The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 8

Posted on December 8, 2013 by pippastef

Previous chapters can be found by clicking on the links below:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven

I hope you enjoy chapter eight!

Chapter 8

Sally and Darrell had seen the whole thing from the stands. They had both been watching the game unfold, although Sally was watching from behind her book as if she wasn’t really that interested. Both girls had seen Thomas keeping close to Julian and wondered if it was a tactical plan on behalf of the team. However it had been quite clear that the tackle had been carefully planned.

Thomas had stood still for half a moment and then with a clear line at Julian had charged. The few spectators that had been in the stands had jumped to their feet to get a better look at the scrum and most showed themselves not to be concerned that Julian hadn’t gotten up again. Sally and Darrell had expected him to get to his feet as well and start playing again; it had only been when David had gone over to him that they realised that there was something wrong. Sally had gone quite pale and quiet as the realisation that all was not right dawned on the two girls.

There was something about Sally’s reaction that made Darrell feel that Sally certainly was doing all she could to hide her feelings about Julian. She didn’t have chance to remark on it however as they made their way through the corridors to get to the door of the stands to see if they could catch up with Julian and David.

As they rushed around to the changing room doors they managed to almost bump into the boys coming around the corner.

“Steady on!” David said as Sally almost ran into him. He was covered in mud but wasn’t as bad as Julian who looked like he’d had a bath in it.

“Are you alright?” Sally asked Julian; aware underneath her panic she knew this was a stupid question. Julian fixed her with a blank look as they began to walk forward again. Julian was holding his left arm around his side to try to keep his shoulder still so it didn’t cause unnecessary pain.  He felt a little shaky as they walked towards the main university building where the san was.

“Yes, just peachy,” Julian muttered sarcastically. He wasn’t feeling too pleased at this moment in time and he couldn’t stop himself being a little rude.

‘Well,’ he thought as they walked in silence, ‘It was a daft question to ask.’ He pursed his lips hoping that no one would ask him any more questions. He was aware of some whispering going on behind him but he ignored it walking on. Julian was more put out than anything else. He’d never been injured in a game of rugby before, at least not in any major way.

Sally pursed her own lips at Julian’s sarcastic response and fell back from walking with him. She wasn’t quite at the same pace as David and Darrell, just a little way in front so she couldn’t really hear what Darrell was telling David about Thomas’s tackle on Julian.

“So you think it was deliberate then?” David asked in a low voice as they followed Julian into the university building. David seemed to have completely forgotten that he was supposed to be helping Julian.

“Looked that way,” Darrell said quietly glancing around. “There was something about the way he was doing it. It didn’t just look like tactics to me.” She shrugged. “However I don’t know the rules of rugby.”

“It’s not usual for players to tag one another like that.” David admitted as Julian determinedly started up the stairs. “Sometimes it happens to put players off. You must get it occasionally in lacrosse or hockey,” he added to her.

Darrell remembered her first lacrosse match at school where the girl on the other team had kept very close to her[1], however the girl hadn’t really been that attached to her as Thomas had been to Julian.

“I’ve had it happen to me once, during my first match, but it wasn’t as bad as today,” she said to David quietly as they reached the first floor san. “There’s something behind that as well, it’s not just wanting to win a rugby match, Thomas could have gone for anyone on that pitch and he went for Julian, who only had the ball twice.” Darrell shook her head as David let out a small chuckle.

“You’re beginning to sound like Julian yourself. All these theories, you sound like you’re looking for an adventure,” he said as they watched the sister make Julian sit down to be examined.

Darrell gave David a small smile. “Well he must be rubbing off on me,” she said quietly as they moved forward to help explain what had happened on the rugby pitch. “Do you think we should tell him?” she added pulling David back for a second.

David looked at Darrell and then at Julian. “Not now. At least let’s leave it until tomorrow. He won’t want to be thinking about anything like that now,” he said sensibly. “You’d to well not to mention it to anyone else as well,” he added meaningfully at Darrell.

Darrell flashed him a dark look. “Would you really expect me to tell anyone else about this? They would think I was going crackers.” Darrell said rolling her eyes at David as once again they moved forward to see if they could help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julian couldn’t sleep. He was in the san with his arm strapped to his ribcage tightly to restrict his movement so his dislocated shoulder could heal. It was past midnight according to the clock on the wall of the san, and he was the only person in there. The sister had given him a pain-killer and told him to try to sleep after they had got him cleaned up, but he couldn’t.

There was an uncomfortable ache in his shoulder every time he tried to settled down to sleep, almost like a thumping pain. He was also sitting upright in the bed to stop him rolling over in the middle of the night and further hurting his shoulder. The movement around the university had died down long ago and Julian had watched all the lights click out through the window opposite. He had figured out that he was opposite the professor’s studies and had been surprised to realise that the ones that he could see through the window were those of the science professors.

Julian stared up at the ceiling willing himself to sleep, but the pain was creeping back into his side. He wished he could turn over and settle down but he was stuck on his back, even trying to sleep on his other side was painful. He tried closing his eyes in a hope that would help him sleep, but it was no use.

Just as he opened his eyes again he noticed a dull light coming from somewhere. He looked around and could see nothing. His eyes settled on the window and he could see, just out of sight, a light coming from one of the professor’s studies. Julian moved so quickly, jumping out of the bed that he jarred his shoulder as he moved. He sat on the side of the bed for a moment until the pain had dulled slightly, then got up and made his way cautiously over to the window.

He sat on the chair by the window and peered out at the light. It was odd that a professor would be in his room now, in the middle of the night. Julian knew that sometimes his uncle worked through the night and didn’t go to bed, but Julian was sure that none of the science professors did that. He could just about make out someone moving around in the room. The movements seemed quite frantic as though someone was looking for something.

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

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Fiona

Something that comes up again and again in discussions about Blyton’s books is the issue of updating. Some readers say that word as if it were a dirty thing, others say it positively. I’m in between really, I prefer to read the original text myself – I like to know what I’m reading exactly what Blyton wanted me to. Though I do understand that for the books to stay in circulation some changes are probably necessary.

I have a 1965 (17th impression) of Five on a Treasure Island, and a 1997 paperback edition (which happened to come with the 50s Children’s Film Foundation 1957 DVD), and I’m going to compare them a few chapters at a time to see just what changes have been made (or not been made as the case may be). It’s not an exhaustive list by any means as different editions by different publishers along the years may have had different alterations made but it will hopefully be interesting. As will reading two copies at the same time, I’m sure.

The dustjacket of the 1965 edition (which differs from the first edition)

The dustjacket of the 1965 edition (which differs from the first edition)

CHAPTER ONE: A GREAT SURPRISE

Well, I’m pleased to note that Mother and Daddy haven’t become Mum and Dad, and there are still plenty of quaint expressions like telephone to, but I managed to find five alterations in the opening chapter.

Firstly, in the original Daddy is heard putting the call through, whereas in the modern edition, he is simply heard dialling. In a way, it makes sense, as how many modern children know about the old system of operators to put calls through? At the same time, it would be a perfect time for them to learn about something like that if they happened to ask about the unusual phrasing. Or of course, they might just read it without really noticing anything, especially alongside the very old fashioned telephone to.

Then we’ve got the updating of the clothes. Mother says they can pack bathing suits and jerseys and shorts in the original, but in the nineties it has become and jeans. A few lines later, Anne says how lovely it will be to wear shorts again, or indeed, jeans.  Modern children might well find jeans a relatable sartorial choice, I certainly wore jeans in the nineties, but I’m not sure replacing shorts with jeans is necessary. I bet even kids today still wear shorts in the summer. On that fashion-related note, I would say swimming costume, or swimsuit was a more modern term than bathing suit, but that may vary around the country I suppose.

A change I suspected is there, the reference to golliwogs is removed. Originally, their mother teases  Dick about the time he put aside  two golliwogs, one teddy bear, three toy dogs, two toy cats and his old monkey to take to Polseath, now the list starts with the teddy.

And finally, the rather odd expression luggage-hole has been changed to boot (which I suppose is better than trunk!) The sentence has been changed too, originally it was we can pile everything into the luggage-hole at the back then, but in the paperback Daddy just says we can pile everything into the boot. Perhaps they felt at the back was unnecessary, as the majority of modern cars are front wheel drives with the boot at the back, but I’m not sure why the word then was cut.

Interestingly, both editions refer to the luggage-place in the car at another point which seems inconsistent in terms of updating.

CHAPTER TWO: THE STRANGE COUSIN

Again, an obvious and expected change is made here, where Uncle Quentin once said She [George] wants spanking, he now says wants a good talking to. Unfortunately it makes the next lines, where the visiting siblings wonder whether he’s joking or not, make rather less sense.

There are a few cases of words being altered too, the old-fashioned to-morrow becomes plain old tomorrow, and likewise good-night becomes good night. I know every publisher has its own style manual to deal with those sorts of things (to hyphenate or not to hyphenate, that is the question is probably a chapter somewhere) but it does seem odd when good-bye still has a hyphen as does the previously mentioned luggage-place, as well as fisher-boy and boy-cousins.

Later in this chapter there are copious more examples of hyphenated words that survived in the modern edition, but I won’t bore you with them.

Anyway, grammatical niggles aside for the moment, another minor change is made to the description of the car journey. Originally they were tired because of their long drive in the open air, implying a soft-topped car perhaps? But the modern edition simple reads their long drive. I suppose convertible cars are not so common these days, or would sound too flashy?

In what I’m sure will be mentioned repeatedly, given Blyton’s fondness for the word, queer has been removed. The first instance in the book; Anne speaking about George, becomes odd. In the second instance, Anne talking about George again, queer is changed to funny.

Shorts are jeans again, Anne putting on grey ones instead of grey shorts, and George puts on jeans too. Again, if they’re going down to the beach wouldn’t shorts, even jean shorts (or should that be jean-shorts?) be more sensible?

And that’s the end of the first two chapters. Not loads of changes, but a decent number (twelve edits altogether so far, in case you didn’t keep count). There’s enough quaintness left, I think, for much of Blyton’s original style to still be there, but I find some of the changes petty and a little pedantic. The first two chapters are full of oughts, shan’ts, shalls, the odd gracious! and plenty of other 1950s phrases which rather stand out today, which is a plus. Importantly Aunt Fanny is still Aunt Fanny (none of that Frances nonsense from the TV, phew!)

One other thing going for it, is this edition has the lovely Soper illustration on the front, and inside too (though perhaps not all of them.) The endpapers illustrations of Kirrin Island is missing, as is the frontispiece one of Anne facing off against the cow.

five on a treasure island 1997 paperback

The 1997 paperback, with the  (slightly cropped) illustration from the first edition

There are seventeen chapters in total, so depending on how many alterations there are, I may end up doing another seven or so blogs on the subject (that’ll keep me going for a while!) Please do tell me what your opinion of the modern updates are, whether you’re a decrier of the pc-brigade or if you welcome the changes.

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The Rosewood Mystery by Cathy, chapter 1

Posted on December 4, 2013 by worldofblyton

SUMMER HOLIDAYS AGAIN!

“Snubby – do hurry up!” Diana called. “You’re making us late for lunch!”

“Fancy Snubby making US late for lunch,” chuckled Roger. “He’s usually well ahead of us when there’s food involved.”

Barney smiled, his startlingly blue eyes lighting up.

The four children were to meet Barney’s father, Mr Martin, for a nice lunch at a posh hotel. They were all staying with Mr Martin for the first couple of weeks of their summer holiday, and after that they would be going home to stay with Roger and Diana’s parents, Mr and Mrs Lynton, as Mr Martin had to go away.

Mr Martin had taken them all to the town near his home for a day out. He had gone off to do a bit of shopping of his own, and the four children had explored the quaint little town by themselves for a couple of hours. Now it was time to meet for lunch – but Loony had other ideas!

Snubby’s crazy black spaniel had taken rather a fancy to a display of mats on a stall in the market that they were just strolling past, and much to the shock of the stall holder, had dragged Snubby over to the mats and had grabbed one in his mouth and tried to run off with it.

Loony certainly lived up to his name. He had always had a fascination with mats and brushes. He would take them from anyone at any time and then deposit them in the strangest places. He always drove Mr Lynton to distraction when Snubby stayed at their house. Thankfully Mrs Lynton was getting more used to his antics, but he and the irrepressible Snubby were certainly a force to be reckoned with at times.

“Loony – let GO!” Snubby finally pulled the mat away from Loony and replaced it on the stall. “I’m ever so sorry,” he said to the stall holder, then shot off before the man could examine the mat for damage.

Diana laughed as he caught them up outside the hotel.

“Still the same old Loony.” she said. “Goodness knows what Daddy is going to say – I think he hopes that Loony will grow up at some point.”

“What would be the fun in that?” Snubby grinned, his eyes crinkling up underneath his shock of red hair. “We love you as you are, don’t we Loony?” and he reached down and gave the little dog a quick hug.

“Come on, for goodness’ sakes.” Roger started to walk up the steps of the hotel. “Barney’s father will wonder where we are.”

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Advent Monday

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Fiona

So we’ve made it through the year and it’s the first Monday in December, which means a lot of you will have started your advent calenders yesterday. If I had one, I would have done.

So this week we have a NEW Fan Fiction for you, from a new writer. All will be revealed on Wednesday, and I’m sure you’re dying to find out what we have in store for you.

As from Fiona and I? Well… there we hit a bit of a snag. Neither of us knows quite what you’ll get given this week. From me you might get another chapter of The Missing Papers or perhaps my own thoughts on the Adventure Series. You never know, but I’ve not much felt like writing recently, no inspiration, so I can’t promise you anything I’m afraid.

And Fiona really has no idea: so it’ll be a surprise!

This week I’ll leave you with a very nice Blytony drawing I spotted at some point on the internet as I have no photos this week!

2010_8_aug_11_enidblyton_Ro

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The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure, chapter 7

Posted on December 1, 2013 by pippastef

Here’s chapter seven of The Missing Papers: A St Andrews Adventure to go with St Andrews day which was yesterday in Scotland!

Previous chapters can be found here:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six

Hope you enjoy this latest instalment.

Chapter 7

The sky was a steely grey colour as they walked through campus, and the wind was cold just as David had predicted. They walked briskly across the campus to keep warm; many other students were doing the same, not wanting to be outside in the cold for longer than they needed to be. If it hadn’t been for the fact that David’s bag broke they wouldn’t have noticed the odd thing that happened over by the library. As they walked through the courtyard, where the side entrance to the library was, the strap on David’s bag snapped from the weight of all the books he had been carrying around. David groaned as the books and paper tumbled on to the floor as the bag tipped backwards.

“I told you not to carry all those books around with you!” Julian said as he bent down to try and stop some of David’s notes flying away.

“I know I know,” David said sighing as he fell to his knees and began scrambling for the bits of paper that had gone flying. Darrell and Sally set to work rescuing the bits of paper that had been caught by a draft and were headed for freedom across the quadrangle.  David was busy trying to shuffle the papers he had caught into a manageable pile when a movement by the library caught his eye. He nudged Julian and nodded along the corridor.

“Look!” he said quietly still wrestling with his paper. “That’s the second person we’ve seen sneaking around today,” he added as he knelt on his work and started to inspect the damage done to his bag. Julian followed David’s nod and frowned at the person moving around in the shadows by the library door. The person seemed to be pacing, and Julian was almost sure that he could hear muttering over the whistling of the wind. He could have almost believed that the muttering wasn’t even English. Julian tried to quell the urge to go and investigate, by pulling out some of the books David had in his bag.

“Why have you got this one?” he asked holding up the thickest volume of the set. “You know the professor said we didn’t have to bring it with us unless he told us we needed it.”

David looked embarrassed. “I just thought that if we were going to do some work after class that I’d need it,” he said, shrugging as he secured the paper in his bag.

Julian pursed his lips. “You are aware that the library has a copy aren’t you?” he asked wryly. David sent Julian a sarcastic smile in return. Darrell and Sally appeared at that moment, various papers in hand.

“Here you are,” Darrell said handing them over to David who took them gratefully. “I think we got all of them, at least all the ones that were still in the quadrangle.”

“I don’t think any of them managed to get any further,” Sally added smiling a little. “I hope you’ve not lost anything,” she added quietly.

David shook his head. “I don’t appear to,” he said sorting out the books, trying to work out which ones he would have to carry. Julian stood up as David sorted his books, and looked over to where the figure had been pacing around outside the door to the library. The figure was still there, but there was less pacing now, and the glow of the end of a cigarette could be seen burning brightly in the gloom. Julian looked down to see how David was getting on and then when he looked back at the door, the figure was on the move towards them.

Julian tried to get it out of his mind that this was someone who was up to no good. There could be plenty of reasons why someone was hanging about in the gloom, but his inquiring mind couldn’t come up with anything that was completely innocent. He watched the movement in the gloom carefully as the person headed towards the better light. He was surprised to see Anthony heading towards them, tucking something into his inside coat pocket. Julian frowned a little, actions like that to him meant that there was something funny going on.

Anthony looked around as he moved into the stronger light. He spotted Julian, but not David, who was still on the floor sorting out his books where Darrell and Sally were shielding him from Anthony’s view. He gave Julian a little salutation as he walked down the other side of the courtyard and a strange wooden smile. Julian nodded back to him in acknowledgment and watched him walk away.

“What’s the matter Ju?” Darrell asked nudging him as she saw his face. “You look completely puzzled.”

“You do rather,” David said straightening up some of his books in his arms and his sealed rucksack hanging over one shoulder.

“Oh, it was probably nothing,” Julian said shaking his head a little and looking towards his friends and giving them a slightly uneasy smile. “Just my overactive imagination I suspect,” he said before looking at the books David was now carrying.

“Please tell me you haven’t been carrying all of those around with you all day?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yes I have actually,” David said awkwardly. “They just got left in there from yesterday I suppose.”

Julian chuckled a little at this.

“How can you forget to take books that heavy out of your bag?” Darrell asked trying not to laugh.

“Well I didn’t realise how heavy it was until we were half way down the road to our lecture,” David said looking a little embarrassed. “And if I’d gone back at that point I would have been late!”

Julian shook his head and slapped David on the shoulder as they turned and headed down the corridor towards the campus exit.

“I’m surprised you didn’t break your back carrying that little lot,” Julian said with a grin. “They are all very heavy textbooks on their own, let alone together.”

David shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. When you’ve had to carry camping gear on your back up a hill, then you don’t notice how heavy things are after that.”

Julian nodded in agreement. “I suppose you have a point,” he allowed, grinning.

“Has anyone ever told you two that you are very strange?” Darrell asked as Sally chuckled to herself.

“Only you,” Julian said laughing at Darrell.

“About twice a day,” David added with a grin as they walked out of the main gate and started down the road to the boy’s halls.

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More About Amelia Jane! part 1

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Fiona

Let’s start with me admitting to something: I’ve never read this book before. I didn’t have it as a child, but at some point in the  past few years I bought a copy (paid £13.50 for a first edition without dustjacket, which is rather a lot for me!) and yet I’m certain I’ve never read it.

So I’ll be looking at it with fresh eyes, ones mostly untinted by nostalgia.

There are fourteen stories in More About Amelia Jane!, so like last time I’ll do this blog in two parts. Here are the first seven stories.

AMELIA JANE’S NECKLACE

Here the Golliwog finds a box of acorns with holes through them, and he decides to make a necklace for the teddy who’s lost his neck ribbon. Amelia Jane interferes though, when they have trouble threading them onto string, and does it for them. She then takes the necklace for herself though, and ties it on so tightly it can’t be taken off. As is often the case, she gets her comeuppance, when after a few days of lazing around in the garden pond the acorns start to grow roots and the toys tell her they are worms (whether they truly believe they’re worms or not isn’t quite clear, but I think they might do.) Amelia Jane is naturally quite put-off by this development, but she just can’t get the necklace off.

I was expecting the toys to take pity on her and help her get it off, (the golliwog does try) but in the end the necklace just falls off when the string rots and the toys bury the acorns which grow into trees.

Amelia Jane and her necklace, pre-worms.

Amelia Jane and her necklace, pre-worms.

AMELIA JANE AND THE INK

As I went through the book taking photos of the illustrations (before reading it) I immediately thought Amelia Jane and the Ink might be one of those stories that critics would call racist, as it appears to involve Amelia Jane in “black-face.” So just a wee warning if this story might offend you.

The story starts out with Amelia Jane asking the golliwog “why is your face so black?” to which he replies “gollies are always black.” Amelia Jane then asks why he doesn’t wash the black off of his face, as she thinks a black face is silly and ugly.

The critics would be having a field day already I imagine, and would probably write off the whole story if not the book and the author as flat-out racist.

Golly’s reply is interesting though, and mirrors the sort of opinions and beliefs I believe Blyton held, as they are woven though quite a few of her stories. Golly says “only bad tempered faces are ugly… It doesn’t matter a bit if your face is white, pink, red, yellow, brown or black, if it’s a nice smiley, good-tempered face.”

Amelia Jane refuses to let go of the idea, and keeps on about washing his face. In the end she threatens to write to Santa to have the golliwog taken away, and so gets a bottle of ink down, only she spills it all over her face and makes it black.

She doesn’t like her reflection at all and so the golliwog says she’ll have to scrub it like she suggested to him. He helps, scrubbing very vigorously and getting soap in her eyes. She then has to clean ink off the hearth rug and give up some of her pennies so the children can buy more ink.

At the end it says she never again teased the golly about his face.

There are certainly elements of racism in the story, but the moral is quite clear. It’s not alright to pick on someone because of the colour of their skin. I would be interested to know if this story has survived the various updates I’m sure the books have had in the past twenty or so years.

Golly scrubs the ink of Amelia Jane's face

Golly scrubs the ink of Amelia Jane’s face

AMELIA JANE’S BOOMERANG

In Amelia Jane’s boomerang, Amelia Jane finds, you’ve guessed it, a boomerang in the toy cupboard. I’m already thinking this can’t go well.

She has a good time for a while, throwing it around the nursery and knocking off the toy’s hats, decapitating flowers and all sorts of mischievous things until the toys are quite sick of her.

They find a pop-gun (the kind that fires a cork on a string) and use it on her, getting a bit of revenge. They persuade her to give up the boomerang, but foolishly give her the gun in return and of course she just starts shooting them. Cleverly the golly cuts the string though, and leaves her weaponless.

I wonder if, in this modern climate, the stories containing guns have been edited out?

Amelia Jane and her boomarang

Amelia Jane and her boomerang

AMELIA JANE AND THE SCRIBBLES

Amelia Jane finds a red pencil in Amelia Jane and the Scribbles, and uses it to write on the wall inside the toy cupboard. She writes very rude things, like “The golliwog is silly. The teddy bear is too fat. The clockwork clown is clumsy. The clockwork mouse is a baby.”

They then discover she’s written a note on the wall too, saying she will do what she likes, ‘so there’! the cheeky doll.

As is often the case, the toys come up with a plan for revenge, which this time means the golliwog waiting until Amelia Jane is asleep and painting a message on her forehead. He writes, “this is naughty Amelia Jane,” so that all the toys laugh at her. Well, the punishment certainly fitted the crime!

Amelia Jane's scribblings

Amelia Jane’s scribblings

AMELIA JANE PLAYS POSTMAN

In Amelia Jane Plays Postman the naughty doll starts putting the toy’s belongings into a post-box shaped money-box on the mantle piece. Only she can reach it, so the toys can’t get their own back by doing the same to her. Or can they? They concoct another clever plan where they wrap up Amelia Jane’s favourite things and trick her into posting them herself, so she is stuck without them for a long time.

Amelia Jane goes to post the parcels

Amelia Jane goes to post the parcels

AMELIA JANE IS NAUGHTY AGAIN

Mr Up-and-To, a little wooden man with a nodding head comes to stay in the nursery in Amelia Jane is Naughty Again, and as the poor fellow’s not very bright he rather looks up to Amelia Jane and believes all the silly tales she spins for him.

Rather innocently she then teaches him to tie a knot in his hanky to remember things, but when he does to untie it later he can’t remember what he was supposed to. Amelia Jane grabs the opportunity with both hands and tells him he meant to clamber up to the sink to bring him a drink, and the daft toy believes her. Wickedly he then starts tying knots in his hanky for him, and telling him he meant to do all sorts of naughty things. The golliwog gets to the bottom of things eventually and the toys tie a very large knot in his hanky after and tell him it’s to remind him to give Amelia Jane a very large spanking…

Amelia Jane and Mr Up-and-To

Amelia Jane and Mr Up-and-To

AMELIA JANE GOES UP THE TREE

In Amelia Jane Goes Up the Tree the doll wants to collect birds’ eggs, and the toys are horrified as it’s such a bad thing to do (we get a hint to Blyton’s respect for nature here really.) She ignores them and uses the gardener’s ladder to climb the tree outside, collecting two thrush eggs. She dawdles rather a lot though, and the gardener takes away his ladder leaving her stuck!

She gets upset when it gets dark and cold, feeling like she’s being punished, and the pixie who lives in the tree tells her to get help from the thrush. Despite being very hurt by the loss of two of her precious eggs the thrush helps Amelia Jane climb up towards the nursery window, making the doll feel even more guilty, so guilty she admits her crime and expects the thrush to take some revenge. The thrust however, points out that two wrongs don’t make a right and Amelia Jane promises to be a ‘Good Doll’!

We shall see if she manages that in the next seven stories shall we? (I bet she won’t otherwise there’d be nothing for Blyton to write about!)

Looking out at the nest

Looking out at the nest

All illustrations are by Sylvia I Venus, and the pictures of them were taken by me on my camera.

Next review: More About Amelia Jane part 2

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The Marsh of Adventure by Poppy, chapter 10

Posted on November 27, 2013 by worldofblyton

Chapter ten:

Following the stream

Jack awoke first the next morning and at first and found he couldn’t make out at all where exactly he was. He rubbed his eyes and stared out of the tent flap. And then, all in a flash, he remembered, he was camping up on Lowfell Hill. And then the happenings of last night came flooding back. Why were those two men so anxious to get them away from there? He woke Philip and they got up and shook the girls tent. They heard Lucy-Ann shriek and grinned.

The two girls crawled out their tent a few moments later, dressed. “Morning!” they called as they set off to the cubby hole. “We’ll just go and fetch breakfast. Back in two ticks!”

The boys sat down on their seats and waited for the girls. They were soon back with arms full of food and plates. Dinah lit the little stove and soon the delicious smell of bacon frying lingered over the camp. The children ate a delicious breakfast and began making their plans for the day. The girls seemed to have forgot all about the last night’s happenings. The boys were both secretly pleased. They didn’t want the girls worrying over that, but planned to watch out for the men returning.

“Right then. What shall we do today then?” Dinah asked, when the meal was over.

“I vote we follow that little stream nearby and see where it leads.” Philip suggested.

“I vote we stay here and watch the birds.” Jack said lazily, looking up into the sky.

“I think we should wait here, in case Mr Jordans brings any news about Bill. I do hope he’s come back.” Lucy-Ann said mournfully.

“Cheer up,” the others said.

“Even if Mr Jordans does have any news, he’ll leave a message or something. And as for Bill, he’ll be staying with mother for a few more days, I bet. You never know, we might be able to join them both soon. Don’t fret, Lucy-Ann.” Jack said wisely. “Now what would you like to do?”

“Let’s follow the stream,” Dinah decided.

The girls decided that the plates and things needed to be washed before they went anywhere.

“You can jolly well take these to the stream to wash,” Dinah said to the boys. “We’ll make the picnic.” The boys took the plates and cutlery reluctantly to the river and washed it carefully.

The girls cut sandwiches and cake and soon they had a marvellous picnic ready to take.

Philip swung the bag over his shoulder. “Off we go then, everyone!” he exclaimed.

Continue reading →

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Last Monday in November

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Fiona

Well, I’ve no idea where November went. I think for me it disappeared in a blur of working extra shifts and not getting any Christmas shopping done (oops!)

There’s that dreaded C-word. It’s a month to Christmas now, so you’ll potentially see a few Christmassy blogs going up soon (or if you can’t wait then you can check out some from last year like my review of The Christmas Book, or Stef’s winter and Christmas reads. There are some seasonal poems from then too, about Santa Claus, Christmas Parties and the nativity scene.

This week we’ll be putting up the latest chapter of Poppy’s fan fic, and Stef will be surprising us with something, even I don’t know what. I’m not too sure what I will be writing yet either, I might look at the next Amelia Jane book, or I might finally start on the long-promised eBay blog.

I’ll leave you with a few photos I took on my walk yesterday, along the old Dundee-Newtyle railway

Hogsweed
Leaves
Ice crystals
Pylons
The sky
Frost
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Sunset at Bourne End

Posted on November 24, 2013 by pippastef

I am afraid it’s a rather simple blog today, but I feel I must share it with you before it gets far from my mind.

The other day, after work, just as it was getting dark, I made the mad dash from Reading all the way to Bourne End for a walk to clear away the cobwebs. I took my camera and was rewarded with a beautiful clear evening with stunning sunsets which I thought I would share with you in this post.

I didn’t go as far as I usually would on my walk this time, just heading to the bridge before heading back to the car as those sunken lanes get very dark and eery. However I’m sure you don’t need me to explain the wonder of the area to you in such gorgeous Autumnal light.

So I hope you enjoy these wonderful colours and scenes and I hope they speak for themselves.

A cheeky pheasant who kept running away from the camera
The Spade Oak Pub
The Lych Gate at Old Thatch
Leaves
Berries
A more co-operative pheasant
Up stream colours
Heading downstream
Pink Rose
Look how calm the water is
Hawthorne berries
Sunset
A rose
Silhouettes and reflections
The Rowing Club
Sunset
Look at those colours!
Bourne End
Sunset
Sunset
The moon
The railway tracks
Heading back to the car
Upstream
Last moments of sunlight
Posted in Locations | Tagged | 5 Comments

Comparing Hollow Tree House and The Secret Island

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Fiona

Hollow Tree House was one of my favourite Blyton books as a child, though I’ve not read it in ages. I meant to, after blogging about my childhood books ages ago, but I just never got around to it. The Secret Island was another favourite, and at some point I started thinking about the various similarities between the two books. (This was going to be a straight forward review of Hollow Tree House but half-way through I realised I had sabotaged myself and have had to do a bit of rewriting.)

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere my childhood copies of these two were Armada ones. As you can see, Hollow Tree House was well read!

If I’d known at the time this blog was going to turn into a comparison of the two books I’d have brought The Secret Island down from the loft too, but instead I’ve added a picture from the Enid Blyton Society site, and I’ll just tell you it’s as battered as Hollow Tree House as they’re both 50+ years old and have been passed down from my mother. (Who, incidentally, was the one to find the paperback in the loft as I’d given up while she looked out Christmas lights to check they worked. She squealed so loudly my boyfriend wondered if we’d found a mouse – though he didn’t offer us any assistance, naturally.)

I’ve now got a second impression of Hollow Tree House without dustjacket. As far as I can tell from a quick look, both books have the exact same text (the Armada’s not updated to remove things like the children being slapped) and the same illustrations. The Armada book however hasn’t got the text laid out in the same way as the hardback does; all the illustrations are above or below text, never beside. As I don’t have my Armada Secret Island to hand, I’m not sure if the same applies there, compared to my 1949 reprint.

Original layout of illustrations
Armada’s (presumably cheaper) layout

It’s funny, but as a child I never noticed how strange the children look, with their big foreheads. I certainly notice it now though. Again, without my paperback to hand, I can’t compare Dylan Roberts illustrations to E.H. Davie, though I do like Davie’s work.

So, enough edition-talk, and on to the comparisons!

THE FAMILIES

The most obvious similarity is that both books feature siblings living with a cruel aunt and uncle (in both cases the aunt is the worse of the pair,) and they decide to run away.

Susan and Peter Frost (Hollow Tree House) live with Aunt Margaret and Uncle Charlie because their mother is dead. Mike, Nora and Peggy Arnold (The Secret Island) live with Aunt Harriet and Uncle Henry, as their parents are believed to be dead after flying off in an aeroplane and never returning.

Both sets of children are forced into domestic drudgery, and slapped if they don’t work hard enough. They don’t get a lot to eat and they are sorely lacking in love, except for the kindness they show each other.

RUNNING AWAY

Each book features the children deciding to run away, to make a better life for themselves in the wilderness.

The Arnolds choose a secret island on a lake, one they are shown by their friend Jack who runs away with them too, while the Frosts choose a hollow tree they’ve visited with their friend Angela.

The stories then become a tale of survival; finding food, keeping warm, hiding from those who are hunting for them.

Going to sleep in the hollow tree
Going to sleep on the island

The Frosts are rather reliant on Angela to bring them food and other things they need, on top of what they’ve hurriedly packed up from the house (in a very similar vein to what the Arnolds did; in fact their escape to their chosen hiding places are both nearly made impossible by their aunts.)

Aunt Margaret demands to know where a clock is, and Peter cannot tell her, as it is in the tree. She then realises other things are missing and keeps the children in their bedrooms, meaning for them to stay there until they admit what they’ve done with their things.

Aunt Margaret delays the Arnold children running away as planned when she too notices things missing, and sets them chores instead of going off on their usual Sunday walk.

Moving in to the hollow tree
Moving their things from the hollow tree to the island

SETTING UP HOME

Both sets of children do manage to escape though, and then the surviving starts! The Frosts don’t have to do too much of that, as Angela brings them food, but they did spent a fair bit of time making the hollow tree a place to live; cutting a window in it, putting up a shelf and storing all their things in it.

The Arnolds and Jack have to be much more inventive; building a willow house as well as making use of caves, but then Jack is a little older and wiser and can also catch fish and rabbits etc.

Both sets of children have nasty surprises when people come looking for them, though are cunningly hidden in their hollow tree and caves respectively, and thus avoid detection for a little while.

In each story there is a happy ending (of course), with the runaway children finding happy homes.

SOME DIFFERENCES

Those are the main similarities, though The Secret Island is a longer book (my copy has 190 [larger] pages, compared to 160 for Hollow Tree House), and a bit more seems to happen. It takes the Frosts until page 108 to run away, whereas the Arnolds are gone by page 34! That gives the Arnolds a lot longer to be self-sufficient, whereas a lot of Hollow Tree House is spent with the children at their aunts house and playing in the woods.

AND SOME FINAL LITTLE SIMILARITIES

There are a couple of little things that stick out for me too; in both books the children sit and weave little baskets of rushes (Hollow Tree House) and willow (Secret Island) and then fill them with berries and things to sell.

And finally, in The Secret Island the children actually use a hollow tree to store their things in before they take them over to the island.

Oh, and it rains in both books too (that’s scraping the barrel, but there’s illustrations to go with it.)

Angela gets soaked
Peggy gets soaked

I’m not sure I could say which book I like better, they have their similarities but they also have their differences, and quite different ‘feelings’ to them.

I recommend them both to Blyton fans, and in fact I’m about to send Hollow Tree House to Stef to read, as she hasn’t read it before and copies are quite dear even second hand online. When she sends it back my mother intends to read it as it was one of her favourites as a child too.

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Five Go To Mystery Moor by Corinna

Posted on November 20, 2013 by worldofblyton

Here’s the second of my Famous Five “Pick’n’mix” reviews.  As I mentioned in my previous blog entry  I decided to re-read all the Famous Fives, not in chronological order, but in the order I felt like reading them!

This time, I selected Five Go To Mystery Moor, mainly because I didn’t remember the story very well.  The edition that I chose to read is a third impression (1956) copy in fair condition, but without a dust jacket.  I also have a 1971 Knight paperback copy, but again, I chose the earliest edition to read.

Corinna's Edition of Five Go to Mystery Moor

Corinna’s edition of Five Go to Mystery Moor

As it was an excellent spring day, sunny and quite warm, I decided it would be an excellent plan to sit outside for an hour or two to read the book.  Generally I can’t stay out in the sun much longer than that due to my fair skin, and the harsh sun in New Zealand (due to the thinning ozone layer down here).  By happy coincidence, that is about the same time it takes me to re-read a Famous Five!  So I made a cup of tea in a travel mug, and packed up a bag with my picnic rug, some snack bars and of course my book.  I journeyed to our local park  (a whole 5 minutes walk away!) and settled in for a nice relaxing read.  Rather a nice place to sit and read a book, don’t you think?

Corinna's local park

Corinna’s local park

As with my last Famous Five review, I won’t attempt to replicate Fiona’s excellent synopsis of this book here .

I’ll just have a natter about the book, and offer any insights that might pop into my head!

As I mentioned above, one of the reasons I chose to read this book, was that I didn’t think I remembered much about the story.  I had a vague impression of the five getting lost in a mist, and gypsies, but that was about it.  However, as soon as I started reading it, it all came rushing back!  On the very first page the reader is  informed that Anne and George are at a riding stables while the boys are off camping with some school friends, and that there is another tomboy there – Henrietta, known as Henry.   I definitely remembered the stables, and Henry, and when the book moved onto talking about gypsy signs or “patrins” I remembered that too – as a kid, I thought that was pretty interesting.  I DIDN’T remember the planes dropping mysterious bundles, which does seem rather strange as that is a very important plot point!

Predictably, George does not like Henry.  Particularly as Henry has straight hair, and therefore looks more like a boy!  Strangely Timmy does not like Henry much either.  Normally Timmy just doesn’t like the bad guys, and Henry certainly isn’t one of those.  Timmy, as most dogs are in Blyton’s books, is normally a very good judge of character.  My mother once told me if I ever brought a boy home who the dog didn’t like, then I would no longer be allowed to go out with him!  Perhaps Timmy was just picking up on the vibes from his mistress?  I seem to recall that in other books George got annoyed at him for liking people that she didn’t like.

Personally, I found Henry quite a likable character, and very well-drawn by the author.  I liked how she admitted (to herself, anyway) at the end that she was too scared to go out on the moor alone, at night, while there was a thick mist swirling around – fair enough, I say!

What annoyed me about Henry was how, when she was scared, she decided to go seek help from William, because even though  he is younger than her, of course he’ll know what to do as he is a boy:

“He’s only eleven, I know, but he’s very sensible – and he’s a boy.  He’ll know what to do.  I only pretend to be a boy.”

Perhaps this was just to show the reader that in fact, Henry is not as much of a boy as George is!  And now for George…

Once again, George does not come off so well in this book (see my previous review) as she is rude to Henry, and is in a sulk quite frequently.  It does make me wonder why George, as a character, is so well-liked?  I wonder if it is because of these flaws, that we like her so much.  She seems much more like a “real” person than the other four (I include Timmy in this, because he too is a bit too good to be true!).  Or perhaps it is because we know our beloved author modelled George on herself that we like her?  It is an interesting thought.

The illustrations in this book all seemed to match the detail of the story, which was a bit of a relief to my pedantic mind!  I particularly liked the one on the inside of the front cover, which was very evocative of one of the most exciting moments in the book.

The inside cover of Five Go to Mystery Moor

The inside cover of Five Go to Mystery Moor

Overall, I enjoyed this story – of course!  I thought I would continue to read through my Famous Fives in a random order, and think about listing out my favourite ones (something I’ve not really been able to do before).  So far I’ve only read two – so here are the current rankings:

  1. Five Go Off To Camp

  2. Five Go To Mystery Moor

I think Camp was more exciting and suspenseful, which is why I liked it more.  I think it also had much more interesting secondary characters.

Now for the next one, which will be, I think, another one involving planes – a trip to Billycock Hill!

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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.

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