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

Oops I stand corrected about Monica!

Did anyone read the Professor Branestawm books by Norman Hunter? Very funny for both children and adults.

Yes, the Famous Five even went into hill-side tunnels with no water - although they usually had a bar of chocolate. Even making allowance for handy springs, you can tell that, in the forties/fifties hydrating wasn't something you were supposed to do every two hours.

Enid Blyton featured upper middle class families who had a wider complement of staff than just the nannies: cooks, housekeepers, gardeners. EB was sometimes pretty good at trying to understand different social groups and had a particular soft spot for travellers, gypsies, fairground folk and their ways, love of animals and manual skills. The famous five always befriended the fair folk on their journeys.

The biggest contrast between Blyton's world and ours, or even Agatha Christie's and ours, is the attitude to the outdoors and freedoms for children. Georgina used to row her own boat through currents and rocks to her Island. When Aunt Fanny had promised her husband she would go abroad on his lecture tour, the children just had to go camping on their own. 'Julian is sensible', and Timmy ( the dog)' won't let them come to harm'. Never mind going for a twenty minute jog in their own street at 7.30am! Our attitudes are so different today and the requirement for parents to supervise their kids so much more exacting. In Agatha Christie books you read of taking rafts on the open sea and diving off rocks and other pursuits coast guard's would warn us not to do. Actually, my neighbour in her eighties used to leave her seven year old to swim in the local pool for two hours, while she went to work. This was in the late seventies. How things change.

Someone mentioned dinner gongs upthread - my grandmother had one, and it was a special treat to be allowed to ring it at mealtimes.

15:54AgnesNaismith
Just came here to say restraaaauuuuuuuuughhhhhhnnn

......Is restaurant. I heard Boris say it too so it must be true.

My

oops.
My DH says it like this. He is posh

DH says 'restauaran'.

and 'drawing room'.

he is reasonably posh though. I am not from the UK originally so it is not something i notice particularly, but I do notice others people rolling their eyes about it.

I wish we had a housekeeper or even a 'daily' though.

@AvoidingTheWineAisle

I’m craving a blue Slush Puppy from the 7/11 now

Also remembering the old ice cream shop in Camden, Marine Ices. An ice cream from there during the summer holidays was a huge childhood treat. Does it still exist, I wonder?

I could never get on with most Enid Blyton books as a kid. They were just SO twee. Although I did love The Enchanted Wood and The Faraway Tree.

I grew up wondering why people thought her books were old fashioned and sexist, until my second wave feminist Mum told me she used to switch around the boys and girls names, so that the boys were the ones making jam sandwiches and the girls were having adventures in the woods .

Marine Ices is still there. Or at least they were last summer, when we got an ice cream from them. Hope they got through the last few months.

And just who said "lounge"?
Please, sitting room or drawing room?

Which was the book where Prince Paul was about to become a human sacrifice and was saved because there was an eclipse? Was it the Mountain of Adventure or something? That was quite dark.
And which FF book was it in which the kids stay in a lighthouse and there’s an underground passageway or something that they have to time right to avoid being drowned? That was my favourite FF book?
As for the characters, I used to fancy Julian as a child before realising what an insufferable little creep he was. A grown up Dick would be more to my taste now - not being rude, you know what I mean! At least he didn’t take himself too seriously.
I used to like Anne but now I think I’d want to slap her for being so wet.

@Papergirl1968 The lighthouse was Five Go To Demon’s Rocks, I think.

I was asked by a posh grandmother if I would like an “E clar”, to rhyme with “ bar ”
Took me ages to work out it was an eclair, to rhyme with bear.

Mostly because when she said come round for tea I’d assumed a cup of something and a biscuit rather than an actual proper high tea.

She was fab.

Haha, so glad other fully grown adults are reading Enid Blyton. I have probably completed Mallory Towers about 10 times. I even have a special recess for the books on a bookshelf where no-one else can see my guilty reading material

re: ices

the proper old caffs near me say "ICES" and "TEAS" on their sign outside, which always makes me wonder if I need to buy more Sensodyne

@Puppylucky

I love Monica Dickens books too :)

Back to the FF books - I can remember youth hostelling as a teenager in the Peak District in the 1970s. My friends and I used to knock on farm house doors and buy homemade sandwiches, cakes and a pot of tea every lunch time. It was very much the norm and farmer's wives were very used to providing lunches. They were lovely sandwiches, home cured ham with tomatoes from the garden and a selection of homemade cakes :)

The Chalet School have 'ices', don't they? I think Joey gets them in a few times as a treat.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget. My mum has some very posh friends. When staying with them they were invited to Kitchen Sups next door. She arrived wearing a normal skirt and blouse and realised she was the only guest not In very formal evening attire and was presented with a fabulous multi course meal. It was served in the kitchen though. Apparently Kitchen Sups to them meant a full dinner party but served in the kitchen by the hostess rather than in the dining room with paid staff doing the serving.

They are not at all posh - just normal. I always assumed an ice was an ice cream (the Five Find-Outers are keen on them, too).

I do say rum.

Choc Ices.

They still exist don't they ?! Must do. My FIL always used to give the kids one each after dinner.

Op you can download many of the original Famous Fives and other Blyton at a website called Faded Page, free of charge. Enjoy!

I think the eclipse might have been in The Secret of Killimooin.

a man used to push a cart shouting 'ices! ices!' This was in the 60's in London Parks

Love this thread! The Purbeck coast in Dorset is where she used to go to write a lot of her books and it’s fascinating how many places in them are based on real life locations there eg Corfe Castle is the castle on Kirrin Island, the pool at Dancing Ledge is the one in Mallory Towers - there are loads more.

I agree they’re not well written - my English teacher banned them too - and very of their time, but for a nostalgic comfort read you can’t beat a bit of Blyton.

You can get a lot of the old ones on abebooks.co.uk

When Enid Blyton was writing, you could buy ice-cream in tubs, and a little wooden spoon was attached.