Enid Blyton - what's been edited out/changed??

Really? I read Famous Five in the 1950s, and the name then was definitely Timmy.

Are you sure this hasn't somehow been conflated with Dambusters film, which did feature a dog with that name?

Darrell doesn't slap Gwendoline??? That's an absolute turning point in the book! She knows she went too far and feels guilty and ashamed. It's not presented as an ideal reaction ffs.

But there is no need.

That, and, she deserved a slap. 😆

Creating narratives and characters which child audiences can identify with is really important in encouraging readers, particularly reluctant readers, to engage with reading. If changing names and currency and small parts of narrative encourages more children to identify better with what they’re reading and want to continue to read, that’s a good achievement. Enid Blyton wanted her books to encourage children to read, to imagine, and to be inspired, and I don’t think she’d be upset that her books were able to continue to do that generations on.

The UK’s demographic is also very different now to what it was when the books were written for an almost universally white audience: for white children today, some things in the books might just be politically incorrect; for children of other racial backgrounds, it’s devastating to read derogatory things about people like you. Publishers do have a duty to amend future publications to acknowledge that.

It’s a few name changes to modernise it. The story is exactly the same.

That wasn't Timmy, it was one of the dogs owned by Lal and Laddo in the Galliano books.

They also changed all the currency to decimal. I don't agree with that either, nothing wrong with prompting a kid to ask what a shilling is.

We had a lot of old story books, hand-me-downs and such, and I used to change them on the fly as I was reading. Mostly the racist and fat-shaming stuff, but also the scene in Richard Scarry where Farmer Alfalfa, being the breadwinner, buys Mrs Alfafa a pair of earrings as a reward "for looking after the house and children so well". She is delighted - not least because the earrings are in the shape of mini egg-beaters. Know your place, wives!

Who is irate? That’s pretty strong language for people having an ordinary discussion.

I think it’s a shame when they modernise old books. Things like old fashioned currency add to the charm and escapism into a completely different time.

I'm confused why they changed Dick and Fanny in the magic faraway tree though, because I’m currently reading through the famous five series with my son and they’ve not given Dick or Aunt Fanny a name change.

He did and it was highly politically incorrect. A six letter word starting with N.

I can understsnd some changes
She mentioned Gollywogs alot and obvioudly thats not accetable now but some chsnges seem OTT

If you search on archive.org you should be able to find older versions of the books that they have scanned and archived that you can read to compare.

Timmy the dog had a different name in the early publications of the famous five.

I am pretty sure he didn't, unless you are thinking of Timothy, which Timmy is short for.

I don't think it is about getting irate, but I also don't think anybody has the right to change somebodies work.

I don’t get people who get so irate at changes that don’t ultimately change the readability of a book.

I agree with you, I was born a couple of years post-decimalisation and had lots of books growing up that were still in £SD and I just accepted it as a different currency.

It's normally obvious from the context if something is expensive or a large sum, e.g. everyone's reaction to Jo Jones's £5 in Malory Towers makes it clear that it was an absolutely enormous sum in those days.

Easy enough for anyone to Google nowadays if they want to understand the pre-decimal system (and when I was growing up any adult could explain it, including the quick mental conversion method they used when it changed).

The political incorrectness of the books are what makes them so interesting to read, Timmy the dog had a different name in the early publications of the famous five. Every character from America or France in any series are heavily stereotyped, for example Claudine Antoinette Zerelda and Suzanne 😂

Why is it not PC? It is literally a name.

I do think some of the changes are positive (e.g. removing obvious racism), but I think they lose something if they're completely modernised. I grew up well past decimalisation and never had any issues with the pounds shillings and pence!

It's always good to challenge readers and spark curiosity rather than just dumb down to what they already know.

Also, as with Dame Slap, other references to corporal punishment have been removed, and incidents such as Darrell slapping Gwen in MT made non physical.

Though why the Darrell and Gwen slapping was changed I really don't know, as it wasn't condoned at all in the original and Darrell herself was deeply ashamed of it once she'd calmed down.

Definitely the currency changed.

Generally, modern EB books have changed:

Certain language that now has a different meaning, e.g. 'gay' when used to mean joyful or colourful, 'queer' when used to mean 'odd'.

Names as mentioned above where meaning has changed, and also some simply modernised (e.g. Prudence changed to Pamela in the modern Red Roofs).

Also removal of racially offensive characters and language, e.g. pets with racist names, and racial caricatures in the forms of toys or characters.

Updates to decimal currency and inflation adjustment,

Finally I have noticed some changes to what might be called sex-stereotyping, e.g. mum cooking dinner changed to dad cooking dinner.