when the posh children in Enid Blyton have an "ice", I always thought it meant "ice lolly"...

[sadpapercourtesan]

...but I was reading "Five Go To Billycock Hill" last night, and they talked about having an "ice" in a tub with a little wooden spoon...surely that's an ice cream?!

Yes, I have too much time on my hands. I should be doing stuff

Angelil
Yes, and especially creating a mood via the connotation of words - all more natural when you're not fully aware you're doing it. And it doesn't interrupt the flow of the writing so much when it's all done by the imagination.

About the tomatoes, all food was completely seasonal in those days. There were no vast Spanish greenhouses sending us tomatoes in February, back then.
I can remember how much we looked forward to the strawberry season, or the few brief weeks when bilberries where imported from Scandinavia, or late Scottish raspberries, and dates at Christmastime.

It’s all a very different culinary world these days, though I do think food supplies will focus on more local production post lockdown.

Jill wasn’t poor egg, apart from the first book? She was okay then I agree. But in the subsequent books she was awful to any girls she encountered who weren’t as enthusiastic about horses as she was. In one of the books two girls come to stay and they are dog owners and Jill is horrible about them! And then they DO get into horses and decide to buy one (as you do, at someone else’s house!) and Jill is so rude and patronising to them.

Then in one of the other books a little girl can’t afford riding lessons and Jill is horrible to her.

I was a fan of Jinny Manders

@Taytocrisps I remember that story! You’ve got a good memory, maybe it was from one of her books which had a collection of stories?

I must defend Jill! The dog owners were sneery and a bit annoying and made Jill feel inferior and she felt bad about the poor girl who cheated and gave her a ride on her pony.

I am a fan of Jill.

What was the Famous 5 book with Lesley ho had to pretend to be Leslie a boy. She was American and had her hair cut off

But I will now google Jinny Manders

I loved The Family From One End Street, especially because the Ruggles children are very much the sort that the main characters despise in middle class children's stories.

I know she redeemed herself humphrey, I think I can just imagine her growing up to be some officious sort at pony club trials

Jinny was fabulous - sort of the anti-Jill!

@HumphreyCobblers

Gillian and Imogen were the owners of Bimbo and Topsy. Another classic! They were a Siamese kitten and a puppy who were mostly left to their own devices in the nursery and kitchen.

That's it! Thank you. I had forgotten about Bimbo and Topsy.

Just googled Lesley. 'Five Have Plenty of Fun'. Berta is in danger of being kidnapped and so the five devise a ploy of cutting her hair and disguising her as a boy. George is very annoyed, of course, because the young American scrubs up well as a lad.
I wonder whether ' Enid' has taken its proud place alongside 'Hilda' and 'Ada' and even 'Ena' as an old-fashioned name which sounds consonanty at first, but then softer when you ponder the 'a' and 'e' sounds, and speak it in a soft undertone - and realise nobody remembers early Coronation Street characters anymore.

I vaguely remember Lesley being described as a beautiful name in that book. I er well I don’t want to offend any Lesleys but

I'm sure there was a story about a boy who was asked to do jobs for a neighbour, and would get paid. He did a sloppy job on all of them then asked for his payment. They neighbour said the payment was in each job but he hadn't found them as he hadn't done them properly. Eg a pound note under the last jar he had to clean or something.

Thanks- sounds like Plenty of fun (not)😊

I was absolutely addicted to EB as a child - but my kids won't touch her with a barge pole. I think there is much more choice out there for children today.

The journalist Lucy Mangan recently wrote a book called Bookworm; a Memoir of Childhood Reading. Sounds as if many of you on this thread would enjoy it. Her view on Blyton is that yes, they are formulaic but they get you into reading - and help you think of yourself as 'a reader' and then the rest of the literary world is your oyster.

Does anyone remember a stand-alone EB book about some children who make friends with a neighbour who's an American boy called Sammy, I think. His parents are dead and an evil uncle is after him or something, so the children hide him and they pretend that he is mute so that the American accent won't be a giveaway ....and it turns out that his real dad was alive and looking for him all along.

hahaha

The Boy Next Door skater - I loved it.

When the books where written ice cream was luxury most people did not have fridges never mind freezers In 1913, refrigerators for home use were invented.

Is her name pronounced Eni or Enid with the D? Ive always said Eni for some reason

summerredroses yes!

@PrincessHoneysuckle

Is her name pronounced Eni or Enid with the D? Ive always said Eni for some reason

Enid. I think you might have invented the Eni version.

Until this thread I hadn't realised quite how many EB books I'd read as a child. Shadow the Sheepdog! All the Fives, Adventures, Secrets, Find-Outers... It feels like an absolutely lifetime away, like the memories of another person. I had a look on the Enid Blyton website and the pictures! I got SUCH a rush of nostalgia, and seeing the lights "flashing" in the night from Kirrin Island - such a sense of excitement.

I'd also forgotten I had this www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=2079&title=The+Whispering+Island+Game

I really hope my family have still got them all at home.

I loved the Mallory towers books. I kept asking my parents to send me to boarding school

@TwentyViginti .. I am a Yam Yam, living down South, & I still say ..tuthbrush...even though I’ve not lived in the West Midlands for nearly 20 years!