Monday

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Fiona

It’s Monday again. It’s six weeks til Christmas. It’s getting colder and we have a range of treats for you this week.

Another wonderful Famous Five blog from Corinna, this time looking at Mystery Moor, so I hope you’re all looking forward to that on Wednesday!

Fiona tells me she’s hoping to supply you with a review for Hollow Tree House which I am looking forward to because I’ve never read it before (in fact I hadn’t known about it until she mentioned it a week or so ago).

And from me? Well I don’t like to say, because I keep letting you down, so you may get another Missing Papers chapter or the blog on tomboys I promised you last week, or a completely new one from Bourne End. Suggestions welcome (comment below).

One last thing from me, the 52nd Enid Blyton Society journal was posted out last week. If you want to subscribe to this wonderful piece of work, you should head over to the Enid Blyton Society and subscribe now for three journals a year!

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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 6

Posted on November 17, 2013 by pippastef

You can catch up on past chapters using the links below:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

I hope you enjoy chapter six!

Chapter 6

Soon they were all down by the sea, and small sandy stretch between them and the water. Darrell closed her eyes and took a deep breath, just taking in the familiar smell of the sea. Sally laughed at her, slipping her arm through her friend’s again. She grinned at Darrell.

“You know you can smell the sea on campus when the wind blows inland, you don’t have to just enjoy the salty smell here,” she teased her friend. Darrell grinned good naturedly at Sally and looked at the boys.

“So are we going to stand here all day, or are we actually going to see how cold it really is?” Darrell asked chuckling. They all grinned at each other.

“Come on then,” Julian said chuckling, “we won’t get there if we stand here all day,” he said with a grin, jumping off the rock they were standing on to the beach below. David followed suit.

“If you think we’re doing that, you’ve got another thing coming,” Sally said with a laugh as the wind picked up a little and whipped around them.

“I think we’ll walk down using the pathway,” Darrell said with a smirk.

“Don’t be silly,” Julian said chuckling, “sit down on the rock and we’ll lift you down! It’ll be much quicker.”

David nodded. “Come on girls,” he said laughing, “It’ll be simple,” he assured them as Darrell and Sally exchanged looks.

Darrell relented and sat down on the rock first, and allowed the boys to help her down on to the sand. Sally was a little less eager to try it; she had visions of herself ending up face first in the sand.

“Come on Sally,” Darrell called as the wind picked up and swept her hair over her face.

“Come on,” Julian said smiling up at her, his hands extended upwards to catch her, David waiting by his side to lend a hand. Sally found herself looking down at Julian and finding herself sitting on the rock, sliding forwards him. Sally smirked a little to herself as Julian caught her easily and lifted her to the ground with barely any help from David.

“There, that wasn’t so bad was it?” Julian asked Sally grinning widely as he set her down on the sand. Sally shook her head, realising that her cheeks were a little flushed.

“Come on!” Darrell called from a good ten metres away from the other three. Sally laughed and turned away from Julian to run after her best friend.  David raised an eyebrow at Julian who rolled his eyes. The boys smirked at each other and set off towards the girls.

After an hour down by the sea, half paddling, half walking up and down the tide mark, the four of them decided to head back to the university in search of a warm cup of tea and a mid afternoon snack.

“It’s not nearly tea time yet,” David said looking at his watch, “but I don’t see a problem with sitting in one of the common rooms and just having a quiet afternoon in. The sky is clouding over after all,” he added looking up at the sky, where big dark rain clouds had crept in over St Andrews, threatening rain.

“We can sit in our common room,” Darrell said smiling, “I’ve got some crumpets somewhere that we can toast on the fire.”

“I’ve got some biscuits,” Sally volunteered as they walked down the street back into town.

“The only thing we might need is some milk,” Darrell said smiling, “I don’t think we’ve had a chance to pick some up yet.”

“We pass the newsagents on the way back up to the University, so we can pick some up on our way,” Julian said.

“Do you think anyone would mind us being in your common room?” David asked as they walked, “I mean, I would invite you back to ours, but well, wouldn’t want to subject you to all those boys,” he said, grinning sheepishly.

Julian chuckled.“Yes, it’s not a pleasant smell,” he agreed wrinkling his nose.

“I don’t think boys can help it sometimes,” Sally said grinning at the boys, “Smell just seems to radiate off of you!” she teased.

The boys had to laugh at Sally’s comment.

“You caught us,” Julian said with a laugh and giving her shoulders a quick squeeze. Sally found her breath being taken away from her as she felt his arm squeezing her shoulders affectionately. Sally found that she fitted rather comfortably under Julian’s arm. She chuckled, shaking her hair back from her face, hoping that her cheeks had not gone pink.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Fiona

It’s not what I promised for this week but circumstances (ie me not feeling well,) have led me to throw this together quickly. I’d like to say there’s a story behind these captions, but other than “Stef and I were bored and thought it was really funny,” there isn’t one. They all poke fun at the 90s series (both fashions and actors, though for some reason Julian/Marco came off worst!) We hope you find them as funny as we did!

15

 

26

Marcopullover

trousers

go easy

always right

leapfrog

And there you have it, our very own brand of humour. We’ve got quite a few more but I thought that was enough for now! Perhaps some day we’ll treat you to what’s know as “the leaning series,” (funnier than it sounds if you’re us) and the “what would Julian do?” series.

Please do suggest your own captions for these pictures if you can think of anything funny!

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 9

Posted on November 13, 2013 by worldofblyton

Chapter nine:

Setting up the camp

The children decided, that before they had lunch, they would set up the camp. The boys were determined it would be a proper camp, with campfires, a washing line made out of string, little seats made out of wood. The girls were thrilled with these ideas and couldn’t wait to see what it would all look like.

“We’ll start with the tents, I think.” Philip said, looking at the untidy bundle Mr Jordans had left them in.

“We’ll have them opposite each other, and the little seats in between. Then we can have the campfires in the middle, and the washing line can be attached to each tent,” Jack suggested.

The children began putting up the tents, opposite each other, like they agreed. It was harder than they thought but they soon had them up. “Now,” Philip said. “Jack, you go to that little stump of a tree and try and cut out little flat seats with your pocket knife. It’s a sharp one. I’ll rig the washing line up and collect some dry wood for our camp fire, and you girls get some us some lunch ready.”

Continue reading →

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Monday Again, and it’s Remembrance Day

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Fiona

We hope you’re all wearing your poppies today, as (in Commonwealth countries at least,) it’s Remembrance Day (also known as Armistice Day or Poppy Day.)

I've had my poppy badges on for the past few weeks at work.

I’ve had my poppy badges on for the past few weeks at work.

We’re almost at 35,000 views (25 off as I write this!) as we’ve had a very good month (over 4000 views in October alone). We’re also at 499 comments, so if any of you comment on this post you might well be giving us our 500th!

This week we’ll have another chapter of Poppy’s fanfic for you, Stef hopes to write a bit about George Kirrin in comparison to some other literary tomboys, and I will either look at Hollow Tree House or put together some tips for buying Blyton books on eBay.

As has become tradition I will end the post with some of my latest photos.

Fireworks at Balgay park
Waves on Tentsmuir beach
Fireworks at Balgay park
Weeds on Rosemill Road
Fireworks at Balgay park
Swan on Clatto reservoir
Oyster catchers at Tentsmuir
Geese over Bridgefoot
Clouds over Rosemill
Fireworks at Balgay park
Shadows on Tentsmuir beach
Tenstsmuir beach
Blackbird by Clatto reservoir
Fireworks at Balgay park
Tentsmuir forest at sunset
Cygnets on Clatto reservoir
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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 5

Posted on November 10, 2013 by pippastef

I hope you enjoy the next chapter of The Missing Papers: A St Andrew’s Mystery.  If you’re just joining us, previous chapters can be found here:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Sally had been making her way to the dining hall to meet the others when she had observed something quite strange as she walked across the campus. She had been walking against the wind, her head bowed and glad of her light jacket as the wind had picked up, when she had heard some raised voices.

The boy who had steadied her the day before after she had almost been pushed over by the boy running past, was arguing with another boy. Sally assumed that Thomas was arguing with this friend of his about something silly when the other boy gave him a shove away from him, possibly in frustration. The boys were attracting a crowd at this point, and the fight was getting physical. There was no real hint of real violence to it, just the aggravated frustration that was usually seen in boys of a much younger age. Sally watched, hugging her book to her chest as two of the boys’ friends broke them up and pulled them apart. The other boy, whom Sally didn’t know, was taken off in the opposite direction to her, but Thomas was brought toward her. His friend had his arm around Thomas’ shoulders and the boys were muttering to each other as they passed her.

“…just a few more weeks Tom, then everything will be back to normal,” Sally heard the boy mutter as they walked past her. She bit her lip and hurried off with the rest of the crowd, almost running into the dining hall. Sally wouldn’t have let herself run if she had not already been late to meet her friends and if she wasn’t hit by the strangeness of the words that Thomas’ friend had muttered.

Sally didn’t have time to examine the feeling in her that told her that Julian was the one to tell about this first. Later, when she had had chance to think her reaction through, Sally reasoned to herself that she had wanted to tell Julian first because she knew it would be the kind of thing he was interested in as one of the group of kids who had foiled all sorts of schemes. He was part of the Famous Five; Sally told herself, that was why you wanted to tell him.

Her three friends looked up at her as she walked into the hall and sat down next to Darrell.
“What took you so long?” Darrell asked studying her friend’s face. Sally looked a little worried, and that was unusual for Sally.

“Oh, just a couple of boys having a scrap in the quadrangle,” she said brushing her hair out of her face as it flopped forward into her eyes. “And I was just running a bit late that’s all,” she added in the tone of voice that suggested to Darrell that she was to drop the subject.

“Don’t worry, we would have waited for you to turn up,” Julian said smiling a little at the flustered Sally.

Sally allowed herself to smile a little back at him.

“So what are we actually going to do with ourselves this afternoon then?” David said leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“Well we can always stroll down to the town,” Julian said looking at the clock, “I do want to get today’s paper and we haven’t had chance to explore it properly yet.”

“We could always head down to the beach as well,” Darrell said smiling.

“I wouldn’t suggest swimming in the sea though,” Sally said wryly, “Lord knows what these north sea currents are like up and down this coast line.”

“The water also might be a little bit colder than what you were used to in Cornwall,” David said with a grin.

Darrell sent him a withering glance as she jumped up out of her seat and swung her bag up on her shoulder again. “Shall we go then?” she asked choosing to playfully ignore David’s teasing.

Sally nodded and got to her feet and the boys followed suit. One their way down to the town, Sally found her keeping pace with Julian as David and Darrell wandered ahead discussing the currents around the British coasts and all manner of other subjects. Sally looked up at Julian and decided on how to voice her thoughts on the fight she had witnessed before joining her friends.

Julian caught her looking up and him and looked down and smiled. “Penny for your thoughts?” he asked as they walked, “And I’m glad to see that you brought a cardigan with you today,” he added with a teasing glint in his eye.

Sally allowed herself a smile, noting that she was becoming very comfortable around him and was surprised at how quickly she was adjusting to him. “Yes, after last night, I thought it would be best to bring another layer with me today. I didn’t want to be caught out if it got cold quickly,” Sally said grinning. She looked a little pensive as she considered how to start voicing her concerns about the fight she had witnessed earlier.

Julian looked at her carefully and decided to take the initiative and ask Sally what exactly was bothering her. “So this fight you saw,” he said almost tactlessly, “Anything interesting about it?” he asked with an air of someone who just wanted to be clued in.

Sally felt relieved that Julian had brought up this topic of conversation, though she wasn’t going to tell him so. Sally began to recount her story thankfully to the eager ears of her audience. “Well, it seemed to appear out of nowhere really,” she said attentively, “a boy I bumped into yesterday when I almost got knocked over started scrapping with someone I assume was one of his friends. The argument looked serious however, not something trivial that friends may argue over on the second day of term.” Sally said looking a little puzzled.

Julian, although he was bursting to ask questions, kept his mouth shut and let her continue.

“So anyway, this boy’s friends broke up the two, even though there was a big crowd by then, and one friend brought this boy, Thomas, who had helped me yesterday, off towards me and they were muttering as they passed me. It sounded very out of context to such a fight,” Sally said finally looking up at Julian.

Julian looked down at her and grinned. “Sounds like you could have been a detective yourself,” Julian said laughing a little and giving her arm a light squeeze.

Sally smiled a little.

“What did you hear the two men say who headed your way after the fight?” Julian asked as they strolled past the shops.

Continue reading →

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Amelia Jane Again! part 2

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Fiona

I abandoned part one a bit abruptly (it was after midnight and it was already really rather long) so here I am continuing with part two and the other seven stories in the book.

The next story in the book is Amelia Jane is Tired. It starts with Amelia Jane and the teddy bear going to the shops where she buys a watering can and he buys an umbrella. On the way home they both get tired, and the teddy bear refuses to carry Amelia Jane the rest of the way when she begs him. Instead he has a rest under a tree and Amelia Jane uses her new watering can to make him think it is raining. The teddy bear is very pleased he can put up his umbrella now, and when Amelia Jane sits herself on top, he simply thinks it’s heavy because of the rain and so carries her all the way home! It’s nice to have a story where Amelia Jane is more mischievous than malicious, but she still gets her comeuppance as she has left her new watering can behind!

The teddy bear unwittingly carries Amelia Jane home

The teddy bear unwittingly carries Amelia Jane home

In A Shock for Amelia Jane we are told visiting toys to the nursery are always shocked by Amelia Jane’s behaviour. Examples given include Betsy-May’s best doll and Billy-Bob’s floating duck. (Betsy-May and Billy-Bob are Blyton characters from their own books.)

In an attempt to teach her some manners they concoct a plan to shock her, one that involves a large balloon, paint, hair, a coat and a shawl. Mrs Good-Manners then comes to visit the nursery, her large round head wobbling over her shawl-covered shoulders. She’s terribly polite, as one would expect with a name like Good-Manners, but Amelia Jane is very rude to her despite the toys’ warnings. Mrs Good-Manners’ head wobbles alarmingly at Amelia Jane’s rudeness until it appears she must surely burst with rage, and burst she does, her head exploding and her body tumbling to the ground. It’s a lot less gruesome than it sounds of course, but Amelia Jane is horrified and upset at what she’s done to the poor woman and promises to be a much nicer doll in future.

Mrs Good-Manners

Mrs Good-Manners

Of course it doesn’t last very long and in Amelia Jane’s Hair Goes Straight! she is quarrelling with the clockwork clown over a brick picture puzzle. She deliberately messes it up when he doesn’t want help and then throws two pieces out of the window. The clockwork clown then loses his temper and behaves rather badly, throwing a brick at her, and she then throws all the bricks out of the window.

It starts to rain then and Amelia Jane feels bad as she knows the puzzle will be spoiled and she did enjoy playing with it. She rushes out to rescue it, getting soaked and losing her curls in the process.

The toys feel sorry for her and use papers from the kite’s tail to curl her hair again, meaning she can go off to a party the next day.

Amelia Jane rushes downstairs

Amelia Jane rushes downstairs

Amelia Jane and the Snow-Doll is one of my favourite stories, though the premise has sort of already been used in Amelia Jane in the Snow which is in Naughty Amelia Jane. The toys go out to play in the snow and as always Amelia Jane is tiresome, throwing snow-balls at them all. When she gets bored of that she makes herself a snow-baby, dressing in in dolls’ clothes from the nursery. The toys build a fine snowman and laugh at Amelia Jane when she takes her snow-baby into the warm nursery for a nap. I think we all know what happens to snow when it gets warmed up, and Amelia Jane finds herself very cold, wet and sneezy.

Uh-oh, where can the snow-baby have gone?

Uh-oh, where can the snow-baby have gone?

Amelia Jane is Naughty Again features a canary called Goldie who lives in a high-up cage in the nursery. Amelia Jane, being a nosy sort of doll clambers up on a chair to have a look in his cage. That’s not enough for her though, and she decides to let him out to fly around the nursery. While Goldie is enjoying his freedom Amelia Jane decides to become a canary and climbs into the cage, which is promptly shut up by the other toys. The toys then manage to trap Goldie in the dolls’ house, so when Nurse comes in she gets rather a surprise. She spanks Amelia Jane (it would be interesting to know whether that remains in modern editions.) This story is odd in a way, as it breaks the ‘rule’ that the grown-ups and children don’t know that the toys come to life. You would think Nurse’s reaction would be to blame the children for letting out the bird and putting a doll in its place, rather than punishing what she’s supposed to think is an inanimate object. There are some tales (for example Amelia Jane and the Shoes from earlier in this book) where the children punish Amelia Jane, but children do that sort of thing.

Amelia Jane as a canary

Amelia Jane as a canary

In Poor Amelia Jane a new family move in next door and have a pond dug in their garden, complete with a fountain. The toys sneak out one night taking toy boats and ducks to play. Amelia Jane encourages the clockwork mouse to take a duck-ride to the middle of the deep pond to look at the bowl there, and while he is exploring she finds a tap and turns it on. The poor mouse gets caught in the stream of water from the fountain and is left bobbing up and down in the air. The tap simply won’t turn off though, no matter how hard they try, and so Amelia Jane has no option but to wade out waist-deep in the cold water to rescue him, leaving her soaked through and with straight, wet hair again. Perhaps the toys remember the last time that happened, as they simply get some curl-papers and sort her hair with no mention of the kite this time.

Amelia Jane rescuing the clockwork mouse

Amelia Jane rescuing the clockwork mouse

The last story is Amelia Jane and the Drum. After Nurse is done washing and ironing the toys’ clothes (she must have a lot of time on her hands!) she leaves them to air in font of the fire. Amelia Jane makes the toys play with her thought it’s really too hot for it and she ends up opening a window so they can cool off. Unfortunately it is windy, and the clothes start to get blown into the fire. This is were the drum comes in handy and Amelia Jane uses it to make the children and Nurse come running in order to rescue the clothes. It’s a little too late, though, and so the doll ends up giving the gollywog her hair ribbon to hide the singed waistband of his trousers, and promising to sew some hankies together to make a new petticoat for the baby doll.

The drum that must have been drumming by itself

The drum that must have been drumming by itself

A nice mixture of stories in this book, some where she’s outright nasty and others where she is just foolish or selfish. I’m sure if I was one of the toys I wouldn’t be nearly so forgiving. She may often do her best to undo her mischief; but she still does horrible things in the first place!

I haven’t had a chance to look out my other copy of the book (with Rene Cloke illustrations) but I might do at some point and do a comparison.

Illustrations are by Sylvia I Venus, and are photos I took of my copy of the book.

Next review: More About Amelia Jane part 1

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Five Go Off To Camp by Corinna

Posted on November 6, 2013 by worldofblyton

The first of my Famous Five “pick’n’mix” reviews!

I had the idea of reading through all the Famous Fives again, in order, but as I sat there looking into one of my boxes of books, I felt like I just couldn’t face reading Five on a Treasure Island again and I’d read Five Go Adventuring Again very recently too.

Corinna's Collection of Famous Fives.

Corinna’s Collection of Famous Fives.

I decided that really, I should just read whichever one I felt like!  After some deliberation I selected Five Go Off to Camp as I hadn’t read that one for a while.   This is a 10th edition (1960) copy in not-very-good condition (see more about that later) but in quite a good dustjacket.  I opted for this one over my 1991 Knight paperback, because as much as I have pleasant associations with the set I got in my childhood, I felt that I wanted to read the version as close to what the author intended as possible.

Five go off to Camp in its dustjacket.

Five Go off to Camp in its dustjacket.

Fiona has already done an excellent synopsis of this book here so I won’t attempt to replicate that.  I’ll talk instead about what I liked about this story, and a couple of little things I didn’t like so much.

Of course, one of the best things about this book is the spook train.  There is such a wonderful creepy atmosphere created by the idea of a ghost train creeping mysteriously out of disused tunnels at nighttime.  It is the sort of thing that sends delicious tingles down one’s spine!

The spook train always makes me think of the first Enid Blyton Society event I attended in 2011 at Bourne End, where I met Stef and Su and we explored the nearby railway tracks.  It was the first time I learnt that the infallible Julian could actually be wrong about something, and the imparter of that knowledge was, very surprisingly, Stef!  Stef  pointed out that these tracks were very well used, and that there were weeds growing on them – contrary to what Julian said in Five Go off to Camp

“Well, no train has been out of this tunnel here for years,” said Julian, looking at the thick weeds.  “The wheels would have chopped the weeds to pieces.”

However, to give Ju some credit, I’m not entirely sure that the weeds were growing over the tracks, so much as around them, so it may well be that he was right!

I also enjoyed the secondary characters in this story.  Mr Luffy was absolutely delightful, and the ideal sort of grown-up who mostly left the children to their own devices, but was there when they needed help at the end.  Jock’s mother played the “Aunt Fanny” role in this one, keeping the children well-fed for their adventures.  Peg Leg Sam was another favourite – he frightened me as a child, particularly when he threw a large cinder at poor Dick, and he really was an integral component of the creepy atmosphere of the story.

This story also had some funny moments – like the children teasing poor Cecil Dearlove (what a name!) by telling him to “beware of the bull.”  Of course, the children were not lying, as I suppose it does pay to beware, even if there is no bull in the near vicinity!   Probably my favourite moment in the book is a funny one, and I remembered it best out of all the scenes – when Anne, wandering around by herself, sits on a “volcano,” which turns out to be a vent for the smoke from the trains under the moor! I also love when the boys think she will be frightened the first time a train comes rumbling along under them when they are all together, and Anne shows them she is not scared at all.  Good old Anne!

George does not come off so well in this book – she seems to be in a sulk most of the book.  However, she becomes a bit of a hero at the finish, and so I think we can forgive her.

One quibble that I have is with the illustrations – they don’t always seem to match the description in the text.  For example, how many puppies can you count in this picture?

How many puppies can you count?

How many puppies can you count?

Well, the relevant part of the text says “A collie dog lay there with four lovely puppies!”  This lack of attention to details is somewhat annoying, although to be fair, the author herself was not known for her own attention to detail!

Another annoyance was with my copy of the book itself.  Some of the pages were in the wrong order!  A whole section would be moved and inserted in the wrong place – for example, pages 107 – 112 are in between pages 102 and 103.  They had not obviously fallen out and been re-bound or anything, so I’m guessing that there was some sort of binding error at the printers.  Although all the pages were there, flicking between the sections did disrupt the flow of the story quite a bit.

Printers Error? Wrong pages numbers.

Printers Error? Wrong pages numbers.

Despite my little quibbles, I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading this story, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one, whichever one it is!

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The Bonfire at Night: A poem by Enid Blyton

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Fiona

It’s bonfire night tonight, so I thought we should have a poem to celebrate. I’m going out tonight to see the fireworks, are you? You can also take a look at the poem we put up last year at this time about fireworks.

Bonfire, you’re a merry fellow
With your flames of red and yellow,
And your cheery cracks and pops-
You gobble up the old bean-props,
The pea-sticks, withered plants, and all
The leaves blown down beside the wall.
Your never-ending spires of smoke
(The colour of a pixy’s cloak)
Go mounting to the starry sky,
And when the wind comes bustling by
Oh, what a merry game you play,
And how you pop and roar away!
Your heart is red, your smoke is thick,
On, pile on leaves and branches quick!
Let’s dance around and shout and sing,
Oh, Bonfire, you’re a LOVELY thing!

From the Enid Blyton Poetry book, 1934.

Foter.com / CC BY-SA
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November Monday

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Fiona

Gosh, so it’s the first Monday in November (seriously where is the year going?) and it’s also the week of our first birthday! Gosh doesn’t time fly! This time last year I was up in Dundee with Fiona and when we weren’t busy during the day, we were busy blogging by night!

Our most viewed post last week seems to have been the firework poem given that it is coming up for Bonfire night! Just remember to stay safe when watching fireworks and keep all animals inside – they get awfully scared!

This week, we have a review and point of view on Five Go Off in A Caravan by Corinna, who’s turning into a blogging fiend! (We’re certainly not complaining!) Fiona thinks she will treat us to the rest of her Amelia Jane reviews, while I am a little undecided as to what to treat you to. You may end up with another chapter of The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Mystery, so I hope you don’t mind a slightly vague idea for this week.

I wish I had some nice Halloween-y or firework pictures to show you from this week, but alas, I’ve not been to a firework display or been anywhere near Halloween! So I hope a selection of my pictures will work just as well.

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Round the Year with Enid Blyton: Autumn Book

Posted on November 3, 2013 by pippastef
Round the Year with Enid Blyton: Autumn Book First Edition

Round the Year with Enid Blyton: Autumn Book first edition

The Autumn Book from Enid Blyton’s Round the Year series can be found in two formats; either as a slim paper back volume with a pretty illustration of birds and apples on the front of a brown cover or in a hardback volume that contains all the books in the Round the Year series.

These books are part of Blyton’s Nature collections and are published (at least the copy I have, given to me by Fiona) by Evans Brothers Ltd. These were written when Blyton was living at Old Thatch in Buckinghamshire, as the foreword in the front of the book says. Blyton explains that she would like to have the children walk through the countryside with her to see the changing seasons, but as she can’t she has written these books.

The Autumn Book is divided into 11 short chapters that talk about autumn nature. Blyton starts with looking at what sort of wheat we grow in our cornfields during this time, and explains the differences between the wheat that is grown, what it looks like in the fields and what it is used for. There are even illustrations to show what the different wheat grains look like.

At the end of each chapter there is a little list of “things to do” to encourage children to talk about, appreciate and enjoy nature. I think a large part of Blyton’s nature books is to get children interested and involved with nature, so these little lists help them do this. However the list seems slightly easier for country dwelling children than for city children but the descriptive nature of the book means that any children can understand what Blyton was talking about.

“The Birds Fly South”  is the next chapter, where she talks about migration in birds and the reasons they do leave the country. She also explains which birds don’t leave us and will be about during the winter.

The third chapter is “All About Shadows” where she talks to the reader about the change in shadows as the day goes on. This is a slightly strange topic I feel, but an interesting one. She talks about creating a sun dial, and how it would work, well it sounds like a good project for older children.

All in all there are eleven chapter covering topics such as bulbs, worms, seeds, clouds, rain, cats and dogs, and sparrows and spiders. All in all a great range of nature crammed into this very nice slim volume. There are printed pictures and illustrations which break up the text nicely. It’s nice to have some printed photographs in there as well, it makes a pleasant change from the illustrations.

If you can get hold of a copy of the book, or a copy of all that seasons together, I do recommend that you do. It’s a neat little book to have and like the Nature Lover’s Book will help you identify different aspects of the seasons.

Picture Taken from the Enid Blyton Society Cave of Books
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Happy birthday to us!

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Fiona

The blog is one year old today!

Happy Birthday to us, from the Famous Five

Happy Birthday to us, from the Famous Five

And what a year it has been. I like to think we’ve gotten to grips with the whole blogging thing by now, after a shaky-at-times start.

We’ve racked up over 33,000 views in that time, 238 posts (239 if you include this one), 11 contributors, nearly 500 comments and possibly equal amounts of fun and stress.

I’d like to say we’re having a big party to celebrate, but at best it will be a virtual one as Stef and I are at opposite ends of the country near enough and some of our contributors aren’t even in the UK!

Virtual cake to celebrate with

Virtual cake to celebrate with

Here’s to another year of blogging! We hope you’ll join us in celebrating! Why not tell us of your favourite blog moment in the comments below?”

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A trip to Seven Stories in Newcastle, part 2

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Fiona

Picking up from where I left off here, after The Famous Five, Adventure Series, Secret Seven, Faraway Tree and Noddy, the next bit of the exhibition was about Blyton’s non-fic work, her nature books in particular.

NON-FICTION WORKS

Some of those books were on display, alongside a large touchy-feely mural and some rather large stuffed bugs and beetles. We didn’t spend an awful long time in this section, but it was nice to see her possibly less-famous area of writing being celebrated. In fact, shamefully, we spent so little time in it we didn’t manage to take any pictures to show you… so moving swiftly on!

BLYTON’S CAREER

The final area was about Blyton’s working life mostly, her output of books and the media’s perception of her. One wall was a montage of newspaper articles and headlines, the rest was a sort of mock-up of a study complete with writing desk. Blyton’s own typewriter was on display there, as well as a sort of ‘jute box’ showing a large selection of book covers by year. Sneakily, we left a blog business card on the bulletin board there!

Blyton’s typwriter
The book cover ‘jute box’
Part of the media wall

After the blyton exhibition (which took us an hour or so) we decided to explore the rest of the centre to see what it had to offer.

JUDITH KERR

We went up to their other exhibition, on Judith Kerr, and had a wander about. Neither of us have really read much of her work, though I’m a fan of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, so we really just had a brief wander through to say we’d seen it. The highlight was a large kitchen, full of food to feed the enormous tiger sat at the table.

I'd have taken a photo but there were a family around the table having fun, so this is stolen from the an article on the BBC website.

I’d have taken a photo but there were a family around the table having fun, so this is stolen from the an article on the BBC website.

THE SEVEN STORIES SHOP

After the exhibitions we went down to the shop and had a good, long look around. There were books relating to authors who have had exhibitions there as well as plenty of books for all ages of children. Naturally we searched out the Blytons and at first were disappointed by the meagre shelf-and-a-half we found. Then, feeling slightly foolish, we turned to see several large bookshelves stuffed with Blytons in the ‘exhibition authors’ area.

As mentioned in other blogs I bought an audio book of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top/Five Get Into a Fix and a badge saying ‘monitor’, and Stef bought the 70s series collectors’ edition DVD. We were like… what’s that well known phrase? Book lovers in a bookshop.

THE CAFE

Next we headed for the cafe where we had great slabs of some very nice lemon cake and bottles of juice (not ginger beer but they were in Blytonesque glass bottles.)

AND THE REST…

After that we had another look around the Blyton exhibition in case there was anything we missed, and then a peek into the story lab, a room where they have workshops for children (though there was nothing on at that very moment).

Then we climbed to the very top floor known as the artist’s attic where they hold story times. Again, it was empty, but that meant we could explore in peace and admire the all the books hanging from the roof like a huge mobile.

The view from the stairwell
Looking down the stairs

(The book lover in me wants to be offended by the ruination of books… but they all looked really boring so I’ll forgive them!)

After that we popped down to the lowest level to check out the creation station where visitors can do all sorts of literary based crafts.

We didn’t leave until almost closing time, having insisted on visiting all seven stories. When we did leave we took the right route back, stopping off for tea (or dinner if you ask Stef) on the way before getting on a train just before seven.

And that was our day! If you can get to Newcastle before the 30th of April next year, I really do recommend you visit Seven Stories. It only costs £6.50 for an adult and there’s plenty to see and do to keep you entertained (we were there about three and a half hours, but we could have taken longer if we wanted to!) It’s even worth taking a bit of a trip to visit Newcastle just for it, as so far (at least to my knowledge) there are no confirmed places for when it goes on tour next year, and you wouldn’t want to miss out. Our six hour round trip (not to mention the £80 on train fares between us) was totally worth it IMHO.

I’ve now nicked some more photos from Stef, of the two of us being a bit silly in the exhibition so I’ll tack them on the end here to give you all a laugh.

I could totally be a lacrosse player
Working hard
Secret Seven snacks
Me as a school girl
Stef and I, we’d be so much trouble at Malory Towers together
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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 8

Posted on October 30, 2013 by worldofblyton

Chapter eight:

The two strange men

The children heaved everything out of the little cupboard and it lay in a heap in the middle of the dining room. What a lot of things they would need! There were two tents; one for the girls and one for Philip and Jack. There were only two sleeping bags, but they were quite large and if they shared they would be quite alright.

“It shall be quite warm anyway,” Mrs Jordans said. “You will probably not need them some nights.”

There was just enough cutlery, and Mrs Jordans promised to get them a few spare plates and bowls from the kitchen. Lucy-Ann also took a few pans. “We shall need these if we want to cook bacon, or eggs. Or fry bread.”
“There’s a little stove in the kitchen you can take.” Mrs Jordans said. “For if you want to cook.”

The children went around the little inn all day, taking bits and pieces that should be of some use when they were up in the hills, camping. Mrs Jordans helped them, glad to take their minds off Bill, though really, she was quite worried herself. The other guests smiled at the children as they rushed to and fro, all except two. The two men, the ones the children were suspicious of, returned at dinner time and chose a table next to the children’s. They seemed to look quite innocent, but sour.

One of them turned to the children, as Mrs Jordans served up the lunch. “Hallo children,” he began, “My name is Mr Ferton, and my friend’s is Mr Kennedy. You seemed to be packing earlier. Are you going?”

“No, we are going to camp on Lowfell Hill to make room for visitors,” Jack replied politely.

Philip gave him a sharp kick under the table. He didn’t want Jack giving away all their plans to these strange men.

Mr Ferton looked rather annoyed and alarmed. “On Lowfell Hill, did you say?” he snapped looking at the children suspiciously. “Really Mrs Jordans, there’s no need. Mr Kennedy and I have a friend not long from here. The children don’t have to camp on Lowfell Hill,” he said quickly.

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, Mr Ferton. The children have got everything ready. They are quite happy about going out to camp in the hills.”

Mr Ferton grunted. “Wouldn’t go up there, if I were you,” Mr Kennedy said unexpectedly.

“Don’t you go scaring them, now, Mr Kennedy.” Mrs Jordans said, sharply.
“The children are going to camp on Lowfell Hill tomorrow, and you can’t very well stop them with your silly tales.”

Continue reading →

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Last Monday in October

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Fiona

October is nearly over, which means it’s almost November and the blog’s first birthday. The weather is definitely getting worse, temperatures are dropping nearly as fast as the leaves are falling from the trees.

On Wednesday you can read the next chapter of The Marsh of Adventure, Poppy’s Adventure Series fanfic.

Stef has decided to review Round the Year With Enid Blyton – Autumn Book, very fitting for this time of year.

After not managing to blog at all last week I will hopefully finish either my Seven Stories blog or my Amelia Jane one.

We hit 32,000 views this week, and at this rate will have had more than 33,000 by our birthday, exciting times!

As always, I have stuck some photos up for you all, though not as many as usual as we have had poor weather and I’ve not been out with my camera so often.

Grey Wagtail
Rabbit
Leaves on the grass
Berries
Another rabbit
Autumn leaves
Leaves in the sun
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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 4

Posted on October 27, 2013 by pippastef

I hope you enjoy chapter 4 of The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure. Things are beginning to hot up!

Chapter 4

The debating society’s open night was being held in one of the big lecture theatres. It was one of the biggest on campus, and only having been at the university for one day and not having set foot in the theatres Julian and David were slightly awestruck at the size and the style of the room. It was set out so there were two tiers and desks had been arranged on the floor so the teams were sat facing each other. There was a lectern at the front and another table where the judging panel would make sure the rules were kept and the whole debate did not get out of hand.  Julian raised an eyebrow at David as they were ushered into the seats for the audience. There weren’t many people in the hall at that moment, so spotting Darrell and Sally was not hard; they were sitting with two other girls chatting animatedly.

“Sit in the next row forward, we can always turn around and talk to them without being too intrusive,” David suggested to Julian.

Julian nodded and made his away along the row of seats so they were positioned just in front of Darrell and Sally. Darrell leant forward as the boys settled into their seats and gave Julian a tap on the shoulder.

“What are you sitting down there for?” she asked grinning.

“It makes it easier to have a conversation, and we didn’t want to interrupt your your.” Julian said nodding politely to the two other girls with them.

Darrell laughed a little. “You two are probably two of the politest people I could ever imagine!” she said smiling to herself and Sally grinned a little. “Let me introduce you to our friends from school,” she added leaning back and motioning to the two girls sat beside her.

“This is Alicia Johns,” Darrell continued, pointing to the girl next to her, who nodded with a wicked twinkle in her eyes. “And this is Betty Hill. They’re in the same halls as us.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Julian said nodding at the two girls. David added his greeting and a nod as well.

“So you all went to the same school then?” David asked conversationally.

The girls nodded in unison. “We were all in the same house tower, except for Betty here,” Alicia said grinning. “Our headmistress seemed to think we’d cause too much trouble if we were in the same house,” she said chuckling. Betty laughed as well.

“What is a house tower?” Julian asked puzzled. Darrell and Sally hadn’t really filled David and himself in on what their school had been like.

“Oh yes, there were four towers where the dormitories and common rooms were, and the houses were organised by the direction the towers faced,” Sally explained[1].  “Darrell, Alicia and I were in North tower, and Betty was in the West Tower.”

The boys nodded in understanding. “Interesting way of sorting out houses, but it makes perfect sense I suppose. If you’ve got the towers why not use them to your advantage instead of making things twice as complicated,” Julian said smiling.

They all laughed as more people filed into the hall and took their seats. The debating team were standing in a group and chatting down on the floor.

Continue reading →

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October Flowers

Posted on October 25, 2013 by pippastef

So this is my last flowery post! We have come full circle in Enid Blyton’s Nature Lovers’ Book and my poor copy is looking rather worse for wear. (I think I’m going to have to replace it! It’s that poorly!)

So here we are, the last set of flowers!

October flowers

  • Field gentian: Look for this lilac-blue flower in damp pastures. Scottish children will know it better than children in the south. Notice the four lilac-blue petals, joined together at the bottom to form a tube, and opening out wider at the top, where they fold back. Notice the pretty blue fringe in the flower. The leaves are dark green, growing in pairs, tapering to a point.
    Field Gentian taken from http://www.colletts.co.uk

    Field gentian taken from http://www.colletts.co.uk

    Chicory: Although this bright-blue flower can be found earlier, it is quite common in October, though there are many districts were it cannot be found. Where it grows in the county of Suffolk, for instance, it is very common. Look for it by the wayside and in dry places. The found flower-heads have a ring of strap-shaped petals. The stem is tough. Notice the two different kinds of leaves.

  • Meadow saffron, or autumn crocus: If you are lucky enough to live in a district where this lovely mauve flower is common, you will find it in damp meadows in England. You will not find any leaves, because these came up in the early summer and withered away. You will think that the flower is very like a crocus, but it really belongs to the lily family. Look for the six pretty stamens.

    Meadow Saffon or Autumn Crocus by http://www.naturephoto-cz.com

    Meadow saffron or autumn crocus by http://www.naturephoto-cz.com

  • Field madder: Look for this low-growing little plant in cultivated fields. The small flowers are pale mauve in colour, the four tiny petals spreading like a star. Notice the four to six – pointed leaves growing in whorls round the stem.

  • Broad-leaved dock: You will probably know the green-flowered dock, because you use its large, cool, lower leaves to sooth out hand when a nettle stings it. Notice the bit spikes of green flowers, tinged with red. The flowers grow in circles round the stem. The upper leaves are lance-shaped. This plant will probably remind you of its cousin, the sorrel.

    Broad-Leaved Dock flowers from http://www.english-country-garden.com

    Broad-leaved dock flowers from http://www.english-country-garden.com

  • Common eyebright: This little plant flowers in the summer as well as the autumn. Look for it in fields, heaths and pastures. The flowers are usually pale lilac, tinged with pink. They are small, and joined into a tube that opens into two lips. The dark-green, crinkly leaves grow opposite each other in pairs, and are oval in shape.
    Common Eyebright from http://www.herbalbiosolutions.us

    Common eyebright from http://www.herbalbiosolutions.us

     

So there we are! Your October flowers, and the last in the series! Enjoy!

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The Magic Gold: An 8-year-old Corinna’s tribute to Enid Blyton

Posted on October 23, 2013 by worldofblyton

I came across this story recently, after it lying around in storage boxes in various houses over the last couple of decades.  I wrote this when I was about 8 years old (early 1990s), at a time when I think I pretty much read only Blyton!  I’ve copied out the story, keeping in my original paragraphing and any errors, and below I’ll have a little natter about it.

Corinna's Story. The Front Page. How good was her Printer?

Corinna’s Story. The Front Page. How good was her Printer?

THE MAGIC GOLD

Once upon a time there was a good Wizard called Vabracatoodles.  Now, Vabracatoodles was very rich and had a cave full of gold.  The cave was very well protected, with a dragon and big metal dors.

Oe day when Vabracatoodles was having breakfast, his servant, Joodles, came rushing in with a letter in his hand.  “A letter for your great wizardness” said Joodles.

Vabracatoodles said, “Then give it to me, you stupid fellow!”

Joodles was so frightened he ran out of the room before you could say mouse!

Vabracatoodles opened the envolope and read the letter.

The letter said…..

To my dearest brother,

I am inviting you to a great feast at my castle next Monday.  I am also inviting you to stay until next Friday.

Please come.

Your dearest brother,

Evilasam.

Meanwhile at Evilasam’s a terrible plot was brewing.  Evilasam was plotting to get Vabracatoodles gold while Vabracatoodles was staying at his castle.  Evilasam’s servant, Blackknight, was just as evil as he was.  Together they had worked out many a nasty plot.

Meanwhile, back at Vabracatoodles’ castle Vabracatoodles and Joodles were getting ready for the journey to Evilasam’s castle.  As it was Saturday, in order to get to Evilasams castle by Monday, they had to set out for the journey at 6.30am on Sunday.

Finally it was 6.30am on Sunday. Vabracatoodles set out on the journey with Joodles.  Vabracatoodles rode his horse called Mighty-Magic.  Joodles rode his horse called Cloppy, and Vabracatoodles’ spare horse, Strong-One, was carrying the lugguge.

Finally they reached Evilasam’s Castle.  There Evilasam greeted his brother, showed him his bedroom, showed Joodle his bedroom, and put the horses in the stables.

Vabracatoodle and Joodle spent three happy days at Evilasam’s castle.

On Thursday, Evilasam said to his brother and Joodles, “Today I am going on a trip to a wizard meeting with my servant, Blackknight.  I’ve organized a trip to Wizard’s Market for you.  I hope you enjoy yourselves.  Goodbye!”.  And with that, he left.

Vabracatoodles was suspicious, and he wandered into Evilasam’s room.  There, he looked in Evilasam’s diary.  He soon discovered teh evil plot.  But he did nothing.  He just laughed to himself, and he went on the trip to Wizard’s Market with Joodles.

Meanwhile, Evilasam and Blackknight had killed the dragon and broken down the metal doors with magic, and were facing the gold.

“This is worth more than a thousand pounds!” said Evilasam.  He touched the gold.  Immediately he turned to gold.  Blackknight touched Evilasam and he was turned into a gold statue too.

So you can see why Vabracatoodles just laughed, can’t you?

I hope that made you laugh!  Of course, it is pretty dreadful stuff really – very thin plot line, terrible pacing, dubious characters (the “good” guy snooped in his brother’s diary, not to mention allowed him to be turned into gold), and some quite terrible names – “Evilasam”!    Not to mention it is terribly derivative!

The influence of Blyton’s story-telling techniques and plots  is pretty obvious throughout.   Language like “Now, Vabracotoodes was…” and “…many a nasty plot”, and names like “Vabracatoodles” and the horse “Mighty-Magic” really illustrate this.  This sort of phrasing was certainly not in comon usage in New Zealand in the early 1990’s!

In terms of my writing now (as well as blogs I do scribble away on other things) I can see some faults that I am still working on 20-plus years later.  For example (and this part made me laugh out loud) the specific time for the journey to start –  6:30am!  Sometimes I get caught up in the detail, at the expense of pacing.  Although the dialogue is not terrible, there is not much of it, and as Stef will know, I struggle with dialogue and admire her ability to write natural-sounding conversations.

However, at the time I was extremely proud of it, and I am still proud of the generally very good spelling, grammar and punctuation, especially as I was only 8 years old and there was no automatic spell-check!

I wonder if I should have a go at fixing-up this story, to see whether I can make something of it?

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Monday comes and Monday goes

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Fiona

So we’re almost at the end of October, isn’t that scary? Not to mention that early November, the 2nd in fact, will be the first birthday of the Blog! So we have that to look forward to!

This week we have an offering from Corinna, and her younger self in a way as she presents us with an Enid Blyton inspired story she wrote when she was eight, and her blog about it.

From me you’ll have October flowers. This will be my last one having started them a year ago, and I shall have to find another thing to write regularly every month now!

Fiona thinks she will supply us with Amelia Jane Again, Part 2, which I’m sure we’re all looking forward to!

For now I shall leave you with some of my pictures from my week in Scotland! Enjoy!

St Andrews calm waters
Heron
Blue flowers
Watermill
Tree
Lemur
Leaves
Wallabies
Otter
Peacock
Bunny
Leaves
Water-lily
Arches
Fiona and Stef as Malory Towers pupils
Book art
Swimming pool
Cave
St Andrews cathedral arch
St Andrews cathedral
St Rule’s
St Andrews Castle
St Andrews pier
St Andrews from the pier
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The Famous Five 70s Collector’s Edition DVD

Posted on October 20, 2013 by pippastef
Front of the Complete Collectors Edition Box Set.

Front of the Complete Collectors Edition Box Set.

When it was announced to be finally hitting the shelves in August of 2012, the fans of the 1970s TV series went into squeals of delight. Many couldn’t wait to get their hands on this box set, which promised to included extras such as a booklet, and an interview with Jennifer Thanisch (Anne), Gary Russell (Dick), Marcus Harris (Julian) and writer Gail Renard.

I have had this item on my Amazon for a long time (sneakily) waiting for the price to drop a little. As I am a great advocate of the 1990s TV series, I didn’t feel quite the need to pay the twenty six pounds or whatever it was for the box set. I held back until last Thursday when I saw it in the Seven Stories gift shop as part of their Enid Blyton merchandise to go with the exhibition upstairs.  Given that I finally had the box set in my hand, I figured I had no reason not to buy it (much to Fiona’s despair because I paid more for it in Seven Stories than I would if I had purchased it from Amazon)!

Anyway, so I brought it, under the guise of ‘well now we can watch the interview together’ and that is exactly what we did.

The first thing to do was to read the little booklet that was attached to the box set. I was a little disappointed that there maybe wasn’t more to it, or that you couldn’t remove it from the case which makes it a little fiddly to read, however it was lovely to read Gail Renard’s memories of being on set, working with the (then) children and writing the episodes. It’s a lovely little book that is a nice touch for the complete box set, set alongside the episode guide and some pictures from the production.

The next challenge was locating the special features. There is no indication for where the special features were, so we had to go through several disks to locate the illusive interview (disc three in case you need to know) and settled down to watch.

It was nice to see Jennifer Thanisch in the interview as I’ve not seen her talking about her role as Anne before. Gary Russell, Marcus Harris and Gail Renard have all appeared at Enid Blyton Society Days that I have attended, but their presence was not any less appreciated.  It was nice to see them all sitting up there, chatting about what they had all been up to. I don’t want to type out every part of the interview for you, because that would what spoil it, but it is a good feature to have as part of the collection. It’s about fifty minutes long, and some of the camera angles were maybe a bit much (along with the sepia toning on occasion) but very nice to watch and listen to their memories.

It was also nice to know what they did after they finished the Famous Five, and how Thanisch and Harris ended up away from acting, while Russell continued acting for a while and then went into writing and producing. Questions I think that wouldn’t be answered otherwise are very helpfully sitting on the DVD for all those who need to know.

The other features include the original TV trailer for the series and a slide show of photos of the locations used during filming. All in all I think these features to make it worth getting the Complete DVD Box Set rather than the two individual ones.

The episodes have been ‘digitally remastered’ (don’t groan), as they now cut a lovely clear picture and the night scenes are not too bad now either. (Originally they were shot in daytime with a dark filter over the camera, and it made it awfully difficult to see things).

Overall, I’m impressed with this little box set, its a very nice addition to my collection of Blyton memorabilia. I just hope when they get round to releasing the 90s series on DVD, they do as good a job as they have done with the 1970s version!

Front of the Complete Collectors Edition Box Set.
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