Enid Blyton Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

[Mitchum]

Just a tomboy or one of the first young literary lesbians?

I don't think poor George would ever make head girl but Sapphic interpretations are a rum cry! Dick was clearly a fruit though.

Just doing a bit of Wiki-reading...turns out only one Gollywog was bad in her books.
The rest were happy-go-lucky simpletons who made excellent butlers and liked to sing 'Ol' Man River'.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

I don't think poor George would ever make head girl but Sapphic interpretations are a rum cry! Dick was clearly a fruit though.

Just doing a bit of Wiki-reading...turns out only one Gollywog was bad in her books.
The rest were happy-go-lucky simpletons who made excellent butlers and liked to sing 'Ol' Man River'.

Gilbert Golly and Tricky Teddy.

I recall Noddy getting ambushed by a group of golliwogs who nicked his car - one of the earlier books, possibly Here Comes Noddy Again.

 

[frona]

I don't think poor George would ever make head girl but Sapphic interpretations are a rum cry! Dick was clearly a fruit though.

http://www.ficwad.com/categories.php?catid=190

I was extremely surprised to find not a fic on Fanfiction.net for this series! I suppose most of the people who use ff.net are (dumb) teenagers and wouldn't know about Malory Towers. Oh well.

 

[Mitchum]

Gilbert Golly and Tricky Teddy.

I recall Noddy getting ambushed by a group of golliwogs who nicked his car - one of the earlier books, possibly Here Comes Noddy Again.

Poor aul Noddy. He should have known better than driving through the projects of Toytown in his SUV. Especially with that bleedin' bell attracting all that attention.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

What about the Five Find Outers and dog? Fatty (no such thing as pc in those days) was such a master of disguise!

they were terrific books - i also really liked the mystery of the hidden house where there was some sort of dodginess involving cars going on the basement of a country house. i remember this series being very sad in a sort of ray bradbury way. there was something off about fattys parents not noticing or caring that he would cycle off in the dark of night to the next town on his own to see ivanhoe in the cinema. i imagine he came to an early tragic end (this is probably true of a lot of blyton characters) and the other four were destined to grow up dull and forget the magic of their childhood, especially larry and daisy.

my favorite series of hers were the adventure series featuring jack, lucy ann, philip, dinah and kiki the parrot (as well as bill and mrs mannering i think) and the one featuring jack, mike, peggy, nora and prince paul. a couple of years ago i reread the sea of adventure and thought it was disappointing so i think i probably will rely on my memories of her books for enjoyment rather than rereading them again.

the famous five and the secret seven were a bit tame i thought.

I don't want to rain on the parade of Blyton appreciation, but she used to lock her children in the wardrobe while she wrote during the day...allegedly. A little bit nasty to her own kids, sadly.
There was a tv documentary on her life a number of years back.

and your point is what, exactly?

 

[Lili Marlene]

The censorship of her work (removing references to golliwogs and dodgy foreigners) is an appalling disgrace.

What is especially appalling is the fact that they change the books but don't mention it anywhere, the same happens to Roald Dahl and loads of kids books. The words 'abridged' or 'censored' apparently don't apply to kids.

Funnily enough in slightly more 'literary' kids book such as the Just So Stories the racism is left intact.

 

[paula]

never really got into the famous five, but i loved the malory towers and faraway tree series'. also the circus ones with lottie and jimmy brown. they were deadly.

 

[flashback]

I was never a fan of Enid Blyton.
The covers just looked sappy, and much of it seemed to revolve around nice journeys on trains.
Now I had been on the Sligo train, and I knew that train journeys were not like that.
Then there were beaches, with sappy waves, picnic boxes and loads of Protestants. I refused to read The Lion Witch and Wardrobe thing either. Cause, there were more sappy kids on the cover.
I just couldn't relate. It was straight into Roald Dahl and 1970s science text books for me.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

my favorite series of hers were the adventure series featuring jack, lucy ann, philip, dinah and kiki the parrot (as well as bill and mrs mannering i think) and the one featuring jack, mike, peggy, nora and prince paul. a couple of years ago i reread the sea of adventure and thought it was disappointing so i think i probably will rely on my memories of her books for enjoyment rather than rereading them again.

That Adventure series was gripping. Ran for eight books, Bill married Mrs Mannering after the sixth one - Ship. Two of them (Island and Castle) were filmed by The Children's Film Foundation in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

The Secret Series featured Jack, Mike etc. The Secret Mountain was deadly.

Another good one was the Barney Mystery series (Rub-a-Dub, Rockingdown, Ring-o-Bells etc). Six books. The dude was looking for his father (a parallel subplot). Other kids were Snubby, Roger and Diana.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Another good one was the Barney Mystery series (Rub-a-Dub, Rockingdown, Ring-o-Bells etc). Six books. The dude was looking for his father (a parallel subplot). Other kids were Snubby, Roger and Diana.

oh yeah, i remember those - they were excellent. i enjoyed the adventurous four also, and a one off adventure called the boy next door, actually maybe there was a follow up to that.

 

[muffin]

i loved both mallory towers and st claires...all that talk of tuck boxes and midnight feasts...everytime i go into a bookshop i look to see if they have either in a complete collection..its somethin id love to look back on and would love to keep cos by the time i have kids you probably wont be able to find them for love nor money...still cant find them though...

 

[nlgbbbblth]

oh yeah, i remember those - they were excellent. i enjoyed the adventurous four also, and a one off adventure called the boy next door, actually maybe there was a follow up to that.

The Boy Next Door - yeah, forgot about that one.
Some american kid called Kit who has kept hidden by a family while his wicked uncle was looking for him. Don't think there was a follow-up.

Must try and read that one again.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

i loved both mallory towers and st claires...all that talk of tuck boxes and midnight feasts...everytime i go into a bookshop i look to see if they have either in a complete collection..its somethin id love to look back on and would love to keep cos by the time i have kids you probably wont be able to find them for love nor money...still cant find them though...

Amazon Marketplace is good for old Blyton stuff. Not too expensive.

 

[dunderhead]

the 5 find outers and dog. Good stuff. endings were brilliant.

We also had loads of hardy boys books!!same idea, worse title, generally no where near as good.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Hardy Boys televison series has dated better than The Famous Five (1970s version).

 

[rampz]

my favourite is the 3 gollywogs.

this book invented pc.

 

[Diddles]

Remember getting Malory towers AND St. clare's box sets one Christmas. Loved those books! Must have a root round me Da's attic, they must be still there.

 

[Blog Bloc'er]

Once the three bold golliwogs, Golly, Woggie, and Nigger, decided to go for a walk to Bumble-Bee Common. Golly wasn't quite ready so Woggie and Nigger said they would start off without him, and Golly would catch them up as soon as he could. So off went Woogie and Nigger, arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song -- which, as you may guess, was Ten Little Nigger Boys.

[SIZE=-1]Enid Blyton, The Three Golliwogs. (London: Dean & Son, LTD, 1968 edition), p. 51.[/SIZE]

 

[roxy]

Remember getting Malory towers AND St. clare's box sets one Christmas. Loved those books! Must have a root round me Da's attic, they must be still there.

Yeah, most of my Enid books were ones handed along the food chain from my older siblings, but one Christmas Santy left two big hardback Secret Seven books, with loads of stories in each. My god, they were the best freaking thing ever.

I can still remember the exact mental image I have of the house, the shed where they would have their secret meeting, the way they liked their ginger snaps slightly stale...the quarry where everything seemed to go down...

And the really cool thing is, one of my good friends has a 7 year old German niece who's also mad into the Secret Seven and wants my friend to bring her over books whenever she's coming. So I'm just hoping I can dig out those same hardback copies and send them over to her so she can read them in English. :heart:

The five findouters were SO SO deadly. And Brer Rabbit was pretty good

Never got into the Famous Five much, but there was another series, a lesser known group of four kids. Can't rememebr their name. The Four something.....The stories were always set in the summer when they were on their summer holidays in Scotland. And they would go out in a little boat to this island nearby and the deadliest adventures and myteries would emerge....it nearly makes me squirm with joy right now, they were so so so cool. It's pretty rare to get readers so engrossed in a story, but she managed to do it time and time again, incredible.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Yeah, most of my Enid books were ones handed along the food chain from my older siblings, but one Christmas Santy left two big hardback Secret Seven books, with loads of stories in each. My god, they were the best freaking thing ever.

I can still remember the exact mental image I have of the house, the shed where they would have their secret meeting, the way they liked their ginger snaps slightly stale...the quarry where everything seemed to go down...

And the really cool thing is, one of my good friends has a 7 year old German niece who's also mad into the Secret Seven and wants my friend to bring her over books whenever she's coming. So I'm just hoping I can dig out those same hardback copies and send them over to her so she can read them in English. :heart:

The five findouters were SO SO deadly. And Brer Rabbit was pretty good

Never got into the Famous Five much, but there was another series, a lesser known group of four kids. Can't rememebr their name. The Four something.....The stories were always set in the summer when they were on their summer holidays in Scotland. And they would go out in a little boat to this island nearby and the deadliest adventures and myteries would emerge....it nearly makes me squirm with joy right now, they were so so so cool. It's pretty rare to get readers so engrossed in a story, but she managed to do it time and time again, incredible.

remember in the secret island they snuck back to jack's wicked uncles farm one night and stole the cow and then tied her to the back of their little boat and made her swim out with them to the island. that was deadly. and they had some chickens too. i think nora was supposed to look after them but she wasnt great with them and they kept escaping or something.