What was your favourite Enid Blyton book?

[Flapjacker48]

When I was a child (80s) read loads of Enid Blyton books (passed down from siblings, library etc) and in the past few months have read loads of these free online (original/early editions, none with updated texts) - prob way more than when I was a child!

Although dated in many ways I have a fondness for the "family" type EB books - (house on the corner, family at red-roofs, six bad boys) which were less well known than Famous five/secret seven etc.

Also I have read several books about EB (biography, book by her agent and a book by her daughter about her childhood) and found these really interesting, of course like all authors/famous people in general who you think you know their lives are more complex (and interesting!) and different to how one would expect and how they are "presented"

I used to be in the Blyton society. I loved her books as a young child. One of my parents was a teacher, so they were critical of their faults, but they did not censor our reading, and were hugely against that sort of thing, and we had hundreds of Blyton books along with all the classics and more modern reading.

My siblings and I still quote from the short story Treacle Pudding Town today (about a boy who stole a treacle pudding then had to spend some time in the town by the same name, where he ate nothing but treacle pudding and cakes).

I would caveat that I loved and adored the books, and I will read anything non fiction about Blyton, but I wouldn't ever revisit them and risk spoiling the magic. I remember enough to now know that there were instances of classism, sexism, etc etc I'm not really interested in reading those books with the later revisions, and name changes, either.

The Rilloby Fair Mystery - one of the "R" series books (all had titles beginning with R) with Roger, Diana, Snubby, and Barney.

A classic locked-room mystery worthy of Jonathan Creek!

There was also a short story in one of the collections of short stories about how a group of children foiled a robbery on a jewellery shop by replacing the stolen rings etc with conkers found on the ground. Or something along those lines.

Well, thanks to this thread I have wasted a whole morning 🙂 Climbed up to the attic and found, as I suspected, a box of books. It includes the entire Malory Towers series, all of St Clares, all of SS, most of FF and a few others. I have read the first FF and started the next.

My to do list is feeling neglected.

If you log into your Amazon account on a computer (you can probably do it from mobile too but this is where I found it):

1. Hover over where it says Hello, RaraRachael in the top right
2. Click on Manage your content & devices
3. There's a white horizontal bar near the top - click on Devices on there
4. Select your kindle, and then you probably have to click again on your kindle when a little box pops up
5. It should then take you to a page where it shows your Kindle email

If you haven't changed it, it will look a bit like your normal email address, but will have some random letters after it and will end in @kindle.com

I think it's in Five Get into a Fix (no 17) where they introduce themselves as the Barnards. However the next book they introduce themselves as Kirrin, leaving the question over their surnames.

My theory is that in Finniston Farm (no 18) the farmer's wife is an old school friend of Aunty Fanny. So she knew Fanny by her maiden name-which could be Kirrin. Therefore it would potentially make sense for the children to introduce themselves as Kirrin to identify themselves.
I did similar one time when I encountered one of dm's cousins (we didn't know him very well, and had only met him once or twice-I recognised him as he was so like my uncle) unexpectedly. I asked him if he was <name> and he agreed he was and asked if he knew me and I said I'm <dm's maiden name> daughter. (He had the same surname as dm's maiden name, so it would mean more to him.

The current in print edition thankfully removes all racist references and outdated language:

You know if you asked me I would say I'm mostly against editing for the sake of political correctness and I'm cynical of the extreme 'woke' movement today, however seeing those 3 edits makes me really acknowledge how vital it is sometimes to revisit these books. I'm sure they weren't intended to be offensive at the time but it's hard to not be taken aback when you read the old edits now.

All of them. I kept them for my kids, my grandchildren, and now my great grandchildren.

They are timeless. 👍

The Five Find Outers and Dog

Five go away in a Caravan
The children of Willow Tree Farm/Cherry Tree Farm.

Also, can anyone help me. I was sure this story collection was part of the Enchanted Wood/Faraway Tree series but reading online I don't think it was:

It was a hardback book and a collection of 3-4 stories, the cover was bluey green. One of the stories involved a girl with long hair who was trying to get to a land that just got further and further away the more she tried to get towards it. On the way she encountered goblins and witches. This is all I remember. It has been driving me crazy for years as I loved this story collection as a kid but endless amounts of googling haven't led me to it! Any super Enid Blyton fans able to recognise it? It was defo by Enid Blyton. Maybe some sort of Bedtime Story collection.

They weren't the Wishing Chair ones were they? They were related to the Faraway Tree ones.

I read so many Enid Blyton books but the first book I read as a solo reader was The Faraway Tree. I so wanted to live in the tree with Silky and Moonface. To travel to the lands at the top of the tree and eat hot and cold cookies. And I was petrified of Dame Slap!

Oh my god, was that the one where Carlotta and her circus friends save the kidnapped heiress? I LOVED that audio book, and can still hear the horse just as the 'turn the tape over' music started

Ah for me my most favourite was called the Treasure Hunters, that book really captivated me, it's brilliant! Next, the faraway tree books. I loved the Famous Five, I used to find them quite scary to read under my duvet with my torch and I also loved the Secret Seven. Oh and not forgetting the Naughtiest Girl in the School books.

@Toprepandhowmuch The Treasure Hunters was my absolute favourite too. Re-read so many times. I have a 1959 copy here. Sadly it's lost its jacket and I have drawn my own cover on the front of the book! Interestingly, it has a coloured picture on the first page.

I too wanted to go and visit the Faraway Tree and the lands above. I know her writing received criticism even decades ago, but they really fired the imagination.

My first copy was a battered old copy of The Enchanted Wood. I quickly found the rest and then on to many more of the different series.

The Castle of Advantage Enid Blyton

Thanks for the link, really appreciate it

Loved EN as a child, especially FF

Couldn't get on as much with the secret seven, for some reason

The faraway tree and the naughtiest girl in school 😊

Agree with some of the complaints above: her plots do get very repetitive and her characters tend to be two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. But her vocabulary is by no means limited - a charge levelled at her by many Blyton critics - and she's at her most eloquent and evocative when describing the beauty of the natural world. Her cherry and willow farm stories are lovely. She's also a master at creating atmosphere, particularly in the 'gothier' of her books.

It's for this reason 'The Island of Adventure' and 'Five on Kirrin Island Again' offer two such different reads, albeit their plots are identical. Same with 'The Rilloby Fair Mystery' and 'Five are Together Again'. In both these pairings the Famous Five equivalents are the weakest: likely because it was by far her longest series and she was probably sick of if by the end.

I love, love, love 'The Rilloby Fair Mystery'. A typical locked-door mystery, but I adored the subplot of Snubby making up a silly story about the Green Hands Gang, completely taking in gullible old Uncle Robert but getting steadily creepier as it becomes increasingly and spookily real, seeming to follow him wherever he goes. 'The Rubadub Mystery' which resolves the Barney and father arc, is also a standout of that series.

I'm voting with others upthread for 'The Castle of Aventure', and am not surprised to see it cited as so many people's favourite. Great story of wartime spying and with a really brooding, formidable atmosphere. This book helped instil in me a lifelong love of nature - I love the bit about Jack staying alone in the creepy old castle photographing a family of golden eagles - plus Philip's fox cub. The storm at the end is fabulous and of course it features my favourite Blyton character, Bill Smugs.

I liked the detective series, a departure in genre from her usual adventure stories. They have a humour which is pretty much absent from her other stuff, especially when Fatty takes it into his head to take up ventriloquism ...

Agree with others that the bullying and xenophobia in the school stories doesn't read well as an adult. Of all those books I like Fifth Formers at St Clare's the best. There's a scene of comedic farce when Mamzelle is convinced she's locked up 5 burglars into cupboards in the dead of night - in reality they of course turn out to be girls either up to the usual high jinks or navigating some fairly serious problems.

Yes, there are problems with Blyton's writing and she undoubtedly espoused some awful attitudes even for her time, but my childhood would have been much the poorer without her.

NB. I can't bear a single one of the inmates of Malory Towers. They are truly dreadful people - the protagonist (thug Darrelll) and catty, nasty Alicia in particular. The only decent student amongst the whole lot of them is the good-natured American, Zerelda Brass (before the regime breaks her of every bit of individuality she's got and teaches her to be like a good little English girl - ugh).

That school sounded a terrible place!

I was a Mallory Towers fan , a few years ago you could buy the complete series on Kindle for a few quid which I leapt upon , but am yet to re read as I think now they read as quite non pc and I don't want my Enid Blyton bubble broken.

There's one that's a mystery (ring o bells?) That centered around a child's death 20 years before and was a bit spooky. I loved that as a child, which is a bit weird now I think of it.

Faraway tree
The famous 5 with the ghost train
Mallory towers
The one where the cousins move to a farm because their house burned down

Oh and the adventure book where they accidentally get on a plane to South America and have to hide in the mountains!

I think it was called Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm. I came on here to say that was my favourite Enid Blyton book. Also The Treasure Hunters.