Enid Blyton - ridiculous

[JumpRope]

Dick and Fannie from The Magic Faraway Tree have been renamed Rick and Frannie.

I'm a bit pissed off. How ridiculous!

[frugalfuzzpig]

Should we be airbrushing history?

It's weird how some things are censored and others aren't. I'm nowhere near well-read enough to have an informed opinion on it though

I read the unabridged Peter Pan and Wendy to DD last year, I was surprised at some of the violence and racist remarks (about the pirates)

[fairylightsatchristmas]

irritates me intensely that they change them. It was all out of date and anachronistic in the 80s when I read them but it didn't stop me understanding or enjoying them, nor did they embue me with any awful racist, sexist, homophobic attitudes (even the one where the golliwogs mug Noddy and nick his car) - that's now been altered so its goblins I think. I coped with pounds, shillings and pence, lashings of ginger beer and four pre-teens going away for the whole summer unsupervised with two horses and caravans (and a dog of course). It was fine.

[frugalfuzzpig]

We've had the discussion since reading famous five (and secret seven) about it being silly that back then they thought girls couldn't be as brave as boys etc

[frugalfuzzpig]

*while, not since

[Showy]

What's Chinky from The Wishing Chair called now?

I was reading Naughty Amelia Jane to the dc tonight and picked up my copy instead of dd's updated version and did some quick editing in my head when NAJ was threatening to cut off the golliwog's hair and turn him into a 'black faced Chinaman'.

[spiderlight]

Chinky is still Chinky. I'm reaading that to DS at the moment. (I asked him where he'd go if he had his very own Wishing Chair and he replied 'Richard Hammond's house' )

[curlew]

Oh, the professionally unoffended do make me laugh!

[brooncoo]

Fatty is still in the book we are reading at the moment. Don't think they should rewrite old books - even if they seem un PC now - surely partly what makes classics good to read is that it's a snap shot to how folk thought and spoke in another time.

[Wabbitty]

In the Adventurous Four, Jill and Mary (perfectly fine, timeless names) have been changed to Pippa and Zoe....

[WanderingAway]

I found this out last year or the year before when my dd read the books.

The faraway tree takes me back to my childhood. It used to take my mum about 3 hours to read one chapter because my siblings and i would giggle every time she said dick or fanny.

[landrover]

Remember Anne bought her tutor cigarettes for his birthday, because she knew the type he smoked!!!!!! (she was 10 I think at the time!!!) Just love those books!

[Iwannalaylikethisforever]

This PC crap makes me laugh.
The fat controller from Thomas is "sir Topham Hatt"
There was a council run catering department a few years back that changed the name of spotted dick because staff complained of the sniggers when it was ordered.

[RustyBear]

Actually, the BBC series of Swallows and Amazons did change Titty to Kitty (played by Susan George in almost her first role) That was in 1963, so hardly 'modern'.

I remember watching it and wondering why they had changed it - I was 7 at the time and obviously very sheltered - to me tits were just a type of small bird...

[Ledaire]

I adored Mr Pink Whistle Interferes

He took under-privileged little girls into shops and bought them underwear and pretty hair ribbons

[frugalfuzzpig]

It's weird that the TV series (which I hadn't seen) changed titty to kitty and yet the film, which was later, didn't.

[curlew]

I'm always amused and boggled at the amazing vociferousness(is that a word?) of people demanding the right to give their children really badly written formulaic books about deeply unpleasant mean spirited two dimensional characters full of racism, sexism and classism, and which condone snobbery, bullying and downright meanness.

[TamerB]

I loved them as a child.

[tattybogle]

They were enjoyable as a child; all the food references perhaps. I found Roald Dahl mean in parts.

[landrover]

But I still LOVE the famous five, its a little part of history!

[PortofinoRevisited]

I loved them all as a child, yet despite trying to foist them upon dd, she still preferred Horrid Henry/Harry Potter and poor Enid didn't get a look in. Apart from the Naughtiest Girl in the School.

[TamerB]

As a child they were a good relaxation, an easy read and exciting. I have a different opinion as an adult. My children never got into them. If my mother had taken curlews attitude they would have been instantly desirable!

[manicinsomniac]

curlew - definitely guilty here! My children have all my old copies of EB books, no modern ones and they love/d them. I find all the racism, sexism and classism hilarious - it's just so blatant and jaw dropping. If it was a current attitude it would be appalling but it isn't, it's a 1940s-70s attitude. And they're only badly written from an adult perspective. For 5-10 year olds (give or take a year or so depending on reading ability obviously) they are great.

[tattybogle]

Tamer I know a little girl who chooses to read Rainbow Fairies and then gloats that her mum doesn't like her reading them!

Predictability can be a great comfort in books.

[TheLostPelvicFloorOfPoosh]

There are lands where everything is edible. When someone was mean, they got put in prison. The prison was made of chocolate cake, so they ate their way out. He was frightfully poorly, and jolly well learnt his lesson.

What's not to love?

[tattybogle]

Yes, it's the food that draws me back!