Enid Blyton - Classic or Dud?

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We're off on a picnic with Melton Mowbray pork pies and lashings of ginger beer. Looks like Timmy's trying to show us something. Secret treasure? Foreign spies?

Secret Seven or Famous Five - search and destroy.

A school friend of mine once claimed to be related to Enid.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 19 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

shadow the sheepdog!!
(scroll down)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 19 January 2003 15:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Famous Five and Secret Seven: both classic.

The Magical Faraway Tree:far too scary for small children! Terrifies me even now - its tales have this bizarrely nightmarish quality.

Fake "Famous Five" books written after EB's death: definitely dud.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 19 January 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

"stop licking me timmy, you're making me feel queer"

"our wolseley's nearly as fast as that bentley, we'll catch them"

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 19 January 2003 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

banned for longer than lady chatterley!! momus to thread!!

http://www.teddy4u.co.uk/acatalog/noddy.jpg

(note theme-link w.the ice age)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 19 January 2003 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

utterly classic. nuff sed.

― Dave (Dave), Sunday, 19 January 2003 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I found a box full of Famous Fives in storage and sat down and read them all again about a year ago. Classic!

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 20 January 2003 08:54 (twenty-three years ago)

classic, my mum used to read them to me with the gender roles reversed

― minna (minna), Monday, 20 January 2003 11:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Heh, I read these when I was a little kid! They weren't very common in the US tho, dunno how I came across 'em, they were 'indie' childrens' books over here I guess

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 20 January 2003 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Famous Five, Secret Seven, Noddy, Faraway Tree, Mallory Towers, St Claire's classic classic classic!!!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 11:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Famous Five and Naughties Girl in The School my favourites but I love 'em all if truth be known.

― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 20 January 2003 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic not least for The Artistic Impulse: she could easily have written just The Famous Five/Secret Seven for ever, but covered a wide range of stuff: elf stories, Mr Twiddle, Noddy, Faraway Tree (very classic) and The Secret Mountain/Island/of Killimooin/of Spiggy Holes/of Moon Castle(very very classic). The Stan Lee of childrens comic books.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 20 January 2003 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

without the comic. idiot.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 20 January 2003 12:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I the only person who found Faraway Tree absolutely terrifying? They're like horror-movies for 5-year-olds.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:16 (twenty-three years ago)

The Faraway Tree is not scary, Moonface is a lttle eerie perhaps but other than that.....

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

No, it's really terrifying. Lots of "And if we don't do this this and this, he'll be stuck in this land (==HELL) for another few days (==FOREVER)." Didn't it also have a lot of lands that look really great and then turn out to have a horrible twist? The Faraway Tree = Twilight Zone for kids.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah but it was exciting! There was the Land of Bump where they all had to wear cushions to stop themselves getting hurt. Wasn't there like an old guy covered in saucepans who couldn't hear anything over the noise of them all banging together? (Oo-er)

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:02 (twenty-three years ago)

My teacher when we were 9 or so wouldn't let people read Enid Blyton, I have no idea why.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

It's not very PC, they're like beyond sexist and some of the stuff is kinda racist. There was a big outcry about it years ago and lots of her stuff got banned from schools.

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

They're all classics, I've got loads of them which I still read, mostly when I'm feeling ill. I never found The Magic Faraway Tree scary, I always wanted the biscuits they had there, but I do remember having to get my mum to read part of the Children of Cherry Tree Farm to me because they were about to meet the "Wild Man of the Woods", and I was too scared to read it myself.

― Celeste (Celeste), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah - the biscuits that popped, what were they called again?

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:15 (twenty-three years ago)

D'oh, just remembered "pop buscuits", how imaginative....

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a deep down desire one day to make a big budget movie of The Faraway Tree, though I fear certain pressure might make me change things (Eddie Murphy as the Saucepan Man) so its probably just as well that this ambition should never be completed.

Yes, it is deliciously macabre.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Pete, make the movie! It'll be a smash, I wanna be the WaasherWoman! Pleeeeeease.....

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Casting call for Dame Washalot: Julie Walters vs Smee.
(Note, I wouldn't actually pick Julie Walters but she will be forced upon me by the producers as a name. She will of course do a very broad accent).

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:12 (twenty-three years ago)

B-but I have the pre-requisite ample bosom!

Who would be Moonface? May I be so bold as to suggest Michael Jackson?

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:14 (twenty-three years ago)

http://tv.cream.org/famous.jpg

Anne, George, Dick, Julian

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Why is George's face green?

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Nathan Lane would be an excellent Moonface, but I'm trying to convince Tom to do it (post shave of course).

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Kylie should be Silky, obv.

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Can I be an extra? I just want to play on the slippery-slip.
Also why hasn't a company made Pop Biscuits yet? They sound great.

"Pop Biscuits were lovely. Dick put one in his mouth and bit it. It went pop! at once - and he found his mouth full of sweet honey from the middle of the biscuit."

― Celeste (Celeste), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm going home to re-read The Faraway Tree, I hate my job and have had a shitty day so I am going to comfort read!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just got it off the bookshelf, hence the quote and I'm going to read it tonight at work.

― Celeste (Celeste), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

We should vote for it as the next Book Club choice!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:35 (twenty-three years ago)

The everlasting toffee was the stuff of nightmares for me.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Ohmygod, I forgot about everlasting toffee!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Imagine the jaw strain. Toffee's took me long enough as it was.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I know, like those Everlasting Gobstoppers in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I always thought they'd cause much pain too.

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

can anyone recommend a good biography?

― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 15 April 2005 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

or books about Blyton?

― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 15 April 2005 09:31 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I am from the states, but somehow managed to get The Faraway Tree and the Magic Wishing Chair. My grandparents spent a lot of time in England, probably going a few times a year or so, so I'm sure that is how I got these two books. I am reading them to my five year old, and she is entranced by them. She loves the stories about the lands. Sometimes I will hear her playing with her friends, and she will say, lets go to color a lot land, or some other strange sounding land. We find some of the food facinating, but I wasn't sure if some of the things were real or not, like pop biscuits, so she told me to look them up on the internet after I put her to bed. So here I am at this page...so pop biscuits and google buns aren't really food then, in England? I wasn't sure. I think the previous posts answered my questions though.

― merry, Friday, 21 April 2006 03:34 (twenty years ago)

Faraway Tree vs. Singin' Ringin' Tree?

― JTS (JTS), Friday, 21 April 2006 18:03 (twenty years ago)

google buns bwahahahaha!

― emsk ( emsk), Friday, 21 April 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44505000/jpg/_44505536_famous5_300.jpg
Famous Five go multicultural

EB will be turning in her grave.

― Alba, Thursday, 20 March 2008 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

...add a contemporary twist = a rebranded slightly altered version of scooby-doo, by the look of the pic?

― Pashmina, Thursday, 20 March 2008 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/s/r/srr120/poochie.gif

I post it so you don't have to.

― Mark C, Thursday, 20 March 2008 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

eighteen years pass...

mum & I saw The Magic Faraway Tree in theaters recently while I was home visiting - I was obsessed w the books as a kid & thought it might be fun. Eh. mostly I just found it overly long and pretty naff. Garfield & Foy were great as the parents & honestly kind of a nice respite from the rest. I didn’t like the conception of the worlds. the whole DJ spin worlds was dumb. the fantasy elements felt incredibly cloying & strange. Also the “story” such as it was felt like it took hours to get going & then was over & resolved in 15 min.

But I feel like I’m being a grump bc everyone in the theater seemed to love it!

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 3 May 2026 22:22 (one month ago)

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