Enid Blyton

[VictoriaOKeefe]

Anyone else have fond memories of Dear Enid?

I hate some of the "modernisations" of Blyton. The Adventurous Four is my favourite, dammit, and the girls in it are named Jill and Mary, NOT Pippa and Zoe!

[ernesttheBavarian]

I love EB! Currently reading the Magic Faraway Tree to my dd who is 5. She loves it and roars with laughter. My ds never seemed to find her that good. As a kid my favourite series with the Adventure series, so the island of adventure the castle of adventure etc but may favourite book of all was the secret island. Unfortunately none of my ds wanted to read these adventure stories which I read over and over. Maybe it's a girl thing. Hoping my dd will love them.

I have only got the original ones. Not heard about these renamings although in Germany the twins at St Clare's care called Hanni and Nanni. But seem v. popular here.

[Campaspe]

I love Enid Blyton as well. I realise some of her attitudes reflect stereotypes that were unfortunately typical of some Britons on the 50s and 60s, but I see this as a chance to talk about such things, not to ban her books. I love the red hard back editions of the Famous Five books.

[CocktailQueen]

I love Enid Blyton too, and read the wishing chair, faraway tree and famous five books to my dc. They are well written and good for kids' imagination. Make a good change from magic fairies/animals etc.

I talk to the dc about how things have changed now, but it's good for them to read books written in different periods of time.

[DeWe]

I agree. I understand the renaming of Fanny, but the Pippa and Zoe irritate me as it's unneccessary.
I found the redoing of Dame Slap made those chapters completely ridiculous. the idea of Dame Slap is that she's totally outrageous in the way she treats everyone.

The worst redoing I read was one of the adventure series back in the 80s though. They had tried too hard to make it PC.
The particular lines I remember went along the lines of:
The original was Jack, lost, said something along the lines of "If I was Lucy Anne, I'd burst into tears. I suppose I'll just have to grin and bear it though" Fine, Lucy Anne's his little sister, no issues there.
It was updated to something along the lines of: "If I was a girl I'd have to be strong, but as I'm a boy I can sit down and cry"

Ds (age 6yo) loves the adventure series. He wants a parrot called Kiki too. He gets so excited and scared over them he can't decide whether to read on or stop. He always ends up reading on, but usually has a point he begs me to let him know whether all is right in the end.

[urmydarlings]

enid Blyton was my favourite as a child and recently I got a set of Mr Meddle books for dd, I look forward to bed time story more than her.

[PigeonPie]

I got DS1 (8) the box set of the Five Findouters a little while ago. He has devoured them! I think I'm going to have to find a cheap box set of the Famous Five next!

[TheNightIsDark]

I scour the charity shops for the proper ones.

I love the circus ones.

[TapDancingPimp]

I always have (and intend to for DD) bought the originals from ebay or amazon (original as in unchanged, not first editions, I wish!).

As someone said I think it's good and important for children to realise things were different and we didn't always live in the here and now amongst the ridiculous political correctness

[SwingYourPantsNow]

I was a huge bookworm when small, and still am now. I still always have my head in a book.
Enid was one of my most favourite authors, and I read all her series: Adventurous Four, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Five Find Outers, Mr Meddle, Mr Pink Whistle, St Clare's/Malory Towers - all of them!
I've recently been scouring Ebay/charity shops for the old books I used to have (NOT the ridiculous updated ones, but the editions I can remember owning!)
I've got quite a collection now. I'm resigned to the fact that they're just for me though as I have two boys who do not have the slightest interest in Enid whatsoever, despite my protestations they'd love Famous Five if they gave it a chance...

[AmysTiara]

My two love the Secret Island series and Valley/Castle etc of Adventure. plus the Famous Five though the Secret Seven and Find Outer books didnt hold their interest.

[Louise1956]

I loved the st Clare and Malory Towers books when i was young.

[BlueChampagne]

My parents expressed disapproval of EB which meant my sister and I devoured Famous Five (aided and abetted by grandparents). Now I wonder whether it was a tactic to turn us into bookworms - if so it certainly worked!