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Enid Blyton

Yithian said:
By chance we were reorganising Miss Yith's Enid book collection and she gathered the Enid Blyton component together. Are we missing anything good?

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For a Fortean element to Enid Blyton, see here:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-enid-blyton-code.30623/
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I remember liking the Adventure series. One of the characters, Jack had a pet parrot called Kiki and was obsessed with finding a Great Auk. I credit Jack with many hours spent looking for Great Auks as a child! Oh and they had wizard adventures and stuff.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/adventure-series.php
 
Yithian said:
Also, although I'm no fan of 'updating' or 'tweaking' old stories, the BBC adaptation of Malory Towers is top-notch and I'm quite content to sit down and watch it with her–again.
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Miss Yith told her mother (non-British) the other day about how there were no bananas in the UK during the war, and about rationing, and about the fact that women often drove ambulances and... sometimes fixed engines using pairs of tights or stockings!

She seems to have picked this all up from the Malory Towers series.

It receives my seal of approval.
 
As a child, I loved the Famous Five. They lived a life so divorced from my own reality, and had a family which was alien to me*. It was utterly enjoyable escapism.

* Youngest of five kids, by the time I was 10, all my siblings had grown up and moved out of home. In effect, I know what it was like to be raised as an only child.
 
Stormkhan said:
As a child, I loved the Famous Five. They lived a life so divorced from my own reality, and had a family which was alien to me*. It was utterly enjoyable escapism.

* Youngest of five kids, by the time I was 10, all my siblings had grown up and moved out of home. In effect, I know what it was like to be raised as an only child.
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I loved The Famous Five and read and re-read them all again and again when young. Just a few years ago my wife and I bought the boxed set and both of us read them all again from start to finish. Good stuff!
 
Yithian said:
Miss Yith told her mother (non-British) the other day about how there were no bananas in the UK during the war, and about rationing, and about the fact that women often drove ambulances and... sometimes fixed engines using pairs of tights or stockings!
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Did you play her the old song, Yes, We Have No Bananas?
Here's the Muppet version:
 
Yithian said:
Miss Yith told her mother (non-British) the other day about how there were no bananas in the UK during the war, and about rationing, and about the fact that women often drove ambulances…
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maximus otter
 
I loved The Land of Far Beyond , which a friend lent to me when I was in middle school. I've been looking for a reasonably-priced print version for years without luck, but managed to pick it up on Kindle for a few quid a few years ago. It possibly helped set me up for my love of hiking - it certainly didn't do me any harm! The Kindle version has rubbish illustrations unfortunately.
 
Lord Lucan said:
I loved The Famous Five and read and re-read them all again and again when young. Just a few years ago my wife and I bought the boxed set and both of us read them all again from start to finish. Good stuff!
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We had a tv series here in the late 70s that has become a bit of a cult show for people of a certain age.
They filmed a lot of it using the day for night technique though, so it's often a bit too gloomy to see what's going on.

 
It's funny (expected) how the intro images immediately evoke the personality of each child: George the tomboy, Julian the physical hero, Dick the clumsy joker, and Anne the drip ... a bit unfair on Anne but the simpering image they capture is on point.
 
Stormkhan said:
It's funny (expected) how the intro images immediately evoke the personality of each child: George the tomboy, Julian the physical hero, Dick the clumsy joker, and Anne the drip ... a bit unfair on Anne but the simpering image they capture is on point.
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I quite fancied George.
(Michele Gallagher committed suicide in 2000).
 
Yes. Secret passages, spies, steam trains, terrible geography, tea and biscuits. And a wee hint of Forteana. Good stuff.

I hope some children watch this and not just us old folk. :chuckle:
 
I had a series of Enid Blyton Nature Books in the early 1970s, which I loved.

Although they'd be well dodgy now. I seem to recall summat about "Zacky the Gypsy" who (IIRC) taught little kids about nature..? Unless that's a fever dream.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
I had a series of Enid Blyton Nature Books in the early 1970s, which I loved.

Although they'd be well dodgy now. I seem to recall summat about "Zacky the Gypsy" who (IIRC) taught little kids about nature..? Unless that's a fever dream.
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Sounds about right from my recollections. Apparently this was Enid Blyton's Animal Lover's Book, the others in the series were guided by Uncle Merry (not their real uncle).
 
gordonrutter said:
Sounds about right from my recollections. Apparently this was Enid Blyton's Animal Lover's Book, the others in the series were guided by Uncle Merry (not their real uncle).
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Ah maybe I conflated "Uncle" Merry with Zacky The Gypsy! Easily done. I did really enjoy those books.
 
About 25 years ago I took mons to a stage play based on the Famous Five. It was great, they loved it. Simple sets, straightforward plot and it had a really catchy song.

4 young actors and only two adults, and of course lashings of Ginger beer. Great entertainment , but not as funny as "Thunderbirds" stage act.
 
Eyespy said:
About 25 years ago I took mons to a stage play based on the Famous Five. It was great, they loved it. Simple sets, straightforward plot and it had a really catchy song.

4 young actors and only two adults, and of course lashings of Ginger beer. Great entertainment , but not as funny as "Thunderbirds" stage act.
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If you're thinking of the same Thunderbirds stage act, that was a work of absolute genius – I saw at the Arnolfini in Bristol in the mid to late 80s.

https://www.gavinrobertson.com/thunderbirds-f-a-b/
 
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