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!

[Pigeonhouse]

Frugal, I looked up the actors from the TV series once in a fit of 70s nostalgia. The girl who played Anne is now a teacher, Gary Russell is a script editor on Doctor Who, and the girl who played George was rumoured to have had a difficult life, and is apparently dead now. I think the Julian actor did something suitably bossy. I don't think any of them went on acting.

[frugalfuzzpig]

Ah I knew about Gary working with dr who, didn't know about the rest though.

Not surprised they didn't follow acting as a career, TBF their acting was not great. I much preferred the 90s series.

Sad about George though :(

[brooncoo]

Definitely doesn't carry through for me as an adult. Really predictable and repetitive.

I came from a small terraced council house in an wc mining village. Think I loved the fact that it was a totally
alien and different world.

I used to beg my poor parents to send me to boarding school.

[WitchWay]

The Magic Faraway Tree was the only book of hers I had as a small child. Even at the discerning age of about 6 I thought it was crap.

[printmeanicephoto]

It is madness that the names have been changed!! What a stupid thing to do. The names are the names - end of. What gives them the right to mess with her books in that way!!

I have just bought the original Faraway Tree trilogy from ebay with the original names in protest. As a previous poster has said - it is utterly wrong to airbrush history!!

Changing names is a pile of pants and insulting to EB. PC shite at it's worst.

[Bowlersarm]

I like your style printme

[Rhythmisadancer]

Just been reading a v old copy of the Faraway Tree to my pair. A lot of stuff I find objectionable passes them by and some of the language needs a bit of explaining, but we mostly just just roll with it. However, tonight when the two girls had to stay home because there so much IRONING to do, I just started making stuff up! Not sure it was at all satisfactory as the result was Jo was up the tree on his own - mysteriously ....

[Louise1956]

I loved the Malory Towers and St Clair books when I was young, don't remember any racism or sexism in them. Her books were among those published by Armada and Knight - the publishers who produced all those series that were too downmarket for Puffin books - authors like Malcolm Saville and The Pullein Thompson sisters, and the delightful Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge. Books that were just for fun.

[VictoriaOKeefe]

To those who are criticising the left/PC'er in this thread. Of course, the internet is a lot more left-wing then the real world. If you'd listened to the internet, Tony Abbott was never going to become PM of Australia whereas in the real world he won by a landslide.

[SamandCat]

Dd has downloaded an audio version of one of Enid Blyton's books. It's the one where they stay with a rich, black family, whose son is at school with one of the brothers

Is that definitely EB? It doesn't sound like her I would doubt any of her central characters would socialise with black families .

[VictoriaOKeefe]

They are thinking of Five Goes to Smugglers Top. Sooty Lenoir is French but not a black person. He has black hair though.

[Burren]

Dear God, Victoria, I think it's completely inaccurate to say the internet is basically left-wing or politically correct! Maybe the bits you frequent are - the bits I frequent certainly are, as I am politically left-wing and think that using sensitive language as regards minority groups is a good thing - but the internet is also frothing with demented right-wingers, neo-Nazis, racists etc etc.

I agree with SamandCat about the rich black family- I don't think this is an Enid Blyton book. Her infrequent black characters are either superstitious, bad-tempered and evil (JoJo in The Island of Adventure), helpful adorers of her main characters (Mafumu in The Secret Mountain) or evil, self-loathing monsters (the African tribe who dye their hair red and their skin yellow and throw passing English children off mountains as offerings to the sun god - can't remember which book).

I don't think EB would have had a mental place for a wealthy black British family whose son was at school with her main characters.

[bochead]

amblesideonline.org and gutenberg press are good sources of orginal texts, very handy for Kindle owners as most of it is free.

I've found that researching a historical period, and then reading a fiction written in that period really seems to bring history "alive" for DS. The social context of events is important for children to understand. We try and do the same with English translations of foreign authors when learning about other countries.

Their vocabulary is broadened far more if they have access to the original versions of books than the modern, pc edited stuff so their literacy skills improve. Thinking about how language has developed, and words and phrases have changed over time makes story time more interesting and actually promotes diversity in a funny sort of way.

I'm also honest enough to say I LOVE the incredulous look on DS's face at times at some old stereotypes "Mum - he did NOT just say that!", "That's just wrong to talk about someone like that isn't it mum?", "They are idiots, everyone knows girls can play football!" etc, etc.

It's good for kids to think about and articulate why some societal attitudes are wrong, consideration for others isn't a skill you can spoon feed, it needs to become an integral part of their character. A bit of righteous indignation as Anne is put to wash up yet again while the boys do "manly" stuff doesn't do any modern child any harm.

I have a cousin called Titti - and she's so fierce I DARE anyone to snigger at her name to her face!

[Nennypops]

Changing the names of the characters in the books really doesn't bother me; it's not as if they're classics. I used to read some of the Adventure and Magic Faraway Tree books to the dc, and I used to self-censor as I went along as I couldn't bear to read out all that stuff about how it's the girls' job to do the housework whilst the boys get to do practical manly things. So if I censored them, I don't feel in any position to complaint if others do.

[Dozer]

The books are just so dull! Thankfully DD not keen.

Sexist too!

[VictoriaOKeefe]

What pisses me off is progressives who refuse to understand how common certain attitudes were in Blyton's day and point to an extremely tiny minority of modern-ish people from that time and say "well those people were like us, so the whole period should be treated as if it was the modern day". You get similar problems with people who refuse to understand that until the 1950s, virtually all Australians supported the White Australia Policy.

[MoominMammasHandbag]

My favourite group was the Ring o Bells/Ratatat Mystery group. Barney the gypsy boy, with corn coloured hair and wide spaced blue eyes, was definitely my first crush. But I liked Snubby as well.

[squoosh]

Oh I loved the 'R' mysteries, Barney and his pet monkey Miranda.

[JerseySpud]

DD1 is 7 and at the moment isn't interested secret 7 or famous 5.

Mainly because shes too busy reading horsy books and Roald Dahl right now. But im going to get her the Mallory Towers books and the St Clares books.

so i can read them first

One author i do not want to get her books for is Jaqueline Wilson.

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Jacqueline Wilson is bloody good at explaining to kids that it's not their fault their parents are B minus, or in Tracey Beaker's case an F.

I read Enid Blyton once. I must have been about 7 and even then I thought it was bollocks. DM wouldn't have them in the house.

[ForalltheSaints]

I did not have Enid Blyton books as a child, as my aunt (a teacher) made her feelings about EB's books to my mum. I'm glad.

[JerseySpud]

She might be good at explaining stuff to older kids but i dont think my 7 year old needs to be reading about mothers who slit their wrists in the bath!

[squoosh]

I'm thankful certain children's books and authors weren't banned from my house.

[PosyFossilsShoes]

I collect old children's books, Enid Blyton among them. And yes, her stuff is pretty sexist / racist - the worst of my collection is probably The Six Bad Boys as I don't have the golliwog ones. The Six Bad Boys are four Irish brothers (who are therefore obvious bad 'uns), one boy whose nagging mother has driven his father away, and another whose mother sends him to the bad by (gasp!) taking a part time job outside the home.

Having said that, it's nowhere NEAR as bad as Billy Bunter, which features one boy who speaks in a comedy India dialect ("It is to tea time we should be going") and lots of evil black villains. One of the good guys is called Johnny Bull.

They're amazing as historical texts. I think the Blyton stories are possibly re-readable for children now, I don't think Bunter has survived so well, which is probably for the best.

[squoosh]

God yes, The Six Bad Boys is an odd one isn't it? Enid Blyton Tackles Social Issues or demonstrates her disdain for the working classes more like.

I used to love Billy Bunter as a kid, but it basically just pokes fun at him for being fat, lazy and unheroic.

Jennings is still great though!