I'm a librarian, and I think that the reason that Enid Blyton books were banned from some libraries in the 1960s was that librarians thought that she was trashy and low brow, rather than from any reasons of politcal correctness. I think that came later. Some librarians also disliked Roald Dahl, for similar reasons.

Personally, I think Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl books are fantastic, because they are books that children actually want to read. (I do think that at 13 Beamish Boy is too old for Enid Blyton, though, so he can hardly be blamed for saying he doesn't like the books) It's actually quite hard to get hold of many Enid Blyton books nowadays. We buy the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Malory Towers books for our library, but are sometimes asked for other Enid Blyton titles, which are just not in print any more. We no longer have them in stock in our libraries, as they have been withdrawn for being too old and tatty.

Incidentally, I've been on holiday to Achensee, and never realised that it was the location of the Chalet School books!

I thought that the ladies who ran our school library were upset when we all wanted to read "Five Go to Billycock Hill" .

Well, I had given them up by the time I was the actual age of the characters...I liked them when I was 5-6 best, which probably wasn't the demographic age. Maybe you didn't read them early enough! It's too late for BB now, poor thing.


Yeah, she did...it was just that a lot of them had twins (it's like a badge of honour for being a good Chalet girl or something). Although, Joey did have two sets of twins as well.

Didn't know that! It just reminded me though that she was meant to be a fairly nasty piece of work, wasn't she? Sometimes its better not knowing these things though, it can really ruin something you enjoy (like reading about Debussy's character...it definitely detracted from my enjoyment of his music for a while!)

I don't think YAP actually meant she took heroin...

The standards of the 30s/40s were jsut very different to todays, and in a lot of ways better. She was supposed to have neglected her children, but children in general were actually a lot more free from adult constraints than they are today. Mums didn't feel as guilty about going out to work for one thing.

For you Enid Blyton fans read and enjoy
Enid Blyton Society

The biography there is biased in favour of Enid Blyton, but reading through it, I think her actions grew out of her own experience. You must remember that being a working woman and a parent pre World War II was a difficult path to follow.

Also attitudes towards the opiates were rather different then. I often take morphine sulphate as a pain killer, that does not make me a junkie.

I actually googled her a minute ago and found an interesting article from the Telegraph a few years ago. Giles Brandreth interviewed her two daughters. The ladies didn't speak to each other and had VERY different views of their childhood. (would do a link but don't know how!)

It was, as you say, a very different time: the girls both had nannies and 'came down to Mother' at five o clock in the evening etc. Hard to imagine today!

I have to say though I would (and do) encourage my niece to read the books (she is 8)...anything enjoyable that develops a love of reading is a good thing and they are something she can devour on her own.

The article you are refer to is here:
Daily telegraph: Gyles Brndreth Blyton daughter interviews.

I absolutely LOVED EB when I was a child and read just about everything of hers that I could get my hands on. I also avidly read the Anne of Green Gables series, the Katy books, the Chalet girls, and anything about ponies and pony clubs that came my way too. The ban thing was so silly as most of those other books could have exactly the same criticisms levelled at them (middle-class / privileged childhood, sexist, racist etc...). I think '60's teachers may have been jealous of her success and threatened by the breadth of her knowledge (I have some EB nature books too).

Sadly I took most of my fiction books to a local second-hand bookstore when I went to university and my parents moved to a smaller house, although we got hardback second hand copies of the Galliano's circus series as a wedding present

My Mum wouldn't let me read Swallows and Amazons or Willard Price books (said they were for boys - now who's being sexist!) so I used to smuggle odd ones into the house and read them inside another book, I've got most of them now though (mostly off Ebay).

About a year ago we got some story CDs of the Secret Seven (I think they were free with a newspaper), I put them on for a laugh and couldn't believe how they entranced the kids (then aged 5 and 6) - long car journeys used to be a nightmare, but now they'll happily travel for hours as long as they can listen to the SS.

AND - and this is a big AND - my kids then started reading SS books with no prompting, and I firmly believe that anything that gets kids reading voluntarily is a good thing. Pippa alternates an SS book with a Daisy Meadows Fairy book (btw, DM must be raking it in....EB of the future perhaps?).

And Beamish Boy, I feel rather sorry for you, you have obviously missed out on a large piece of your childhood. Perhaps if you had read some of these "kiddish" books and demonstrated that you had taken in some of messages contained within them (e.g. about stranger danger, behaviour towards others, manners etc) your parents might be less protective of you and allow you to live a normal life.

Well, there is the scene in "OUi-Oui à la Plage" (see my earlier post) where the little yellow car rushes into the sea to save a drowning collection of teddy bears, a pink pig and a doll. Bit psychedelic perhaps but my maternelles loved it!!

I'd never heard she used héroine. Is it really so?

I have happy memories of reading Enid Blyton books and how the stories went, but find that if I actually go and look at some of the books I still have, they feel so dated now that I prefer to just remember having enjoyed them rather than try to revisit them...

I loved the food that they always ate.

The FF ALWAYS had macaroons and ginger beer.
The boarding school lot pretty nearly always had midnight feasts with cake and sardines.

I really like the ideals that EB promotes. Maybe she is dated, but there is something timeless about them in one sense. When this world makes me feel jaded and unclean, there is something restorative about reading EB- plus other old books like Anne of GG, Little Women, Swallows and Amazons etc etc. I think because everything in them is so warm and wholesome- nothing that happens ever seems that terrible, even when people die. There is an inherent sense of worth and belief in them.

Hehe yes, and someone would always try the cake and sardines together. The SS would always get lemonade and buns when they were in their shed.
That's what I like about all those books too.

I also loved (and love!) LM Montgomery. The Anne books are good, and the Emily series, but I also have a soft spot for some of her less well known books. 'The Blue Castle' is one of my all time favouites (not really a children's book to be honest) and 'Jane of Lantern Hill', which interestingly enough has a heroine whose parents are separated - though it's set in the 30s. I found it very unusual.

When I was a little older, maybe about 12? I read some books set in Shropshire, which were adventure type stories. They had a girl called "Peter" , short for Petronella Anyone remember these, and who they were by??
Beverley.

Sorry/ Double post.

I vaguely remember a series of adventure books with a girl called Peter/Petronella- they were set in Romney Marshe/Rye area though. I can't for the life of me remember what they were called.

Malcolm Saville - one of the earlier posters mentioned them. I think he also set some in the Cinque Ports area? (First thing I ever heard about the Cinque Ports!) I really enjoyed them. I also loved Rosemary Sutcliffe - my first intro to the historical novel.

I loved EB books as a youngster - Famous Five, Secret Seven, Five Find-Outers (and Dog), The boarding schools, the Adventure series, The Faraway Tree! So many memories

Can't remember anything offensive, and certainly nothing sexist, but then I was young and naive I suppose... Didn't stop me pursuing a career, so can't have been all bad! I do recall the kids being afraid of 'a dark man' in the Island of Adventure

*plans midnight feast*

The 'Lone Pine' series! Something I found interesting about them - and the Swallows and Amazons books - was that he used different groups of characters, some of whom never met until the later books. (I believe Arthur Ransome was working on a book called 'Coots in the North(?)' when he died, where he brought some of his characters together. Wish he'd had a chance to finish it... )

Don't forget the condensed milk! I remember thinking that was REALLY fancy...my mum only bought it for caramel squares and I used to dream about trying to drink it! It seemed a bit goopy though...(and I imagine all your teeth would almost instantly fall out!!!)

It doesn't do anything that bad to your teeth - well, it didn't to mine. As a child we used to occasionally have condensed milk as our dinner (when my step-dad was at work and my mum could do as she pleased with respect to not cooking and also ensure I have a really weird attitude to food).
But you can't actually drink it. You take one tin of Fussell's condensed milk (has to be Fussell's - it's made from skimmed milk and tastes by far the nicest compared to other brands). Decant in to two dishes. Then you eat it with a teaspoon.

We had the Nestle stuff...it was very sweet tasting...but very nice!

I really liked the boarding school books when I was in primary school. I always got them from the school library until I bought my own. I still re-read them now and then!

Thanks to everyone who remembered these. I remember the marsh ones now you've said
Bev.

Oh I loved Mallory Towers and St. Clares I still read them now occassionally, sure they weren't the most PC but I think you have to forgive that of books written in the 50s, also I think the strong friendships loyalty to the school and respect for teachersshowed something which is missing a great deal today perhaps a little ideaalistic.

Nice thread

Yes I did....



Yes. Originally for back pain, then of course out of habit.

Anyone remember the naughtiest girl?

Oh yes! And she lost her temper at that boy for pushing little Peter too high on the swing and missed her lacrosse game!

Did anyone else ever come across an EB book called 'The Six Bad Boys'? It was very different from her other books as it dealt with broken homes and youth crime (although there was the 'good' family there to act as a role model). My husband thinks I'm making it up but it really did exist - and was one of my favorites...

W

The Faraway Tree........... etc........