Milly Molly Mandy grows up.

[opalsandsilver]

What do you think would have hapened in later years? WW2? MMM working in Miss Muggins shop and being called up? Would she have quarreled with Little friend Susan, a nurse in a cap, over Billy Blunt? Thoughts please. Love the books.

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

found my old copies up in the loft at the weekend and got them down for the children, bit of sellotape required though, they were well loved.

[chicaguapa]

I had the doll. I don't think I realised there were books.

[kimberlina]

I loved the books. Can't wait till dd is old enough for them, although I fear they may seem really twee now. I can't remember what period they were set in?

[AShowerOfBastards]

Oh gosh the "lid potatoes" still make my stomach rumble. Yum.

As you were...

[mammmamia]

Gosh they were so twee. I always remember little friend Susan's best silver bangle.
Think DD would enjoy them in a year or so though, will have to look in my mums loft for them!
What age would you say they were aimed at?

[HanSolo]

Oh Shower- I wanted to have those potatoes for the last 35 years! I cannot believe I've never made them, when I was entranced by them as a child (we never had baked potatoes as they took too long to cook, and there were power cuts all the time ).

Kimberlina- I think it was 1910-1920, going by the haircuts, skirt lengths etc. The girl from the Big House (Jilly?), her mother had a new-fangled bobbed haircut I seem to remember, but her skirts came to mid-calf, so I'm guessing she wasn't a flapper!

Perhaps just after the first world war? There's no mention of the conflict though, nor of any men from the village being lost/wounded. Possibly just before the war?

mammamia- I think 5-7yo dependent on how much understanding your child has. I had to explain a lot of terms, and vocabulary when I read them to my then 5yo. So many aspects of daily life have changed!

[PeppaPigsMum]

I am reading the Milly Molly Mandy stories to my 6 year old dd at the moment - she loves them. My older dd enjoyed them around that age too. She's 9 now, and still likes listening to them (although pretends she doesn't). I agree that they are twee, but it doesn't seem to matter and I find them strangely comforting. A good balance to some of the other things they read . I always imagined them being set around the 1920's.

[Nocomet]

Can't help you DD declared them pious rubbish and we never got past the second story.

[MillyMollyMama]

About 15 years ago I got them out for my DDs but I found the language and structure of the sentences annoying. Lots of repetitions and too sickly sweet for today's children. I loved them ,but that was a different era.

[Nocomet]

Yes the style is very annoying. My dyslexic brain paraphrased it and DD2 got cross and kept correcting me.

Having the 'best' reader in Y2 was very irritating at times. By 7 she really could read her bed time stories more accurately than I did.

[Sparklysilversequins]

MMM was a land girl during WW2, then she married Billy Blunt and they took over her family's farm together.

Little friend Susan went off to be a nurse then came back and married one of the boys in The Gang that they were fighting with in one of the stories. She opened a little cake shop.

Mrs Muggin's Jilly also ran her mothers shop, she never married.

[opalsandsilver]

Hansolo, do make yourelf a lid potato. There is a lovely book called Cherry cake and Ginger beer by Jane Brocket, with lots of recipies based on childrens books, and they are in there.

I think the girl at the big house was Jessamine, and Jilly was the girl at Miss Muggins shop.

I was always a little confused as to exactly when these were set. The illustrations suggest early 1900s but MMM's mother daringly bobs her hair so it must have been the twenties? And in the picture of the Blacksmiths wedding the bride is wearing a more 1930s dress. Puzzling.

As for what happened next, I like the idea of MMM being a land girl rather than having to go away. Susan would have been a nurse. I picture Miss Muggins Jilly, who came across as rather self centred, taking a job in town and getting into rather a fast set, a hint of scandal. Jessamine who was sent to boarding school went on to become a WRN and did something very brave in WW2. Her absent father lost in the previous war?

I imagined a hint of coolness between MMM and Susan over Billy Blunt. I had forgotten the Gang though so Susan can start walking out with Timmy Binks who in spite of being poor growing up now has a successful chain of grocers shops and a fancy new car!

[TheSurgeonsMate]

I have quite enjoyed reading these to dd, who is only three, which counters the twee factor as she just takes it all in. She likes the map at the front a lot. I just can't say "Muvver and Favver" though.

[MirandaWest]

DD (8) and I love reading them. I wonder why Jilly lives with her aunt - what happened to her parents? I feel they're set in the 20s.

Somewhere there was at least a website that pokes gentle fun at Milly Molly Mandy - might try and find it again.

[NigellasDealer]

MMM became a houri dancing girl in Port Said.
Billy Blunt manufactured energy bars for the troops and became a millionaire.
Little Friend Susan ran a call girl racket to Buenos Aires.

[jennyl131]

gosh, . I still have my mother's old copies of these from the 1950s, I used to read them at my gran's house when I can't have been much older than 6.

Dd found them fascinating, but yes the language is very twee, and it's amazing how everyday life has changed!

I'd like to think MMM got to be a teacher, (I'm sure she decided that's what she wanted to be, maybe in the story where teacher comes to stay?)

[Sparklysilversequins]

I'd love to see that website Miranda, I love MMM

[yummymumtobe]

I adored the books and read them to dd (2) now. We often have the potatoes but we call the Molly Molly Mandy potatoes. Not sure if we do them strictly on the same way - we just scoop out the middles, mash with butter, cheese and salt and pepper and re- fill the skins. Then eat with a spoon like a boiled egg. I also don't say 'muvver' and 'favver' as don't want to encourage mispronunciation! I just say mummy and daddy

[SpringBreak]

Jilly probably got involved in some black marketeering from behind the shop counter (possibly got knocked up by the first N American soldier she found to supply nylons? ended up living a life of luxury in Quebec or Ohio)
Billy was a resourceful chap, and fast too, so I like to think he had a "good war" and found himself promoted to Officer rank, and returned to sweep Jessamine off her prettily shod feet

[SpringBreak]

(those potatoes also crop up in the Ruby Fergusson / Jill pony books. They call them gipsy potatoes I think? they eat them when Martin comes over to dinner after supervising her clearing out the stable for Black Boy)

[Sparklysilversequins]

He wouldn't he happy springbreak. He was a dour solid sort of fellow who would have been unhappy in The Big House and yearned for a plough mans at scrubbed farmhouse table in MMM house.

Think of Dick after he married Christina in Flambards? Look how that all turned out.

[JonathanGirl]

I loved the books, and drooled over the idea of the potatoes - was that the story when Little Friend Susan stayed the night? (Or had a sleepover, in modern parlance).
I must dig out my old copy for dd, fingers crossed it is still in my parents' loft rather than given away. Dd 2 has a pink and white striped jumper, that I call her Milly Molly Mandy jumper - the whole family calls it that now, even though I am the only one who understands the reference.

I always imagined Milly Molly Mandy being the same age as my grandma, but then it would have been set just before ww1, so maybe not.

MMM married Billy Blunt, they had two children before BB joined up (he wouldn't wait to be called up). MMM became a rural bus conductor, and took in some evacuees (as did most people in the village). Farver joined the Home Guard and Little Friend Susan the ATS.

[Bramshott]

DD2 (just 7) and I are currently working our way through these at bedtime and loving them! I've always thought they were 1930s...

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

they are very twee and the language is annoyingly repetitive but my 2 girls (5 and 6) like them.

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

I wrote a 'Milly Molly Mandy grows up' when I was a bitter and cynical teen.
I don't know what I did with it but I do remember making a stray bomb fall on the Nice White Cottage With The Thatched Roof.