Enid Blyton

Anno - your comment reminded me of the significance of the books I was reading when me moved house, again. The familiarity of Heidi got me through 3 moves in as many years.

I enjoyed the Enid Blyton books, mainly The famous 5 and the secret 7. I used to get them for presents or Sunday School prizes.

When Mum was threatening me with a smacking I would grab an Enid Blyton book and an apple, and run away to a local monastery garden, sit on a log, eat my apple and read for hours till I thought Mum had forgotten my transgression. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that I was safe there - I would have had a fit if I'd known what some religious men had been up to in those days!! Mind you, I've never heard of any scandal from that place - The College of the Resurrection; an Anglican monastery.

When I had read every book in the children's section of the local library, including all the Enid Blytons, the librarian gave me an adult library card, although I was underage, and introduced me to Charles Dickens, starting with Oliver Twist. The Famous 5 were soon forgotten - I was growing up.

But I remember them fondly, and even though I realise they had their limitations and prejudices, they were an integral part of my childhood. And they didn't make me right wing. Charles Dickens made sure of that.

What I dislike about the thought police sneering at Enid Blyton is that they assume children can't distinguish between what people thought and what people think. I had avid readers as children and I was grateful as anything for her prolific output. Whenever I read about teachers censoring reading books I remind myself that they make fools only of themselves. Bowdler cleaned up Othello by having Desdemona playing the trumpet in Othello's bed(put an s in front of trumpet and you get the original)
The first time we went to Plockton I turned to DH and said Five go to Kirrin Island.

Nothing to do with Enid Blyton but on a children's book theme, anyone else looking forward to watching the new cbeebies Katie Morag series this sunday at 5.25pm? I "did" these stories for 12 years with year 2 as part of the national curriculum geography and always wished someone would make them into a TV series. Hope it lives up to my expectations!

I loved Enid Blyton books too and ,like several other GNs attribute a life long enjoyment of reading to The Famous Five etc. Milly Molly Mandy was a definite favourite too!

Having grown up reading Enid Blyton books before they became politically incorrect and dissapproved of they were a world any child could escape to even if not too good at reading. Simply written with characters so easy to identify with and adventures to imagine yourself and friends reinacting. Having thought I knew them all it was a joy to discover 'The Folk of Faraway Tree' which my young daughter was given by someone when she was in hospital. She adored it and so did I but could hardly read it out loud to her sometimes for laughing. It certainly hastened her recovery as laughter so often does. It had the same effect when I read it again and again some years later to my new young son every bedtime. What a lovely book.

Oh what a lovely reminiscence thread this is! It has brought back all sorts of memories of my childhood which was full of Enid Blyton books from The Noddy series, which I had read to me by Mum and Dad while recovering from complications after measles, to The Magic Faraway Tree, which was the first book I read and reread and reread to myself, through the circus series (I had completely forgotten about those) to the Mallory Towers books which I loved as an older child. Such joy!

I was and still am a voracious reader due, as many of you have said, to those books! They were total escapism. I had nothing in common with the children in them but that was part of the magic! And honestly it never occurred to me to link gollywogs (are you allowed to use that word?) with black people. To me they were just toys like the rest of the Noddy characters.

Apart from EB, the Narnia books were my all time favourites. The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe came out when I was about 10 and I was hooked! Oh and Heidi! How many times did I read that?

I was not allowed comics of any sort. Don't know why, but I did read my cousin's Bunty and Judy when my mum was not around.

As you say Judthepud2 what lovely memories this thread has invoked. I too was an avid reader of all things EB, and was delighted to read them to my 3 DSs as they grew. My massive collection was eventually passed on to a friends DDs who also loved them to bits.
Must confess to still having my Heidi books though, as well as What Katy Did, Little Women and Jane Eyre...still like to delve into them now and then and escape from the ratrace

I also loved Heidi but don't know what happened to mine as they were passed on to my sisters and then who knows where!

Jud, we had the same bookcase full I think!
I have wonderful memories of going to the childrens section of the library and I can still smell the books when I close my eyes. I made sure I took my children to the library also when they were young and more recently my part ers grandson and I regularly go and enjoy looking at the books.
I can also remember reading after lights out by kneeling up at the window sill and holding my book behind the curtains to catch the last of the daylight.
I also love love love my kindle!
Im also seriously considering having a go at writing a story of some sort of my own.

By the way, going back to Enid Blyton, when I saw the first Harry Potter film with my children I was struck by similarities to Enid Blyton. For example in the spell shop there is a scene where soething tries to escape from a spell book. i had a flashback to reading an EB story where goblins or suchlike escaped from the pages of a book. i assume JK Rowling must have been an EB fan and read them as a child

storynanny, I bet JKR was an Enid fan as well, though I hadn't thought of that till you mentioned it. JKR writes a good story, children can lose themselves in a world so different to their own. The characters though are so familiar to muggle life, with bullies, sneaks, clever girls, teachers you admire/fear in sometimes equal measure. My grandsons also read their mum's Enid Blyton books, she read them all the Roal Dhal books, and the Narnia books, like all of us, enjoying that feeling of belonging and family that comes with introducing reading to a new generation.

What Katy Did and the sequel; Little Women and the three sequels; Jane Eyre yes....yes....yes! I can just feel the sensation of lying in bed on a sunny summer evening when I was supposed to be asleep reading all of these. More please. I'm turning into Proust with his madeleine!!

Judthepud2 Two sequels for Katy, 'at school' and 'next'...and I have 3 Heidis too, Heidi, Heidi grows up and Heidis children...still love them to pieces...plus, of course, as you mentioned Little Women plus 3 sequels.
I also have a magical book given to me by my favourite aunt for my 2nd birthday (51 yrs ago)... Hans Christian Andersons Fairy Tales, big A4 hardback with the most beautiful illustrations. My GD loves that one!
It's no good, all this nostalgia, going to settle down with one right now!

All this nostalgia sent me to Amazon to look up some Enid Blyton. She still seems very popular reading some of the reviews. I've been buying some childrens classics for the grandchildren and I have a new copy of Heidi. Heidi was one book I seemed to miss reading as a child so after reading how loved Heidi was by some of you I'm going to have a quick read before passing it on.
The My Naughty Little Sister books were another series that were enjoyed by my daughter and now loved by the grandchildren. The newer books still have the lovely Shirley Hughes illustrations and seem unchanged.
Other books I've bought for the grandchildren to read in a perhaps a couple of years time are The Box of Delights (John Mansefield) A Stitch in Time (Penelope Lively) and Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time.

All this nostalgia has me picturing the illustrated hard back copies of Heidi I treasured. Little Women on BBC children's tv Sunday tea time was a must at our house. My sister was the only woman I know who wanted to be Beth, everyone else wants to be Jo of course. I'm sad to say I no longer have the original copies of Heidi, Alice in Wonderland etc but i do have the memories

Oh my! Someone else who remembers the BBCs serialisation of Little Women!
lam64 it was the closest thing I'd ever seen to my beloved books, and I searched for many years when older, for some form of recording of it.
I eventually resorted to writing to the BBC, and blow me down if they didn't have it on video. Had been taken off general sale, but they sent me a box-set anyway for only £15.
30 years down the line, it was just as good as I ever remember it!

The only other version that ever came close, for me, was Winona Ryders film, she had found all the best bits of the first 2 books and used them beautifully!
Although I must confess to having copies of all the Little Women films ever made, plus the American serialisation, with a very unconvincing William Shatner as Professor Bhear. Bless him, he tried, but he was still James T Kirk

My DGD is reading the Famous Five in French. Timmie is blessed with the name Dagobert and Julian is François. Anne is Annie and George is Claude short for Claudine.

DS1 is now reading "The Magic Farawy Tree" to his small boys; I introduced all my children to it. I think it was the book that awakened my passion for reading, and DS agreed. We think it really has a "Harry Potter" feel to it. But there was always "Shadow the Sheepdog" ( Blyton again) which I read and reread.

And - what about the Chalet School books? And the Abbey ones - everyone had twins, and triplets, and was titled.

Myself and a group of friends spent much of our childhood 'being' the Famous five. School holidays were spent up in the woods and fields acting out the stories. Oh, what fun and freedom !

Grateful I remember the BBC serialisation of Little Women very clearly. Sunday tea time. Big fire. Sandwiches and toasted barmbrack (fruit bread). Warm cosy feeling. Happy times long gone. Sigh! Envy you your box set.

The Abbey girls all had flowing red hair and were called Rosalind or rosamund or Rosalie. Their husbands never appeared nor did they seem to give birth to male children!

I never forgave Laurie for not marrying Jo in Little Women

Jud wasn't it great? Used to love the BBC Sunday childrens programmes, was lovely to have all your favourite characters come alive.
I'm still on a mission to find a recording of Heidi that I also remember well from childhood. Also a serialisation, but not sure if it was the BBC.
They made such an impression on me that, even now, if I read them again, I can see and hear them in my head, as the people I watched on the TV.

My son was not able to read much at 8yrs. despite being in a small group
to assist. I decided to help him further myself and started with Enid Blyton, as I'd loved her books. Because they were interesting, within 6months he was fluent. By 10yrs he was reading Shakespeare for pleasure -which I would never have done! So you can imagine I value her writing even more, especially as he's now a Psychiatric Nurse who really cares.