

“What pretty names all the villages have!” said Diana, looking at the signposts as they drove along. “Little Finchley – makes me think of finches, Ashe-On-The-Water, Lower Honeywell and Upper Honeywell, and ours is called Rosewood!”

“It’s a very pretty part of the country,” Miss Pepper said. “Lower Honeywell is the closest village to us – about two or three miles away from Rosewood. It’s a pretty village, you could walk there if it’s a nice day.”

“Oh yes, we shall!” Diana said.

Eventually they reached Rosewood village.

“Here we are – Rosewood,” said Miss Pepper.

Everyone craned their necks to see out of the car windows as they drove through the pretty little main street. It was like a village from a picture on a chocolate box. It had a small main street with a post office and a general store. The houses were all either tiny whitewashed cottages or larger, thatched ones with timbers. There was a village green with a clear pond. Several small lanes led in various directions from the main street, some sloping hills, each one lined with more tiny, pretty cottages.

“Where’s your cottage, Miss Pepper?” asked Roger, trying to see out but having his view blocked by Snubby and Loony, and Miranda on the other side.

“Down this lane here,” Miss Pepper said, turning the car into a small quiet lane with one or two cottages here and there. “Look up there on the hill – that’s Rosewood Manor.”

The children looked up the lane to where it sloped into a hill. Perched on the hill was the most beautiful old manor house they had ever seen. It was a huge old place, built of soft grey stone, and was covered with little leaded windows, jutting gables, timbers, and large chimneys on the roof. Green plants climbed all over the walls and across some of the windows, giving it a very mysterious, romantic look.

“What an amazing place!” Diana exclaimed. “Is it very old, Miss Pepper?”

“It was built in the 1500s, so I’m told,” Miss Pepper said. “It has beautiful gardens too, lovely big lawns, a fountain, and there used to be some topiary, but I’m not sure if that is still there.”

“Topi…what?” asked Snubby.

“Topiary, ass!” Roger laughed. “You know – trees and hedges cut into the shapes of animals and other fancy designs.”

“Who owns the manor?” asked Barney.

“I don’t really know,” said Miss Pepper. “No-one has lived in it for over a hundred years. I have a feeling that it is still owned by the original family, but for some reason they don’t want to live there. There is someone employed to come and keep the gardens, though goodness knows why, if no-one ever goes there. Perhaps they intend to come and live here in the future, and are keeping the gardens in good order for when they eventually move in.”

“They should open it and let people see over it,” said Diana. “I bet it’s beautiful inside.”

Miss Pepper pulled in to the little drive of Rosewood Cottage and the children jumped out, thrilled. It was a beautiful little cottage, with a thatched roof. The walls were painted a very pale pink, the windows were leaded with a diamond pattern, and pretty window-boxes full of flowers adorned every windowledge. A gravel path led up to a strong-looking wooden door, and continued round the cottage to a very pretty garden with a small green lawn and numerous bright flower-beds.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” said Diana, thrilled. “Oh Miss Pepper, what a lovelyl little cottage!”

“I thought you’d like it,” Miss Pepper said. “Come on – let’s get the trunks in and then I’ll make us some tea. I have no maid or help here yet, so you will have to help me with the cooking and things.”

“Of course we will!” said Diana. “It’ll be fun!”

The boys brought in all the luggage, while Diana helped Miss Pepper to prepare some scones and cake, and make a pot of tea.

“Shall we have tea in the garden?” asked Miss Pepper. “There’s a little table and chairs out there on the lawn, and it’s a lovely evening.”

“Oh, yes, let’s!” Diana said. “Wonderful!”

While they had tea Miss Pepper told them about the village. There were beautiful walks along the river, she said, and she knew of someone who kept horses, who might let the children take them out for rides.

“It’s not a proper riding stables,” she said. “But the lady is very nice and knows me quite well now, so I am sure she wouldn’t mind you taking the horses out for a ride sometime.”

There was also a man who lived down by the river who owned several small rowing boats, and who let people hire them to row down the gentle little river. The children couldn’t wait to do this.

“Where is the river?” asked Roger, munching his scone.

“It runs south from the other side of the village,” Miss Pepper explained. “Behind the village green is a row of cottages that back onto a kind-of field, or area of rough long grass, and the river runs through that field.”

“It sounds delightful.” said Barney, handing Miranda a small piece of cake. She began to eat it prettily. “I can’t wait to go out in a boat.”

“It’s very pretty down there,” Miss Pepper said. “The water flows quite slowly so it’s safe to row and even swim, and it’s the most beautiful clear green colour, you can see all the fish, and the stony river bed.”

“Well go there tomorrow!” said Diana at once. “If it’s as hot as today we’ll have a bathe. Can we take a picnic, Miss Pepper?”

“If you make it!” laughed Miss Pepper.

 

 

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Looks like it’s Monday Again

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Fiona

Yes it’s Monday again, and February is whizzing by, and there  does not seem to be an end in sight to this horrible wet windy weather we seem to be having!

Never mind, at least we can all curl up at home with our Blytons and escape the world for a few hours? Which Blyton are you reading now? Comment below and let us know which one you’re lost in at the moment. I’m itching to start either Five Go Off to Camp or Five Go Down to the Sea for all that glorious weather and the descriptions of food!

Anyway this week, Wednesday in fact, we shall be posting our 300th post! So just after our first birthday (November) we have reached a staggering 300 blogs, and I know we’ve enjoyed writing them, even though there has been some (metaphorical) blood, sweat and tears along the way!

So thank you to all our contributors, you all treat us to fabulous work and I hope you will continue to do so!

And on that note, I can confirm that we have the next chapter of Cathy’s Barney Mystery Story, which will be smashing!

Fiona has told me that she intends to do the next part of her Five on a Treasure Island comparison.

Which just leaves me. Uhoh. I’m afraid that it will be another chapter of The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Mystery. I hope you don’t mind. If I think of anything else, I promise I shall scribble it down quickly!

Anyway, as usual, I shall leave you with some of my pictures from the last couple of weeks in what I’m beginning to think should be called our Photography Corner! Hope you enjoy!

Roses and wine glasses
Tea light candle
Wine (glasses) and rose
Wall decoration
Pink lily
White rose
Reeds
Red berries
Through the gate
Rusted metal
Catkins
Hanging statement
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