To ask what happened to Ramona and Beezus, Elizabeth Allen, Jill from the gymkhana et al?

[HomeSliceKnowsBest]

Been really wondering how these and various other characters fared in later life,having reread various box sets to soothe my nerves over the lockdown...

Gwendoline Mary is a wedding planner for the Royals. Darrell is still in prison for attacking another student with a fork at university.

Fatty and Bets are married. She's an MNer who comes on every thread to say "My DH says..." She is the only one who can legitimately say her husband's hobby is outing. Find-outing.

Gwendoline Mary is a wedding planner for the Royals. Darrell is still in prison for attacking another student with a fork at university.

Oh yeah, Darrell would definitely pick up a GBH charge along the way.

My children love the Ramona and Henry Huggins as much as I did when I was their age. I agree that Ramona marries Danny (Yard Ape) and is an art teacher (I always felt sad that her dad never got to realise his dream to become one and was still working in the supermarket at the end of the last book). Beezus marries Henry and they start their own business (Henry was always into money making schemes in his own books, and Beezus brings her sensible, conscientious head and together they are incredibly successful).

It wasn't a fork, it was a glass bottle. She was pretty awful, really. Why was it that when she and her friends ate a lot it was because they were strong, healthy, energetic girls, but when Gwendoline did, it was because she was a greedy pig?

And why did Jo get expelled for stealing in the last book when Daphne got full redemption for the exact same thing in the second form? In fact, her idiotic effort to cover her tracks almost led to Mary-Lou being killed. Yeah, she saved her in the end but it wasn't Jo's fault that she didn't have a useful idiot friend and a well-timed storm to demonstrate her heroism at just the right moment.

GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom That always irritates me about Harry Potter, too. Gluttony is to be applauded from thin people, but fat people are terrible.

Perhaps Darrell stabbed a fork through the student's hand to pin her to the table, and then glassed her?

@Gamezup

All these names from the Jill books are a joyful blast from the past! But let's leave her as a kid, along with her friend Ann Derry - they must never get old!

I actually emailed Kerry Greenwood, who writes the Phryne Fisher books, as in one book she has characters called Jill and Anne; and ponies called George and Black Boy. I asked if she got the names from the Jill books, and she did!

@IntermittentParps

Hi, we have spoken before about Jinny over the years. I must admit I didn't get that Nell was black, not for a few years. Where I lived wasn't a multi culture area, like it is now.

I've seen photos and read about Talisker House and Bay, they were Patricia's inspiration for Finmory, I see them now as Finmory

My favourite books are Night of The Red Horse and Chestnut Gold, they started a life long passion for The Celts, Epona and Stone Circles. When I was about 15, I discovered a book called The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llewelyn, a novel of Epona, and its one of my favourite books.

In a strange coincidence I bought a new tv last year, and the cover photo when you switch it on is Hallstatt, home of the Celts.

Hi zukie! So nice to talk to you. I didn't get that Nell was black until adulthood, I don't think.

The Horse Goddess sounds amazing. I love Night of The Red Horse too, and Joe (is that his name?) and his museum that he calls a 'sanctuary'. I also loved the gruff but kind farmer neighbour. And Ken the proto-crusty/vegan

That IS a strange coincidence about your tv.

I'm 46 and I still want to be Jinny, and have a chestnut Arab mare, and live in a big stone house with its own beach and have an attic bedroom, and be an artist...

The Jill books were great and I still remember the stories. When they went to stay in the new forest with that mad woman was funny! They had to train the new forest ponies..
I suppose she must be in her 80s now and I hope she still has horses or a pony.
I was mad on horses and horsey books. Never did get to own one myself though :( I did have a few riding lessons as a child.
Most Enid Blyton characters must have died now :(

Hi @IntermittentParps

Great to talk again! I could talk Jinny all day long, are you on fb? There's a group all about Jinny and Shantih, and another where a girl has a chestnut Arab mare called Shantih.

I love Mr McKenzie, so gruff but with a heart of gold really, Jo Wilton was a fantastic character, I wanted to visit his museum so much, I like to imagine The Walker is still roaming the hills and moors, even though I thought he was scary when I was a child.

I want a chestnut Arab mare too, and the big old stone house with a red horse painted on my attic bedroom wall,

Yes, I'll check out those groups; thank you! Mr McKenzie, that's it. So sweet when he sold Jinny Shantih and asked for a couple of paintings of the farm to make up the money.

I was terrified of the Walker!
I quite fancied was it Reece, the guy from London making the documentary?

The Jill book where Jill pretends to be snooty Amanda was great! They ended up calling her ' Jill Amanda' ! Always had happy endings and she would win the rosettes. Happy days.

@IntermittentParps

Oh now you've got me, yes, Reece or Rhys, the film maker, I'll have to go check now!

Do you have favourite covers? I like the original ones best, with the girl with beautiful long red hair and the Shantih who was actually a stallion There is some pics and info about them somewhere, the girl was called Julie, and I can never remember the horse's real name, but he used to run away with her all the time, sounds a lot like Shantih!

I don't remember the front covers well at all, strangely. But I had books with two different Jinnys and Shantihs; my favourite was the Jinny with really red – really red – hair and I think a blue top/jacket?

Then there was a version where Jinny had more brown/red hair and a chunky white/cream jumper, and I didn't like her as much; she wasn't sharp-faced and properly red-haired like Jinny should be, and she seemed a bit too grown up. I don't really remember the Shantihs either...

I have different covers for most of the books, I know the ones you mean with the girl with the cream jumper, and I agree, she wasn't Jinny at all.

I always wanted Marlene to come back for another holiday, I think she and Jinny would be great friends. I didn't like the way Sue changed in Chestnut Gold, and became more like Petra.

@MaryLennoxsScowl yeah l vaguely remember reading the follow up series and then there was one after that during which Liz or Jessica died?! Or an l making that up? It’s hard to tell

I don't remember Marlene Your recall is pretty impressive. I didn't like the new Sue (and Pippin) either, but I think that was meant to show that they were growing up at different rates and in different ways, which for better or worse is quite accurate.

And why did Jo get expelled for stealing in the last book when Daphne got full redemption for the exact same thing in the second form? In fact, her idiotic effort to cover her tracks almost led to Mary-Lou being killed. Yeah, she saved her in the end but it wasn't Jo's fault that she didn't have a useful idiot friend and a well-timed storm to demonstrate her heroism at just the right moment.

I think it was supposed to be that Jo's parents didn't support Jo to behave in the right way - her father 'Cheeky Charlie' encouraged her to be rude and disobedient. We don't hear anything of Daphne's parents other than that her Godmother pays for her education and they weren't told about her stealing when she was expelled from previous schools - but presumably they were regarded as being 'right-thinking'.

Personally I think that Jo's behaviour being largely her father's fault was a reason not to expel her, but hey-ho.

I suppose another consideration would be that Jo was wealthy enough not to need a decent education, whereas Daphne would presumably have to support herself in the future.

@ZoeTurtle

Gwendoline Mary is a wedding planner for the Royals. Darrell is still in prison for attacking another student with a fork at university.

Fatty and Bets are married. She's an MNer who comes on every thread to say "My DH says..." She is the only one who can legitimately say her husband's hobby is outing. Find-outing.

Best comment ever.

Alicia Johns would have become a very funny but very bitchy newspaper columnist.

@LApprentiSorcier

And why did Jo get expelled for stealing in the last book when Daphne got full redemption for the exact same thing in the second form? In fact, her idiotic effort to cover her tracks almost led to Mary-Lou being killed. Yeah, she saved her in the end but it wasn't Jo's fault that she didn't have a useful idiot friend and a well-timed storm to demonstrate her heroism at just the right moment.

I think it was supposed to be that Jo's parents didn't support Jo to behave in the right way - her father 'Cheeky Charlie' encouraged her to be rude and disobedient. We don't hear anything of Daphne's parents other than that her Godmother pays for her education and they weren't told about her stealing when she was expelled from previous schools - but presumably they were regarded as being 'right-thinking'.

Personally I think that Jo's behaviour being largely her father's fault was a reason not to expel her, but hey-ho.

I suppose another consideration would be that Jo was wealthy enough not to need a decent education, whereas Daphne would presumably have to support herself in the future.

I agree...given that she couldn't depend on her parents to show her right from wrong, she needed the school more than ever to set her right.

Her mother was vulgar because she wore a lot of jewellery when she visited. The Honourable Clarissa's mother turned up in a Bentley and that was fine.

I loved Enid Blyton but the needle on her moral compass must have been drunk.

Her mother was vulgar because she wore a lot of jewellery when she visited. The Honourable Clarissa's mother turned up in a Bentley and that was fine.

Ha, ha, yes. Clarissa's family were 'distinguished' - not nasty new money like the Joneses - so they were allowed to Have Nice Things.

Reading between the lines, I think Cheeky Charlie must have been on the booze most of the time - his erratic driving, and then wandering round red-faced on parents' day, being loud and inappropriate. His poor wife!

Marlene was the girl from Stopton who came for a holiday with her big brother Bill who had been shoplifting, She had a "wonky" leg and all she wanted was to ride Shantih alone.

Her and Jinny didn't get on until Bill stole a watch and Marlene took the blame. It all ended well of course, and the girls became good friends.

Yes EB's attitude to new money was awful. See Sheila Naylor in the St Clare's books. They were total bitches to her.

Ramona was made living in the body of my 9 year old DD! I’ll let you know what happens next when she gets older, in normal time!

Nope, still no recall of Marlene! How odd.