to think that the Malory Towers gels where a bunch of bitches?!

[Bogeyface]

Just re-read the last two as they were my favourite and Oh Em Gee, what a bunch of fecking cows they were!

I have a HUGE EB collection starting with Five run away together, that mum bought me for my first Brownie camp. DD got into them (she is 8) so I thought I would buy her the MT box set. She was over the moon, and last night and today I read 5 and 6 as they had been my favourites although I hadnt read them in years.

These naice gels are bullying, bitching snotty nosed princesses! They were vile to newcomers, vile to younger ones, unspeakable to any girl who was a little bit different, encouraged one twin to dump her other twin in the name of "independence", looked down on parents who werent the right sort, self satisfied, self obsessed and utter snobs! And of course every book ended with the "not our kind" becoming a decent MT girl!

I have always, as an adult, read EB and particularly Famous Five with an air of amused irony ("Anne, you really are a proper little housewife!" "I know, but I do love looking after you all!"). But, and I realise that I am probably over thinking this, MT is awful and I am slightly regretting buying them for DD :(

So were they bitches or was I just the girl that would have left after 2 terms because I wasnt the right sort?!

I read somewhere that Enid Blyton was emotionally stunted and was stuck in childhood, which is why she couldnt relate to her own children and preferred her fans.

Not sure how true that is but it would explain a lot if it was true.

I remember EB observing that if Alma had laughed at the teasing, or Sheila the dustman's daughter had been honest about her origins, they'd have been ok. Is that because they'd have been seen to be accepting their inferiority?

She apparently was an absolute cow who hated children, and her own children in turn hated her.

They were quite nice to MaryLou sometimes, if patronising. She got to be Cinderella in Darrell's panto and I remember Darrell commenting how good she'd be as a children's nurse.

I read Malory Towers, but preferred St Clare's - my 8yo DD had the complete set in her stocking yesterday and we've started reading the first one, but nothing too horrendous yet.

I was desperate to go to boarding school after reading the books at about the same age, and all I can remember now is exotic Carlotta and the endless ginger cake and pineapple fuelled midnight feasts!

And she saved Daphne when she fell over the cliff, even though Daphne was a thief (But it was okay, because she was pretty and had nice manners)

I wanted to go to boarding school after reading those books as a kid .

I feel the. Need to read them again,along with the enchanted forest and the faraway tree!

Still remember Moonface, Lottie and Miss Washalot

Just been googling and it seems that she very likely had a personality disorder. One daughter hated her and the other adored her, the younger one. I loved the biopic about her with Helena "I'm not mad I just look it" Bonham Carter as EB.

Alison Sullivan was pretty with nice manners too though wasn't she? But then she thought too much of her looks and had pashes on teachers.

I used to work in publishing and I've met both of EB's daughters. The older one was just like George from Famous 5 and she said that the MT books were based on her own boarding school experiences in Cornwall. The stories about EB being a bitch come from the younger one. By accident I was sitting next to her at a conference and she told me her life story in one go. I was left open-mouthed!

I think I'll have to re-read them. I've forgotten too much.

The Chalet Girls were nicer, in my memory anyway.

Scroll down to "Dated attitudes and altered reprints" here
!!

All of mine loved the Faraway Tree.

Some of my best memories of my children's childhood was reading TFT to them in a tent. They were 7, 5 and 4 at the time, and the stories kept them all enthralled.

Though I gather they have been sanitised made more politically correct?

Bogey - it's the other way round, but yes, the HBC programme was fab, especially the anialation of their dad. There was also a 5-6 year age gap between the 2 girls so the younger one was very sour that the older one wouldn't play with her in the hols.

YABU to be beastly about book 5. That was my favourite. I dreamt of being Darrell and being clever enough to write the whole pantomime, script and song lyrics when I was 14.

Actually I also wanted the brown and orange tunic, the half-term outings, the midnight picnics, gingerbread and tinned peaches, the swimming pool carved out of a rock, living in a tower, playing lacrosse and a friend called Alicia.

I am not fat, I am glandular :(

Sorry, I knew one loved her and one didnt, got it the wrong way around! It was awful with the whole "new daddy" thing too :(

The Chalet girls still had the "fitting in" rule. I remember the triplets being "inclined to like Rosamund, but she did say some awfully queer things" and the rough time Joan Baker had for not being ladylike. And if you weren't in Mary Lou's Gang you just weren't anybody!

The Faraway Tree's on Radio 4 this week. I'm not listening. The new version has "Joe, Beth and Frannie" and "Cousin Rick"
Oh and Dame Slap now just shouts.

I dont think that they should be sanitised to be made more PC. As horrible as some of them are, it is a lesson in how things have changed. Even DD at aged 6 was horrified at the concept of girls doing all the housework and cooking in F5!

Dick and Fanny are in the versions that DD reads, TFT is her favourite EB book, and she hasnt said a thing. Its adult projecting their own issues there I think!

I loved the St Clare's books, and to a lesser extent MT. I really wanted to go to boarding school! It did seem like every story involved one girl who was disliked for some reason, then they'd play a trick or do something to teach her a lesson, and then she'd see the error of her ways and start being nice.

I do remember thinking though, that Mam'zelle's language mistakes were ridiculous, and that she really ought not to have been a teacher.

Anyone remember Mr Meddle (or maybe it was Mr Muddle)? By Enid Blyton?

It was the old fashioned version of Mr Tumble in my head anyway

Meddle I think. And she had a Mr Twiddle as well.

Funny you should say that about Mam'zelle Dupont, I was thinking exactly that earlier. Ok so she can speak French but thats bugger all use if she can't tell the gels what it means in English, and her marking must surely be a waste of time!