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

677 replies

sadpapercourtesan · 30/07/2020 15:06

...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 Blush

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AdaColeman · 01/08/2020 12:14

crystal moth
Is that, like, eating moth balls man? Wild!

OxenoftheSun · 01/08/2020 12:19

Does anyone remember River of Adventure? Now that one really was incredibly racist (and gender-rigid). Smelly black child is given a much needed bath and follows the Fab Four around like an adoring pet dog. Indian boy-prince has long hair and gets ENDLESS negativity about it from other characters and the author. Etc. etc. The usual tropes.

That was the one I knew least because for some reason I never owned a copy and our local library didn't have it -- but I read it with my son recently, and was gobsmacked. Less for the depiction of the (Syrian?) child, which was pretty much par for the course for EB, but for the extent to which Tala, the local boatman, who is with the children for most of the adventure, is infantilised because he's a 'native', and it's seen as entirely natural for English children to effortlessly dominate an adult man with local knowledge. (Mind you, you could say the same thing for the depiction of David the shepherd in The Mountain of Adventure...)

(Was the prince not Gussy in The Circus of Adventure? Who, because he is a foreigner, is a crybaby and asks for 'pig meat and cream'? and is forced, to everyone's amusement, to dress up as a girl in a dress and hair-ribbons when the children hide out in a Tauri-Hessian circus? Because clearly this is entirely different to Dick or Julian having to compromise their dignity and disguise themselves in hair ribbons and a dress, or Fatty cleverly disguising himself?)

Actually, EB seemed to have a real thing about boy foreigners not being as 'manly' as their British equivalents. Prince Paul and Gussy are both presented as childish and rather drippish, compared to Jack/Mike/Other Jack/Philip. Or they're Faithful Native types like Mafumu in The Secret Mountain.

Tammylan is described as having long hair and beard and wearing 'queer clothes', but in the illustration to the edition on Faded Page, he has a short back and sides and is wearing a pinstriped suit and a fedora. Grin

YetAnotherSpartacus · 01/08/2020 12:28

Tammylan is described as having long hair and beard and wearing 'queer clothes',

I read the books in the 70s and just assumed that he was a hippie!

Barkybarkynutnut · 01/08/2020 12:41

I had a shitty, lonely childhood but my reading was my escapism. I devoured FF, Adventurous Four, Naughty Amelia Jane, St Clares and my absolute favourite Mallory Towers. I loved all the differences between how I lived and how the characters ‘lived’. Those books saved me really. However I just cannot re read them. Despite them being my sanctuary back in the day they are just too triggering. The power of stories eh

OxenoftheSun · 01/08/2020 12:44

Yes, I read them at the same time and always saw him as an ageing flower child, but I just checked, and The Children of Cherry Tree Farm was published in 1940, so he was ahead of his time!

But I still see him as having a hint of tie-dye about him. Grin

This is the illustration from the edition on Faded Page of Tammylan catching Penny when she falls. Not a hint of hippy. All I can see that's 'strange' about his clothes is that they look a bit creased!

when the posh children in Enid Blyton have an "ice", I always thought it meant "ice lolly"...
Kokeshi123 · 01/08/2020 13:46

You're right, the prince is in Circus of Adventure!

Yes, foreigners are not manly like Proper British Boys, regardless of where they come from....

Percivalthebabyspider · 01/08/2020 15:45

Taytocrisps that was the ‘happy House’ stories, one of my favourite EBs. I think it’s in the Stories For You book.

This thread has inspired me to go searching eBay for my old favourites! !

EatsShootsAndRuns · 01/08/2020 15:49

Pony Jobs for Jill

That title always made me snigger as a child.

EatsShootsAndRuns · 01/08/2020 16:01

Lots of great books mentioned that I loved as a child. Smile

hagsrus0 · 01/08/2020 16:21

There was a notice in the library of my childhood: "Books by Blyton, Crompton, and Johns cannot be reserved." I wonder if Biggles still has a following?

Fanthorpe · 01/08/2020 17:35

There was a new edition of the Biggles books quite recently hagrus. Not sure how well they’ve stood the test of time.

cheapskatemum · 01/08/2020 17:49

I came on here to say that I never knew what seed cake was. The Famous Five usually had some in their picnic lunches. I think I eventually assumed it was poppy seed, like lemon & poppy seed cake, but I’m not 100% sure even now.

Paragraff · 01/08/2020 17:53

Probably caraway seed? It's a nice cake.

cheapskatemum · 01/08/2020 17:55

Shock bleugh! I loathe caraway! All that wasted jealousy expended 50 odd years ago!

eddiemairswife · 01/08/2020 18:19

Seed cake is nice. Can you get it from shops now, or does it have to be home-made?

wanderings · 01/08/2020 18:20

Does anyone remember the TV series from the mid-1990s of the Famous Five, where they'd been sanitised beyond recognition? "Five get into Trouble" had a voiceover warning during the end credits:

"Please remember that hiding in car boots can be very dangerous, and is not recommended."

blurpityblurp · 01/08/2020 18:44

I found a complete collection of old Biggleswade books when I was clearing out my dad’s house! Some of them were published in the 50s, some are slightly more recent editions.

Paragraff · 01/08/2020 18:58

There's a seed cake recipe in the Jane Grigson English food book.

ageingdisgracefully · 01/08/2020 19:14

Does anyone remember the TV series from the mid-1990s of the Famous Five, where they'd been sanitised beyond recognition? "Five get into Trouble" had a voiceover warning during the end credits:

"Please remember that hiding in car boots can be very dangerous, and is not recommended."

No. I much prefer Five Go Mad In Dorset which was i believe one of the very first programmes aired on C4.

Smile
BlueSwathesChoose · 01/08/2020 19:20

We made seed cake from an old victorian cookbook once. It was caraway seed.

i don't have the recipe to hand, but google gave me this

www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/dessert-cake/victorian-seed-cake.html

fucknuckle · 01/08/2020 19:37

@BerylReader i remember the Swish of The Curtain being on at teatime on a Sunday. my brain sings me the theme tune sometimes.

no love shown yet for the Wishing Chair? i loved the Wishing Chair.

EBearhug · 01/08/2020 19:56

I reread all my Biggles books a year or two ago. I think they hold up better than Blyton.

Also, I made seedcake a couple of weeks before lockdown (I took some of it into the office, and that will be forbidden when we go back whenever that will be.) It's definitely caraway. It's not easy to find ready-made seedcake.

sueelleker · 01/08/2020 20:09

I made seed-cake once-it was disgusting. I can't bear anise.

Diverseopinions · 01/08/2020 20:28

Anise and fennel...just thinking about them makes my hair stand on end!
I must find a YouTube post of Five Go Mad in Dorset. Just the way Dawn French strides in her shorts. I wished they'd done about ten of them.

EBearhug · 01/08/2020 20:47

Caraway isn't as liquorice-y as anise. Good seedcake is great, but you need to be careful it's not too dry.

I have been reading Secret Seven this weekend, because of this thread.