The Magic Faraway Tree

BlueBelle

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

As a child, I felt they were poorly written. Also felt very uncomfortable that the baddies were always “foreign” or “gypsies”. Even as as 6/7/8 year old in the sixties, I knew that was wrong. As an adult, reading them to our children (someone bought them), even more so.

Allowed myself a wry smile as I watched various characters played by black and Asian actors. No, it wasn’t “the times”: many people didn’t hold her views, even then.

EB may have started many children off on their reading journeys. So has the creepy David Williams 🤷‍♀️

The adaptation by Simon Farnaby was excellent.

And as a P.S. to my post above, The Da Vinci Code was a massive success - and he went on to write more. Dan Brown's style of prose is awkward, repetitive and fragmented. He often missed the mark by a long mile with religious topics.

Just goes to show you don't have to write well to captivate your audience.

BlueBelle

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

She has been accused of being sexist, racist and xenophobic. All probably justified. Her "baddies" were always foreigners, and she used the "N" word and other derogatory terms frequently. Her style of writing was rather simplistic.

However - much of her writing was "of the time" and I seriously doubt she was trying to emulate Chekhov or similar.

Her books were very relatable to children and appealed to their imagination. Who wouldn't want to scoot down to the beach with their friends and hop into a rowing boat to search for the naughty smugglers in the caves?

Midnight feasts in the dorm? Gosh, yes please. But don't tell Mummy and Daddy.

I still want Basgetti to come back and explain her awful books comment.
There are umpteen posts on here saying these books were the start of their reading career, how can they be awful when so many of us loved them and still love them, 70 plus years on,

Yes butterandjam they do have the books. Enid Blyton really captured youngsters imagination. Ds was slow to read but The Famous Five really encouraged him.

25Avalon

Dd took gc to see it and they absolutely loved it. Youngest, aged 6, who is a handful sat mesmerised and watched every minute with no jumping around. He also was able to remember it all to tell grandma.

Do buy the GC a copy of the books. I always had at least one in my class room and can't tell you how many late or reluctant readers fell in love with reading in the branches of the Faraway Tree .

I read The Faraway tree to both my daughters and they loved it and I loved reading it to them. Reading to my children at bedtime was an important part of the "bedtime ritual" and we all looked forward to it. I'm pleased to say that all of us still read avidly. I've got a new grandchild due next month and I'm intending to continue the tradition.

I daren't see this film.From being a child I have the characters drawn in my head, I know what they look and sound like, so anything different to me would be disappointment !!!

You have a good point there PamelJ1; the family's situation features more heavily in the film than it does in the book but not so much that it diminishes the original story. I would have preferred Moonface to have had a proper moon-like face, rather than a crescent shaped head but, it's reference was still obvious. And Silky was rather large but then "reducing" her down to story book size would have possibly required CGI effects and I'm rather glad that they didn't do that! Her exuberance and kindness was true to story. I'm hoping that there will be a sequel where they can go to other Lands; Land of Topsy Turvy for example. Fingers crossed!

Well you may have all convinced me to give it a chance. I’m so fed up of going to films after reading the books and being disappointed.
My Silky is tiny, my Moonface is Toby Jones and my Saucepan Man is scruffy. That’s just 3 characters that don’t seem to match my imagination. I can’t remember the parents having much to do with anything either.

So glad everyone who had been has enjoyed it as much as we did
I think Enid Blyton was a brilliant story teller and as everyone here seemed to love her books I think to call them awful is a bit snobbish.
She got kids reading with a wonderful imagination I read early and used to go to bed at the right time just so I could read myself to sleep with Enid Blyton. I think I read every one of her books starting with Noddy and Big Ears, and going through all the Faraway tree series, on to the secret seven, famous five and then the boarding school stories. She knew how to leave you on a cliffhanger so you couldn’t wait to start the next chapter.

The Magic Faraway Tree is the nicest, most family friendly film I've seen in a long time. No CGI special effects, no swearing, no silly cartoon characters doing ridiculously impossible feats and no jarring background music; just a beautifully filmed, wholesome family story. A future classic.

Tok my 3 GD to see this 2 days ago...took them to the everyman for a treat ....they loved the film and loved the comfy sofas

I'm a dissenting voice, here. I would not describe the writing of Enid Blyton as " awful", but I didn't like them as a child, and didn't read them to my children because of this. I didn't like reading the Mr Men books, either, not Rev Awdry's books about trains.
I was happy for my children to read them for themselves, and had story tapes ( remember them?) of the Thomas the Tank Engine books.
My GC now have these as YOTO cards, and that's fine, too, but they're not for me.

Another Mum here whose kids loved The Faraway Tree. The books weren't "awful" they led them to a world of laughter and magic and make believe and eventually to Dickens, to Hemingway to Rushdie and onwards.

For me, it was Noddy and The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, St. Clare's and Malory Towers - since then I've always had books on the go. If I think back to struggling through the dreadfully gloomy and horrendously boring Silas Marner as one of our O Level books I'd say Enid was the winner!

My DD loved Enid Blyton , she is is now an avid reader- she will want to see The Far Away Tree!

Dd took gc to see it and they absolutely loved it. Youngest, aged 6, who is a handful sat mesmerised and watched every minute with no jumping around. He also was able to remember it all to tell grandma.

I think I worked my way through the entire Blyton catalogue starting in the infants right through junior school. Then I think I almost went straight from her books to those of Agatha Christie, although I did read quite a lot of classics as well.

Of late, numerous authors and well known faces are at the fore of spearheading an initiative to get the younger generation reading again, too many distractions of the screen variety. We never had to be encouraged to read, we just did! Many of our generation got short shrift from parents with "I'm bored" we were expected to entertain ourselves and their response to that from my memory was, "read a book" or worse still "clean your room" I always felt lucky and still do, in being able to lose myself to a book if I love it enough.

I absolutely LOVED that book. I was addicted to all the Secret Seven and Famous Five books. Each chapter ended with a cliffhanger! My mum used to call upstairs that my dinner was ready and I was so loathe to leave the story! My son came looking for The Faraway Tree book to read to his little ones as he too loved it.
Enid Blyton was a fantastic writer who instinctively knew what would appeal to children of different age groups. Not sure I want to see the film in case it spoils my memory of the book as so often is the case now.

This is the first I’ve heard of the film. I too loved the books and was a real Enid Blyton fan. I remember our English tutor at the college I attended saying “There’s a lot of criticism about Enid Blyton but she got kids reading”. In my case she launched me into the wonderful world of Richmal Crompton and just William, the Twin Books, Rudyard Kiplin and his Rikki Tikki Tavi, the Jungle Books, then Tarzan etc. Then Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights which I loved by the time I was eleven. That was just the beginning so thank you Enid Blyton.

I have wonderful memories of the books , in fact those and Noddy were amongst, my first independent reads. A lot of water under the bridge since then, positively an ocean's worth. I was going to take my grandson pre Easter, but a sudden change of plan, so I'll have to wait until it appears on Netflix or the like.

I know these days EB comes under criticism, firstly she was of her time and secondly and most importantly, she was responsible for forging a love of reading amongst our generation, which inspired many of us to become life long book lovers.

Saw it last night with adult daughter. Totally loved it. Cinema quite full and mostly Mums with adult children. Some funny jokes/lines that made us giggle.

I read many books to my children but this is the one story that stuck with them and which they made a point of reading to their own children.
I wonder if the film will live up to their memories (I don't remember anything about it!)

Saw this magical film with the DGCs. We all enjoyed it.

Read (very soon reluctantly, because they were awful) the books to our kids years ago.

No they were not 'awful' books; they encouraged millions of children to read, because of their straightforward stories and page -turning ethos that made one read on to discover what happened next. A much- maligned author criticised for a limited use of vocabulary, when her books were a stepping-stone to the life-long pleasure of reading.