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Original poster

Enid Blyton (FF & SS) - obsessed with food. Discuss.

55 replies

justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:35

I have been rereading all the Famous Five & Secret Seven books (my DH kept them from when he was a kid & his parents have been clearing out their loft, lol).
Have been chatting to DH about the level of detail she goes into about food.
I mean did people actually normally eat 4 meals a day (bfast, 'dinner', tea and 'supper') ?
Or was she just obsessed with food?
He thought that maybe it was almost like propaganda, given that they started just after WW2, so most people would have been on rations, so it made people feel better to read about lots of food?

What does anyone think?

(leaving aside all sexist crap references for now!)

OP posts:
Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 21:00

well i'll be off trawling charity shops soon then, the SS books only take half an hour to read and i've only a few left. have something called the rat-tat-tat mysteries by EB tho, not sure if any good?

let's stay away from sexist stuff or we'll be here all night!!

OP posts:
constancereader · 20/06/2008 20:56

X post Turkeylurkey.

TurkeyLurkey · 20/06/2008 20:56

Feenie- does it get on your nerves though how Silky and the girls never get to see any action? IF there's anything dangerous affoot they have to wait in Moonfaces house while the boys sort it out..grrr!!

SlartyBartFast · 20/06/2008 20:55

i used to love the faraway tree, i think i still have it .. ,,, well in my dm's house

constancereader · 20/06/2008 20:55

Who remembers the sweets that got bigger and bigger until they disappeared? Was is toffeeshocks? I always wanted some of those.

Feenie · 20/06/2008 20:55

Faraway tree - pop cakes, google buns, toffee shocks and hot and cold goodies.

Am reading them to my Year 2s at the moment, who have become so obsessed that even our reading groups are named after it - The Angry Pixies, the Moonfaces, the Saucepan Men

TurkeyLurkey · 20/06/2008 20:54

Toffee shocks...

TurkeyLurkey · 20/06/2008 20:53

You can find them in charity shops all the time, we've got all ours from there..we've got The Faraway tree too

Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:53

well i'm only reading them at home - if i was commuting on the tube would have to hide them inside a cool book

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onepieceoflollipop · 20/06/2008 20:52

The Faraway Tree had lovely stories of special teas with things like orange and lemon sandwiches and various yummy cakes etc.

SlartyBartFast · 20/06/2008 20:52

god some of you have marvellous memories,
or are you secretly reading them again,, or not so secretly

Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:50

oh turkey - i must dig out the wishing chair! then the faraway tree...
so many to read, will have to start taking them out from the library once i've finished dh's supply - they will think i'm weird tho won't they?

OP posts:
SlartyBartFast · 20/06/2008 20:50

and the high tea
didnt she go on about it though?
get to the point of the story woman,
though i did enjoy them, but particularly Malory Towers, perhaps that had less food references than the famous five,

stillwaiting · 20/06/2008 20:49

Every time the get off a train they go to the cafe for ices.

Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:47

yes lollipop - in the FF particularly they bought food of random farmers wives who were always rosy-cheeked and fab chefs - and they paid hardly anything!

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Feenie · 20/06/2008 20:46

I think you are right about the obsession. Very detailed midnight feasts in Malory Towers and St Claires's - tinned peaches, tinned sardines (somehow tasted nicer together! and a frying pan smuggled in to fry sausages, ffs! (Surely the smell of frying sausages would have woken the whole school....)
Five Findouters and dog - Fatty was always treating everyone to double rounds of macaroons and lemonade.
Lmao about tongue sandwiches - can remember not knowing what they were and asking my dad, yep [vomit emoticon]
I loved all of them and read everyone about 800 times!

TurkeyLurkey · 20/06/2008 20:46

I was reading "The WIshing Chair" the other day. I thought "supper" was something dead grand but all the children had was bananas in milk.

I think the kids lived on bread, jam, scones, ginger biscuits etc whilst the adults lived it up on 3 course meals of roasts and boef wellington etc.....

Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:44

strange that timmy was a member of the FF but scamper isn't a member of the SS tho?

but yes, the dogs eat ridiculous stuff.

the mums/cooks are always baking too, realli should bake more

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onepieceoflollipop · 20/06/2008 20:44

Didn't they do things like wander to nearby farmhouses and pay 20p for a huge basket of food - like whole sides of ham and dozens of hard boiled eggs etc?

All that home baking as well. Yum.

constancereader · 20/06/2008 20:44

oh the fresh lemonade! Children in EB were always making that. I remember trying to persuade my mother to let me do it.

BetteNoire · 20/06/2008 20:43

They always shared their rations with their dogs though.
In fact the dogs had more rights than the girls.

Original poster
justkeepswimming · 20/06/2008 20:42

and halfway through the SS, Janet seems to have made fresh lemonade about 10 times already - did people really?

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Soapbox · 20/06/2008 20:42

I think they were just coming out of a period where food was very scarce and it is quite possible that people were food obsessed.

My father recalls being starving hungry as a child during the war. He said nothing ever really filled him up! He was obsessed by flipping potatoes all his life and I suspect it was filling the hole in his stomach that he never could as a child!

procrastinatingparent · 20/06/2008 20:42

I once read a theory that there is food in children's books (esp but not only Enid Blyton) works in the same way as sex in grown-up fiction, to spice up (ha!) the narrative.

Don't know if I believe it, mind.

Othersideofthechannel · 20/06/2008 20:41

I think people did have afternoon tea and supper then. They were more active and lived in colder houses so presumably used up more energy.